15 Aug Final Literature Paper
Assignment:
Write a persuasive, thesis-driven analysis on one of the literary works read for this course (listed below) that 1) identifies a specific universal question raised in the work and 2) illustrates how the work explores this question or idea through specific artistic devices (metaphor, symbolism, etc.). This is not a summary of either the work itself or the life of the author. The paper should refer to the text, as well as at least one outside source, but should make an argument beyond what is readily apparent.
- The final paper should cite at least one source other than the work being analyzed, and any sources cited must be scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles.
- The final paper should include MLA in-text citations and a works cited page at the end.
- The final paper should be 4-6 pages long (excluding the works cited page).
Possible Topics for Final Paper:
- “The Prologue” by Anne Bradstreet
- “The Flesh and the Spirit” by Anne Bradstreet
- “The Author to Her Book” by Anne Bradstreet
- “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment” by Anne Bradstreet
- “On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley
- “To the University of Cambridge, in New England” by Phillis Wheatley
- “To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth” by Phillis Wheatley
- “To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works” by Phillis Wheatley
- “On the Emigration to America” by Philip Freneau
- “The Indian Burying Ground” by Philip Freneau
- “The Wife” by Washington Irving
- “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving
- “Caoethes Scribendi” by Catherine Sedgwick
- “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant
- “The Yellow Violet” by William Cullen Bryant
- “To Cole, the Painter, Departing for Europe” by William Cullen Bryant
- “The Prairies” by William Cullen Bryant
- “Hamatreya” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Days” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- “Sonnet–to Science” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- “The Brothers” by Louisa May Alcott
