Choose one of the following essay prompts for a more traditional short essay. The prompts should be used to assist you in developing a specific thesis in relation to the work in question. They are not meant to be theses in and of themselves but starting points for your own analysis and discussion of the text(s).

In Franco Moretti’s The Way of World, he articulates a theory of the bildungsroman, identifying the proportional significance of classification and transformation principles to the form. In your essay, examine Jane Eyre in the terms Moretti sets out. One of your tasks would be to consider the novel’s employment of the dominant principles described by Moretti.

Discuss narrative focalization in either Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, or Mrs. Dalloway employing critical terminology from at least one of the theorists that we’ve studied this semester (i.e. Culler, Abbott, Cohn, or Chatman)

In his analysis of Moll Flanders, Max Novak describes the “synchronic” world of Moll Flanders in which the presence of both the older Moll as a narrator, and the younger Moll as an agent complicates the “fictional reality” of the text: “The past [in Moll Flanders] is imported into the present as a psychologically recreatable state” (386-387). All three of the novels we’ve read since midpoint represent a doubled narrative voice similar to that found in Moll Flanders. Employ Max Novak’s insights into Moll Flanders to explore the narrative effects achieved in Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, or Moll Flanders.

Both Wide Sargasso Sea and Mrs. Dalloway represent employ modernist narrative techniques to capture “figural consciousness.” Compare and contrast those techniques in an essay that considers both texts. You may draw upon letters and essays to support your argument. Given the brevity of this essay, you will want to carefully choose your evidence.

Is Wide Sargasso Sea a post-colonial novel? Drawing upon assigned literary criticism on the text, as well as earlier materials from the semester (particularly Bhaba and Karavanta), make an argument either for or against.

Choose one character from Mrs. Dalloway and embark upon a close character analysis. You may not write on Clarissa Dalloway or Septimus Smith but any figure you choose will inevitably lead back to one or the other (or both). Keep in mind Woolf’s own characterization of her novel when embarking upon your analysis: “I dig out beautiful caves behind my characters; I think that gives exactly what I want; humanity, humour, depth. The idea is that the caves shall connect, & each comes to daylight at the present moment” (The Diary of Virginia Woolf 2: 263).

Please read Writing a Literary Essay Presentation for detailed guidelines

Paper Length: 5 pages, type-written and double spaced

Paper Style: Please write your paper according to the principles outlined in the MLA Manual of Style. Please limit yourself to only the critical materials that we have read for class. Purdue University’s site is very helpful but I’d recommend purchasing a paper (or electronic) edition of the MLA Manual of Style.

Purdue Online Writing Lab: MLA Citation and Formatting: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Your paper is due on Tuesday, November 7th at the beginning of class. You may turn it in before that as well.