Below are a number of possible topics for our brief reports and a schedule of dates for reports. You may well not know a thing about the topic you choose; that is the point: to find out about a subject and present it in an entertaining and intelligent manner to the rest of us. We will generate some other topics in class, such as "frame stories."
3/2 Close Reading Defoe Panel Matt H., Pam, Stacey, Melissa 3/9 Mary Shelley's Life Meagan 3/11 Frame narratives Bridget 3/13 Gothic Sarah E. 3/16 3/20 Frankenstein through film Chris 3/23 Irony Ann Garber 3/25 Charlotte Bronte Kristyn detective fiction/bildungsroman Jamaal 3/27 [not available] 4/1 John, Emily 4/3 Danielle Spring Break 4/13 Joseph Conrad Kathleen C. 4/15 Daniell V. 4/17 Conrad (Scenes from Apocalypse Now) 4/20 4/22 4/24 Jim, Kathy D. Paper panel: Becky, Karen, Anna 4/27 Zora Neale Hurston bio: Sabriyah 4/29 reception: Toni 5/1 History & Their Eyes 5/4 5/8 Harlem Renaissance Kathryn Howell 5/11 Jean Rhys--Biography Heather primogeniture Andrea 5/13 narrators/stream of consciousness Michelle Johanna 5/18 timeline Mike
Reports should be brief presentations to the class on a subject of interest to the class. Do not read your report or simply quote from an outside source.
Alternatively, you can come up with your own idea for a presentation. (All kinds of relevant, creative, and thoughtful presentations are encouraged.) You might report on modern movie versions of Frankenstein, for instance. You may also pair up to do a report.
Recommended reference book for literary terms: M.H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms (available at Morris Library in the reference department, PN41.A184 1993).
ambiguity anti-climax/climax bildungsroman biography/autobiography/memoir/diary character criticism defamiliarization/estrangement denotation/connotation detective fiction dialect dialectical thinking discourse denouement deus ex machina description epigraph epistolary eponymous form/content framing free indirect discourse. gothic hegemony historical novel ideology irony literary canon metaphor unreliable narrators omniscient narrators first-person narrators plot point of view prolepsis/foreshadowing roman � clef roman � theses speech act stock character stream of consciousness