4108 Essay #1: Guidelines and Topics
Feb 12 Essay #1 assigned
Feb 17 Workshop, essay #1. Come to class with a substantial paragraph describing your topic AND type out FIVE key passages from the novel with which you are working. These should be provocative, rich passages that will reward close textual analysis and help lead you to a working thesis.
Feb 24 Essay #1 due.
Your first essay will be a short (5 page) analytical essay. It is not a research paper, although you are welcome to introduce outside sources if you like.
So far this semester, we have traced—in broad strokes—the development of the novel over the course of the 18th century, from Defoe’s Moll Flanders (1721) to Fanny Burney’s Evelina (1778). We have discussed the rise of the novel in relation to the rise of individualism and of capitalism, and we have considered its radical emphasis on ordinary men and women and their everyday lives—the novel’s insistence that such material was worthy of literary treatment. We’ve examined the moral anxieties surrounding the early novel, and some of the strategies writers adopted to counter these fears. We’ve discussed the theories of some influential critics of the novel—Nancy Armstrong, Michael McKeon, Ian Watt. Your topic should arise from these central emphases in some way, although it is up to you to decide upon a specific angle or approach. Once you have an idea, bring it into focus as carefully as possible: there’s only so much you can accomplish in five pages, and it is usually more effective to choose a narrowly defined topic you can explore in depth than a broad idea you can only touch the surface of. Most importantly, make sure you formulate a complex and compelling thesis—an argument that structures your entire essay. Work closely with whatever text(s) you choose to work with, incorporating relevant quotations and careful textual analysis.
If you have a particular topic in mindsome pressing interest you wish to pursue—then you are welcome to develop your own topic, although I ask that you run it by me for approval. If not, the following are suggestions that might help you generate some ideas. They are still fairly broad, so they allow you considerable freedom to shape your own angle and focus. Keep the guidelines above in mind.
Suggested Topics
1. We discussed John Locke’s assertion that “every man has a property in his person” at some length in relation to Defoe’s Moll Flanders. How might one apply Locke’s ideas to Evelina? Certainly Burney’s novel is profoundly interested in both the individual and property; how does Burney’s representation of society enter into a dialogue with Locke? (Should you choose this topic, you might consider reading a bit more of Locke’s Two Treatises, which you could fin online or in the library.)
2. While Homer Brown argues that “Defoe’s novels are based on a notion of radical egocentricity,” that his protagonists are isolated from any “guardian structures,” Burney’s Evelina seems beset on all sides by guardian structures. Look at how this operates in each novel, and formulate an argument about the shift.
3. Nancy Armstrong argues that “in place of the intricate status system that had long dominated British thinking…authors began to represent an individual’s value in terms of his, but more often her, essential qualities of mind.” Armstrong goes on to contend that “writing for and about the female introduced a whole new vocabulary for social relations, terms that attached precise moral value to certain qualities of mind.” Examine Evelina in terms of Armstrong’s argument: to what extent do we see this shift in Burney’s novel? What tensions does it alleviate—or create? How is this reflected in Burney’s representation of relations between men and woman? How does it shape Evelina’s “entrance into the world”?
Remember, these are just suggestions. You’re welcome to come up with your own idea. Either way, be adventurous, creative. Try to follow up on whatever has captured your intellectual interest or curiosity so far this semester. If you want to run a topic by me, feel free to email it to me or to come to my office. I’ll also be happy to discuss your drafts with you at any stage.