Assignments

Discussion 17

Provide your definition of critical analysis now. What is the
process you follow to analyze and develop your argument in your research
papers? How has it changed since the beginning of this course?

Essay 4: Final Research Essay

Choose a common theme such as marriage, death, conflict,
male/female relationships, reality vs. illusion, freedom/oppression, or
justice, and use that theme to analyze the topic usingA
Doll Housewith
a debatable, analytical thesis statement with key points.  Additional
options for topics are available below. Locate at least three academically valid
sources to support the main points in your essay. This essay must be formatted
using MLA Style and contain a Works Cited page. The expected length isapproximatelyfive to seven pages. SeeEssay 4 Guidelines and Rubric.
DueWednesday.

Additional Topic
Options (ONLY CHOOSE ONE) i like option no. 2

Option 1

Compare and contrast the play with significant aspects of
Isben’s life. What influenced his writing of the play and what social or
historical events or trends was he critiquing through the depictions of his
play? Review the section on Biographical Criticism (1313-1315) in theNortonfor more guidance. Also, refer to
compare and contrast strategies that you encountered in 111, particularly a
point-by-point one to help structure your analysis.

Option 2

Compare and contrast “A Doll House” to one of the following
assigned readings from this semester:

§  Faulkner’s
“A Rose for Emily”

§  Chopin
“Story of an Hour”

§  Hemingway
“Hills White Elephants”

§  Glaspell’s
“Trifles”

Focus your attention towards gender and social roles, and how
both works look into exploring and critiquing these notions. Refer to the
Gender studies section in theNortonfor more guidance (1325-1326), as well
as to the compare and contrast sections on strategies that you encountered in
111, particularly a point-by-point one to help structure your analysis.

Option 3

If you have a topic of your own you wish to pursue, please email
me for approval detailing what your aim and thesis is, as well as explaining
why your topic would be suitable.

Option 4

Toward the end of theNortonis a section titled “Critical
Approaches” detailing various methods toward analysis. These help provide
critics (those who analyze literature, like the authors of the secondary sources
you will find) a lens from which to explore meaning in a piece of writing,
often called a text or work. Review ONE of the following via their page numbers
in theNortonand apply it toward an analysis of “A
Doll’s House”:

§  Feminist
(1323-1325)

§  Marxist
(1322-1323)

§  Psychoanalytic
(1315-1319); this is also broke down in three areas to focus.

§  Poststructuralist/Deconstruction
(1309-1315)

§  Feminist-Marxist
(a combination of the two since many within these camps feel the at women are
both a gender and a socio-economic class)

Approaches To Avoid

It is easy to make the following common mistakes so steer clear
of these approaches:

§  Summary
of the play and sources, which should only be found in your annotated
bibliography that is due in week 7.

§  Compare/contrast
analysis that shows how the play is different than the world today.

§  Personal
responses.

ESSAY 4 ATTACHED

THIS IS DUE WEDNESDAY BY NOON, JULY 20.

LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED ANYTHING FURTHER FROM ME.  THANK YOU!