RESIT/DEFERRED COURSEWORK REQUIREMENTS
ACADEMIC SESSION 2008/2009
TUTOR: Harry Derbyshire, John Morton, John Williams
ALL RESIT/DEFERRED COURSEWORK MUST BE SUBMITTED BY 4pm on 20th
AUGUST 2009
HEADER SHEET NUMBER: 169666
ASSESSMENT DETAILS:
Essay
COURSE CODE
COML 1054
COURSE TITLE
Culture, Theory and Context: Poetry and Drama
Write a 3000 word essay in response to one of the topics given below.
a)
Compare three poems by poets of the Romantic school. How far are shared concerns apparent
and in what ways do they differ?
b)
What message did Romantic poets have for British society? Discuss with reference to any
three poems from the Romantic period.
c)
Compare a poem from the Romantic period with a poem written in the Victorian period. To
what extent do the poems illustrate contemporary developments and what differences of
priority or attitude are apparent?
d)
Discuss the relationship between melodrama and Naturalism in drama. How far was the latter
a reaction against the former and what traces of melodrama can be detected in either Miss
Julie or Hedda Gabler?
e)
‘What we need is detailed reproduction’ (Emile Zola). What purpose lay behind Naturalism’s
attempt to recreate reality and how successful do you think the movement was? Answer with
reference to Miss Julie and Hedda Gabler.
f)
‘Male dramatists were often deeply ambivalent towards women and the versions of
womanhood they created for the theatre are correspondingly ambiguous’ (Gail Finney). How
far is this true of Miss Julie and Hedda Gabler?
g)
What relationship is created between the reader and the narrator in one poem by Christina
Rosetti and one poem by Robert Browning? How does the use of a subjective narrator help to
convey the poems’ meaning?
h)
What impression of the Victorian age is conveyed by Browning, Rosetti and/or Wilde?
Discuss with reference to texts by two of these authors.
i)
Discuss the way in which any two texts by authors we have studied relate to the cultural
and/or historical context in which they were written.
j)
Apply a mode of contemporary literary theory to any two texts by authors we have studied to
show how it can add to our understanding of nineteenth century poetry and/or drama.