Please choose ONE of the following questions and write a 2000-word research essay in response to it. Your essay must include reference to AT LEAST FOUR secondary sources (these will be especially useful for establishing the social/historical/political context for your text and your essay topic). Please do not write on any text that you have already written on this semester. Your essays should be submitted through Turnitin. Grading criteria for this subject are in the Subject Grade Descriptors pdf on the LMS.
Please note: quotations from secondary sources are generally excluded from the word count; quotations from primary sources are included.)
1) How is the literature of the 20th century critical of the mythology that America built around itself in the 19th century? Discuss in relation to TWO texts that we have studied this semester.
2) Spurred by counter-traditional imperatives, Modernism in literature ushered in an age of experimentation in both form and content of literary works. How does this experimentation work in TWO texts that we have studied this semester?
3) The U.S. has played a major role in a number of armed conflicts around the world, and some notable works of American literature take up war as their subject. Discuss representations of war in ONE or TWO texts that we have studied this semester.
4) A confrontation with the events of a traumatic past is at the heart of a number of texts we have studied this semester. Discuss in relation to TWO texts.
5) Discuss representations of masculinity and femininity in any of the set texts?
6) America was formed out of a rupture with Britain. An ongoing state of dissent is often reprised in the work of American writers who figure resistance as heroic. Explore the figure of the hero or the anti-hero in ONE OR TWO texts we have studied.
7) Postmodern literature often works to subvert master narratives of official history. How does this work in ONE or TWO texts that we have studied that engage with historical events?
8) Discuss the way in which “home” is figured in ONE or TWO texts we have studied this semester.
9) How is love (any type of love: romantic, familial, friendly, universal, self-love…) portrayed in any of the set texts?
10) Discuss ways in which a quest for understanding or a struggle for identity might be seen as a reaction to or development of the pursuit of happiness. Please refer to any of the set texts in your response.