ELECTRONIC VERSION, and PAPER VERSION OF FINAL DRAFT must be submitted on deadline, with Preliminary Drafts & Peer Review forms attached.

Topic 1.  Characteristics of European Enlightenment
Identify and explain two or three significant general characteristics of the late 18th-century European Enlightenment period, as introduced in relevant class handouts and/or “The Enlightenment: Reason and Sensibility" (Davis and others 1-18)--and be sure to cite your source/s.  Illustrate each general characteristic you introduce with well-selected specific examples from at least two of the assigned late 18th-century literary works (i.e. by Diderot, Equiano, Jefferson and/or Wollstonecraft) that we have studied as representative of the later European Enlightenment.  (Be sure to cite these specific examples.) 

Topic 2.  Characteristics of European Romanticism
Identify and explain two or three significant general characteristics of the European Romantic period, as introduced in “The Nineteenth Century: Romantic Self & Social Reality" (Davis and others 530-547) and/or relevant class handouts (and be sure to cite your source/s).  Illustrate each general Romanticist characteristic you introduce with well-selected specific examples from at least two of the assigned Romantic era literary works (i.e. by Blake, Goethe, and/or Brontë) that we have studied as representative of the European Romanticism.  (Be sure to cite these specific examples, following relevant guidelines for citing poetry, verse play, and/or novel.)

Topic 4.  William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience
Explain and illustrate two significant points of similarity and/or of difference between at least one assigned Song of Innocence and at least one assigned Song of Experience.   As you discuss each point of similarity/difference, be sure to illustrate each point of similarity/difference with specific passages/lines from Blake's poems, and be sure to explain why each of point of similarity/difference is significant to better understanding Blake’s conception of the states of innocence and experience, the meaning and/or poetic structure of the selected poems.  (Be sure to cite your sources, including both page and line numbers of your specific examples.)

Topic 5.   Understanding Mephistopheles in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust  
Write a character analysis of Mephistopheles, a main character of the Prologue and Part I of Goethe's verse play Faust.  Focus your discussion on identifying and illustrating two or three important keys to understanding this character and his role in Goethe's play. Be sure to illustrate your points by citing and interpreting well-selected specific passages/lines from the verse play (citing both page and line numbers), and include in your analysis discussion of the wagers he makes with the Lord and with Faust as these wagers reveal Mephistopheles' character.

Topic 6.   Understanding Faust in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust  
Write a character analysis of Faust, the main character of Goethe's verse play Faust. Focus your discussion on identifying and illustrating two or three important keys to understanding this character.  Be sure to illustrate your points by citing and interpreting well-selected specific passages/lines from the verse play (citing both page and line numbers), and include in your analysis discussion of Faust's wager with Mephistopheles and Faust's relationship with Gretchen/Margaret as these reveal Faust's character.

Topic 7.  Single Character Analysis (of a main character from another literary work)
Analyze a significant character from another literary work we have studied so far this term: e.g. Olaudah Equiano, Blake's Chimney Sweepers, Catherine Earnshaw-Linton, Heathcliff, Nelly Dean, Félicité.  Focus your discussion on identifying and illustrating two or three important keys to understanding this character and how s/he acts.  Be sure to illustrate your points by citing and interpreting well-selected specific passages/lines from the literary work.  (Be sure to cite these specific examples, following relevant guidelines for citing autobiography, poetry, verse play, and/or novel.) 

Topic 8.  Comparative Analysis of Two Characters
Choose two characters--either from the same literary work or from two different literary works assigned so far this term--for a comparative analysis of two or three significant similarities and/or differences.  As you discuss each point of similarity/difference, be sure to illustrate each point of similarity/difference with specific passages/lines from the literary work/s, and be sure to explain why each of point of similarity/difference is significant to understanding the characters and  literary work/s. (Be sure to cite your sources, including relevant guidelines for citing literary works.)

Topic 9.  Literary Terms & Concepts
Various other literary terms and concepts--e.g. lyric, speaker, rhyme scheme, imagery, narrator, Byronic hero/ine, dynamic vs. static character, setting, plot conflict, etc.--have been introduced in class relevant to our study of literary works thus far.  Define and illustrate at least two such literary terms/concepts that you have found helpful in understanding one or more of the literary works we have studied so far this term. (Be sure to cite your source/s).  Illustrate your definitions by citing and interpreting well-selected specific examples from two or more literary works we have studied so far this term.  Also explain why understanding these literary terms/concepts is helpful to better understanding the literary work/s. (Be sure to cite your sources, including relevant guidelines for citing literary works.)

Topic 10.  Gustave Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart”
Identify and cite two or three points made by literary critic/s in the ENG 109 handout “Critical Views of ‘A Simple Heart’.”   Support and illustrate each point with your own well-selected specific passages from "A Simple Heart," and explain why you found each point valuable in helping you better understand Flaubert's short story. (Be sure to cite your sources, including relevant guidelines for citing literary works.)   If relevant, you may choose to introduce a literary critic's point that you disagree with, and then explain and illustrate why.

1.  Example In-Text Citations

In her Introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft asserts that female education needs to be improved (526).

One reason Equiano gives for writing his Narrative is to "promot[e] the interests of humanity," particularly his African "countrymen" who have suffered the brutalities of slavery (474). 

Although Catherine plans to marry Edgar Linton, her attachment to Heathcliff is much deeper.  “My love for Linton is like the foliage of the woods.  Time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees.  My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath—a source of little visible delight, but necessary.  Nelly, I am Heathcliff . . .” (Brontë 726; ch. 9).

The speaker of "Introduction," the opening poem of Blake's Songs of Innocence, is the Piper, who seems at first a carefree merry-maker in "Piping songs of pleasant glee" "down the valleys wild" (869; ll. 2, 1).

According to our textbook introduction to "The Nineteenth Century," Romantic writers "thought empiricism superficial, for it was limited to the visible world and to objective reality, and it could not reveal more important subjective and invisible truths" (Davis and others 542).

According to Cora Agatucci, Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience are lyric poems: "A Lyric poem typically refers to a fairly short poem that expresses the emotions, state of mind, mood, perceptions and/or though process of a single speaker, who speaks in the first-person . . ." ( “Background & Commentary on Blake & His Songs” 1).

Gustave Flaubert himself described his short story "A Simple Life" as "Just the account of an obscure life, that a poor country girl, pious but fervent, discreetly loyal, and tender as new-baked bread" (cited in Agatucci, “Critical Views of ‘A Simple Heart’” 1).

2.  Works Cited:  See examples in Cora’s previous handouts.

3.  Outside Sources:  If you use any “outside” (i.e. non-course) sources, these also must be cited in text and in Works Cited.  SEE CORA for help with citation!!!