HUX 578 - Female Coming of Age
in World Literature

ASSIGNMENTS

Each assignment is due in the instructor's mailbox during the week indicated below. Count Week 1 as the first week that classes begin and Week 15 as the final week of the term. Trimester dates are listed at the upper left hand corner of your registration form.

All papers must be typed, with footnotes and bibliographies where appropriate, and mailed in before the assignment deadline. Send in an extra copy, marked "For HUX Files," and keep a copy for yourself. Also, keep a copy of the title page of the paper returned by the instructor which contains your grade, comments, and date. Send a self-addressed, stamped (with adequate postage) envelope for the return of each assignment. If you do not fully understand the assignment or need help, telephone the instructor during office hours, or mail in your questions. Each assignment is worth 25%.

Contacting Me
The fastest way to contact me and receive a prompt answer is by e-mail. A postcard or short letter containing your inquiry and a phone number, time of day to call, or other information is also an efficient way.

NOTE:
See Instructions for Sending in Assignments from the Humanities External Degree Online Catalog for specific details regarding approved methods of turning in assignments.

ASSIGNMENT I

Due:
Week 4
Length:
5-8 pages
Format:
Read Burger's Daughter and Paradise of the Blind. Write an essay in which you compare the experiences of the female protagonists of each book.
Questions:
How do their relationships with parents or relatives affect their ability to define their own lives? How does the unusual political and social environment or the wartime experience affect their personal lives? When do they finally come of age in the sense of creating their own fate?

ASSIGNMENT II

Due:
Week 8
Length:
5-8 pages
Format:
Read The Bluest Eye and The Voyage Out. Write an essay based on both books.
Questions:
  1. What are the elements, both personal and social, of Pecola's coming of age which make it a failed transition into adulthood? What is the ideal of "beauty" which serves to undermine Pecola's sense of self-worth?
  2. What are the elements of the "education" Rachel experiences on the voyage and in the strange and exotic surroundings of the hotel?
  3. To what extent are the limitations she feels influenced by social restrictions? Is her tragic end a sign of personal failure?

ASSIGNMENT III

Due:
Week 12
Length:
5-8 pages
Format:
Read The Lover and Zami: A new Spelling of my Name. Write a comparison/contrast essay explaining how the experience of sex and love serve as rites of passage and markers that define the main characters in each book.

Questions:

How does the idea of their loves being “forbidden” shape their lives? Integrate into the discussion an analysis of how the narrator’s voice and the point of view or perspective from which the story is told contribute to the meaning of each of the stories.

ASSIGNMENT IV

Due:
Week 14
Length:
5-8 pages
Format:
Choose at least one of the autobiographical works listed above and write an essay explaining how the circumstances of the author's life shaped her coming of age experience.
Questions:
  1. Which of the defining markers discussed in the guide had the greatest impact on each one's life? How does looking back transform or serve to integrate the experience?
  2. Finally, compare the autobiographical accounts you have chosen with some of the novels we have read. How does the autobiographical approach compare with that of the novel? Which form do you find more effective or compelling?