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EN115—Spring 2007
Final Essay Topics
Write a 6-8 pp. typed, double-spaced essay on one of the following
topics. In addition to the paragraphing, sentence, and diction skills
we’ve practiced throughout the semester, your essay must:
1. Use at least three different, good research sources aside from
McWhorter.
2. Cite sources with basic correctness using the MLA format we’ve
practiced.
Essays are due Monday, May 14, 12 noon, my office.. Note: papers must
be handed in as hard copy (department policy). Please also send me the
essay as an attachment as backup at <dbsuchof@Colby.edu>.
1. Define a form of the social divide—between national identity and
foreigners, or between what is considered prestigious and upper class,
yet restricted, and that which is lower class and free, yet lacking
prestige—as it appears in two different works we’ve read. Define the
problem, and come up with an argument that takes a stand on the what
the two works you’ve chosen have to say about the way the language of
shapes, develops, changes, fixes, or comments on that divide.
If you write about a work you’ve already analyze in a previous essay,
you’re expected to analyze new and different aspects of that text,
building on what you’ve done, even if you integrate parts of your
previous essay, or including (for instance, writing on other stanzas
of “Song of Myself” from the complete version). Issues to consider
include:
A) the conflict between dialect/vernacular and standard language in
a work, or the way dialect is or isn’t accepted as, or
transformed into, the standard speech.
B) fear of the vernacular, or changing attitudes towards it forms on
the part of a canonical or eloquent speaker.
C) The advantages and disadvantages of formal grammar and high
language for representatives of a high cultural or national
voice, or of poetry
D) The role of or attitudes to foreign words, boundary-crossing
forms, or the spoken voice in fixed forms of written expression.
E) The “social valuations” of dialect and the vernacular as
McWhorter explores them.
Some works you might want to write about in conjunction with another
work are Wallace Stevens “The Man With the Blue Guitar,” in Wallace
Stevens: Collected Poetry and Prose (on reserve, Miller Library); or
You might come up with a language-related thesis about one of these
poems alone, and argue it fully, comparing it with a shorter discussion
of another work: Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud” is a good
example, but there are others.
2. Write a 6-8 pp. typed, double spaced essay on the quest to imagine
different levels of language in Whitman’s “Song of Myself” (the
sections in Literature and Its Writers) into one national language, and
the depiction of Whitman in Alan Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in
California.” How is the depiction of linguistic variety similar in
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Whitman’s picture of 19th century America, and Ginsberg’s symbolism of
the linguistic and social variety of 20th century California? Is
linguistic and social variety the same, or different, in its meaning
for Whitman and Ginsberg? In what ways does Ginsberg re-write the
vision of a standard, national language, including authentically
different voices? Or is Ginsberg Whitman’s authentic follower in his
later poem? How?
3. Write a 6-8 pp. essay on the attitudes toward national or “home”
culture in Joyce’s “Araby” and Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis;” do research
to set up the problem of Joyce’s estrangement from Irish culture,
politics and its language (“a sow eating its farrow,” as he wrote in
Portrait of the Artist) and Kafka’s attitude toward Prague’s middle
class, assimilated German. Define the problem for each writer in
general that language presented for his self-expression. In a second
paragraph, come up with a thesis about each work that argues how each
protagonist (Gregor, Joyce’s boy) symbolically differs from the
language of his surroundings, and what is positive or negative about
the separation achieved by each.
4. Write a 6-8 pp. typed, double-spaced essay on the attitude toward
crude, coarse, or otherwise realistic perspectives on human experience
that appear in both courtly and common language in Shakespeare’s Henry
IV Part I and one other work we’ve studied. How is coarse experience
represented in high language, and why? How are these experiences
represented in high language? Why? What advantages does overtly common
speech offer, and what do speakers of elegant language find in it? Why?
What aspects of the linguistic approach—anything from McWhorter— to
language help you with your analysis?
5. Use Gary Soto’s “Teaching English from an Old Composition Book” to
define the problem exposed when formal English is taught to new or
foreign speakers. What dynamic of language life, change, or fixity is
exposed when established forms of English come in contact with
different spoken forms? You may want to use McWhorter to establish the
terms of your discussion.
In a second thesis paragraph, come up with an argument that explores
your idea in two other Soto poems; two possibilities are Soto, “Look
For My Brother at the Computer Factory,” or Soto, “Anti-Hero,” both in
Soto, Natural Man (on reserve, Miller Library). How is written,
standard, or formal English symbolized in these poems? How is the
Mexican-American voice portrayed, and what are the developing
connections between the two?
Several other books of poetry by Soto are on reserve there; pick the
poems that inspire you to define a good thesis, and argue it
imaginatively and connectedly in effective paragraphs that cite the
texts.
6. Write an the symbolism of Gregor Samsa’s difference from official
lanauge— the language of home, parents and nation—in Kafka’s “The
Metamorphosis.” Use research in your first paragraph to define the
linguistic situation in Prague that Kafka faced, and how his awareness
as a minority and Jewish writer shaped his sense of home. In your
second paragraph, come up with a thesis about how the difference
between Gregor, his room, the larger “house” or nation, and the
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symbolism of the story develops or comments on the German Kafka spoke
and wrote. How is the desire for dialect, difference, and the foreign
represented in the story? To what extent is it liberating and
attractive? How does Gregor try to relate to or separate these forms of
his expression—symbolized by his new sense of self—to the standard
forms of expression and “house” or nation his family represents?
7. Write a 6-8 pp. essay on attitudes toward dialect and the vernacular
in Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” and two Wordsworth poems you find
elsewhere. What negative perspectives qualities do Whitman and
Wordsworth’s poem share toward dialect, the vernacular voice, or the
speech of common people? What is positive about the vernacular for
each? How do dialect or slang effect the high or more eloquent language
that each poet writes? Which is more friendly to the common voice? Why,
and to what effect?