Essay #2
ENGL 2110 Fall 2009
Choose any of the following essay topics. You must generate your own thesis statement in response to the prompt.
Your essay should be 5-6 pages, typed, double spaced, in 12 point Times New Roman font, with 1-inch margins. (To get a passing grade, the essay must meet the minimum requirement of 5 full pages.) You must follow MLA guidelines, format citations properly, and include a works cited. The essay should be on paper (not submitted by e-mail). This assignment is worth 25% of your final grade. Here is a link to the grading rubric: http://www.westga.edu/~engdept/fr/Ruby.doc
We will conduct a workshop for the introduction and first body paragraph on Tuesday November 10. This will be worth a homework grade.
The rough draft is due on Thursday November 12. This class period will be devoted to peer editing. Failure to bring in a draft on paper for peer editing will result in a 5% deduction from the final grade of the essay. (Drafts for peer editing must be minimally 4 full pages.)
The final essay is due on Tuesday November 17.
1. How do Mernissi’s Dreams of Trespass and/or Djebar’s A Sister to Sheherazade portray forms of self-empowerment in the face of confining circumstances? You might wish to consider some of the following:
- How do language and storytelling function as tools for self-empowerment?
- How do the texts portray sisterhood or cooperation as tools for resistance?
- How do the texts resist Orientalist discourses?
- How do the narratives challenge gender norms?
2. Analyze how either Mernissi’s Dreams of Trespass or Djebar’s A Sister to Sheherazade reinvents A Thousand and One Nights. For example:
- What values does the revision challenge?
- How does the revision redefine the roles of women?
- How does the heroine compare/contrast to Sheherazade or any major male character in the original text?
3. Compare and contrast the portrayal of human nature in A Thousand and One Nights and Machiavelli’s The Prince.
4. Compare and contrast the concept of justice in Dante’s Inferno and any other text in the course.
5. Compare and contrast the portrayal of the ideal leader in Machiavelli’s The Prince and any other text in the course.
6. I encourage you to devise your own essay topic. Your essay must analyze at least one of the texts we have covered since the midterm, but you may choose to focus on a single text or analyze more than one, and you may compare/contrast a post-midterm text and a pre-midterm text if you wish. You may also choose to modify one of the above essay prompts or combine two essay prompts.