【文讀assignment #2】Love and Death in Emily Dickinson, John Donne, and Andrew Marvell (deadline: 6/13)

Love and Death, by Hans Baldung Grien (c.1484-1545) 

Write an essay (250-300 words) based on the following question:

If there exist some common motifs among Dickinson, Donne, and Marvell, they must be love and death. Obsessed with death, these poets use different ways to depict their relationship with the Grim Reaper. Besides death, love (be it religious or secular) is another recurrent theme of these three poets. Among the poems we discussed so far, pick one to analyze any of these themes. Or you can compare two or even three poets' different strategies (i.e. metaphysical conceits, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, etc.) to approach these themes. Explain why you think these strategies are ingenious and unconventional.

【英史assignment #3】Sylvia Townsend Warner's Mr. Fortune's Maggot (deadline: 6/3)

Write an essay (250-300 words) based on ONE of the following questions:

   1)   Discuss Sylvia Townsend Warner’s ingenious use of “failure” as an alternative way of thinking that is linked to an awareness of racial and religious “difference.” How can a story of a loser be a critique of Christian imperialism or European colonialism?

   2)   As a lesbian writer, Sylvia Townsend Warner intentionally subverts the conventional gender norms and stereotypes by creating queer characters whose gender ambiguities defy traditional gender expectations. Discuss Mr. Fortune and Leuli’s gender ambiguity in the novel. How does their gender ambiguity open up a possibility that the world can be different (from the existing patriarchal society)?