Below are the prompts for the take home part of the final. Choose only one prompt. The essay will be due on Monday, August 9.
1. Discuss the way that childhood is depicted in up to four of our works. (Two works must be from the second part of the session.) What does the author seem to assume about childhood, parents, and the family? What role does class and/or gender play? How do depictions of childhood change from culture to culture or genre to genre? Feel free to talk about your own assumptions about childhood.
2. Discuss the role that masculinity and/or femininity play in up to four of the works we've read so far. Two works must be from the second part of the session. Consider the role that history, culture, and even genre play in defining what appropriate masculinity and femininity are. Also, consider your viewpoint as a 21st century man or woman.
3. How do you define literature? Support your definition with four separate works. Two works must be from the second part of the session. Also, be sure to consider what is NOT literature.
4. Discuss the folktale as a genre of literature. Given your definition of literature, how is the folktale literature? How is it NOT literature? Consider the role that orality, performance, and audience may play. Should it matter that today's storytellers' audiences are often children? Consider the impact of history, race relations, and readers' expectations. Do you consider the Coyote Tales to be American Literature and "All Kinds of Fur" and "Donkey's Skin" to be German and French Literature respectively?
5. Most of the most recent works that we are reading this session are poems. How do these poems reflect the changes in our society that have occurred since the 18th or 19th century? How do these poems fit with the older works that we have read? How do they not fit? Consider the role of gender, genre, and culture.
6. While we discussed A Doll's House, we saw scenes from two film versions as well as videos from stage versions. Compare and contrast the way that the films and the stage versions approach Ibsen's play. What seems to be the central idea of the films and one or two of the stage versions? Consider film and plays as genres.
6 a. Alternately, compare and contrast the films of A Doll's House with the other films that we've seen in class (Apocalypse Now, Raise the Red Lantern, and Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring Again as well as David Copperfield and Jane Eyre). Consider film as a genre, the films' visual elements, and their aural elements. Which film(s) would you consider including in a film and literature course? Why? Why not?
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