English 795.7X Prof. Nancy Black Fall 2000 Research and Writing Assignments The class will be divided in half with one group working on the 15th century and another group working on the 19th century. Your oral report should consist of a presentation about a cultural document you have found that is related in some way either to Malory or Tennyson’s text. Your first task is to find an interesting document from the century you are studying: it could be one of the Paston letters, if you are working in the 15th century; or it could be an example of Gothic revival art in the 19th century. The Selected Bibliography contained in the course syllabus will give you a start toward identifying an interesting cultural artifact. Once you have identified an artifact, you will then need to read enough background material about the object you have chosen in order to relate it to the cultural ideas it shares with either Malory or Tennyson. And finally, you will want to read enough about New Historicism in order to understand some of the theory that lies behind the methodology you are employing in your research and writing. Oral reports will be scheduled throughout the semester, with approximately two reports (ten minutes each) being given during each class, beginning October 3 and continuing through December 12. Most reports (especially those scheduled for early in the semester) will be in the form of "work in progress"; that is, showing the class the object you are focusing on and explaining what you have learned thus far about it as well as its relationship to the primary text we are studying. You will need to organize your presentation carefully in advance so that you can fit the material you have to present to the group into the time allotted. Hopefully, there will be a cumulative effect to these reports, leading us ever deeper into an understanding of the 15th and 19th centuries, as well as the chief characteristics of New Historical analysis. You are strongly advised to submit a first draft of your research paper sufficiently early in the semester to allow me to comment on it and to allow you to revise it on the basis of my comments. Use MLA parenthetical documentation and include a "Works Cited" page with entries in precisely correct form. The latest date for submission of a first draft is November 28. The latest date for submission of a final draft is December 12. (This gives me one week to grade them and return them to you at the final examination on December 19). You are encouraged to submit your written work for the course in advance of these dates.
Suggested Topics for Research Papers 15th century Focus on a key section of the OF Queste and show how ideas are reshaped or translated as one moves from original text (1220-30), to manuscript with illustrations (1290), to Malory’s rewriting. Read through the Paston letters and find a key cultural or social theme that is also developed by Malory. Find a photograph and/or architectural drawing for an English 15th-century castle that Malory might have known. Interpret the cultural messages conveyed by the artifact and compare them to the treatment of castles in Malory’s text. Find a facsimile copy of Caxton’s edition of Malory’s text and compare the presentation between it and the modern edition by Vinaver. Discuss the ways in which the presentation and production of texts influences the reader’s interpretation of them. 19th century Locate paintings and architectural drawings of Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill and discuss the attraction of Gothic style in the late 18th century. Find copies of the illustrations Aubrey Beardsley created for Morte DArthur. Try to figure out why he was attracted to the story and what his visual interpretations add to the text. Read through sermons delivered to Rugby students to identify some key cultural goals for the education of young men in the 19th century. Do any of Tennyson’s stories support these ideals? Select a Gothic novel that you have studied in another course and show in what ways the ideals and cultural tensions explored by the author are also found in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. |