[Sending in Assignments] [Assignment Schedule] [The Papers]
You'll have considerable latitude in choosing your paper topics, and selecting and developing a topic judiciously will be a significant component of your grade - careful assimilation, organization, and synthesis of materials are qualities that all Humanities instructors look for, so integrating your reading and thinking successfully into a strong paper topic will be rewarded while less tightly organized discussions won't be. In each paper you may write about one, two, or three different Nobel Laureates (see the next paragraph for important restrictions). Your choices range from writing a critical analysis of a single author and text (or a single author and several texts, such as the three Pirandello plays) to writing a comparative analysis of two or even three authors and texts (but not more than three). If you take a liking to Mann's Death in Venice, for example, and the Study Questions on Mann enable you to formulate a topic and materials to engage a discussion of at least six pages, then by all means, stick with Mann. If, on the other hand, you feel you couldn't possibly cover six or more pages on Death in Venice alone, then include Tonio Kröger in your discussion of Mann or try your hand at a critical analysis of some idea, motif, or theme you find common among several of the authors. Some sample titles might include "Existentialism in Camus and Pirandello," "Heroes and Anti-Heroes in Kawabata and Bellow," "Political Symbolism in Neruda and Solzhenitsyn," or "The Death of Beauty and the Beauty of Death: Youth and Age in Kawabata and Mann." These are, of course, only suggestions: as you read you will draw upon your own perceptions and bring your own reading experiences to bear upon each author and text. You may cluster the writers using any reasonable criteria of your own choice (art, theme, time, etc.); you may look to explore political and social issues you see reflected in some of these works, examining important symbolism you have noted. In all cases, you're urged to consult the Study Questions accompanying each reading assignment. The guidance provided by each set of questions and suggestions should contribute significantly to an understanding of the primary text. Some suggestions will have an asterisk (*) indicating that this is a question especially worthy for development as a paper topic.
The course is essentially laid out in four units: 1) Mann, Pirandello, Camus; 2) Kawabata, Solzhenitsyn, Neruda; 3) Bellow, Singer; 4) Márquez, Golding. You certainly needn't write about all writers in each of the four units, but you are required to write about at least one of the authors listed in each section (that is, the first paper must discuss at least one of Mann, Pirandello, or Camus; the final paper must discuss either Márquez or Golding). Each essay must discuss different authors, and you may not write about the same writer twice, but you may include an author from an earlier section if you have not already discussed that writer earlier in the term. Let's assume that in the first assignment you wrote about Mann or about Mann and Pirandello; for the second paper, you're interested in the theme of solitude in Kawabata and Solzhenitsyn. Since you didn't write about Camus in your first essay, you'd be free to address the issue of solitude in Kawabata, Solzhenitsyn, and Camus (or just in Solzhenitsyn and Camus). As long as you include one writer in the current unit and don't discuss any author twice, your choice of writers is admissible.
Finally, all papers should include reference to at least two secondary sources (book-length critical studies, journal articles, biographies, etc.). For each author, there is an attached Selected Bibliography that notes some of the secondary works we feel will be most useful in your further study. In no case is the bibliography exhaustive. Additionally, information on all the Nobel Laureates can be found by consulting the appropriate volumes of these reference works found in many community and virtually all college and university libraries:
Please note that in the following pages of course material, sources are documented using MLA in-text format with full bibliographic entries appearing in the Selected Bibliography that follows each assigned author. The only exceptions are a few magazine articles, not otherwise of relevance for the Selected Bibligraphies, which are cited in parentheses directly after quoted materials.