Freshman Seminar: Contemporary American Fiction

English 115w, Sec - Spring, 1998
Jay Clayton, Vanderbilt University

Paper Topics

First Paper

Develop thesis in computer lab, Tuesday, January 27, 1998
First draft due Tuesday, February 3, 1998
Conferences, Thursday and Friday, February 5-6, 1998

Topic:

Discuss the ways in which the people in Cisneros's stories internalize the values of commodity culture, the media (such as television and popular music), religious traditions, or California-style New Age philosophy. In thinking about this topic, ask yourself the following questions. Are the effects of each these influences on characters the same? Do things like the media or commercialism affect men and women differently? Do the characters living in the U.S. respond to the same set of cultural pressures as those in Mexico?

Illustrate your thesis using examples drawn from two of the following stories:

"One Holy Night"

"The Marlboro Man"

"Bien Pretty"

Second Paper

First draft due Tuesday, February 17, 1998 (Microcomputer Lab, Garland 119)
Conferences, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, February 18-20, 1998 (Benson Hall 314)
Final draft due Tuesday, February 24, 1998

Topics:

Choose one of the following topics on Charles Frazier's, Cold Mountain:

Trace the development of the relationship between Ada and Ruby.
Trace the development of the symbol of Cold Mountain in the novel.
Trace the development of Inman's attitude toward killing.

Third Paper

First draft due Thursday, March 26, 1998 (Microcomputer Lab, Garland 119)
Conferences, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, March 31-33, 1998 (Benson Hall 314)
Final draft due Friday, April 3, 4:00 p.m. (Benson Hall 312), 1998

Topics:

Discuss the use of style in either The Shipping News or Rule of the Bone. Does the use of language reinforce explicit thematic issues? Or do some aspects of the style set up a counter perspective to the principal theme and thus create a second, alternative level of meaning in the text? In thinking about style, you may focus on imagery, rhythm, sentence structure, repetition, allusion, slang, or other forms of word play and language patterning.
Discuss the handling of time in The Shipping News. Ask yourself the same kind of questions about the temporal scheme of the book as those about style in the first topic. In thinking about time, you may consider temporal gaps, flashbacks, flash forwards, decisions about pacing (does the narrative move slowly, minute-by-minute, or skim over long periods of time in a few sentences?), intermixing of different time periods, etc.
Discuss the relationship between racial identity and contemporary culture in two characters from Rule of the Bone.

Fourth Paper

Due Tuesday, April 21

Topics

You may choose this first topic only if you did not write on Rule of the Bone for your third paper. Compare the narrators of Russell Banks and Kaye Gibbons's novels? You may focus on any aspect of Bone and Ellen, but you should be sure to focus on a specific point of comparison rather than a general survey of all their similarities and differences.
Compare the shift in Ellen Foster's attitude toward Starletta with Rutherford Calhoun's shift in attitude toward Isadora Bailey. What role does stereotypes play in each character's initial position? What acts symbolize the change in each character's attitude at the end of the two novels?
Rutherford Calhoun might be thought of as a trickster or rogue hero. Discuss the role that lies, thievery, deception, and other tricks play in his adventures. What connection do they have with his status as a representative American figure?
Discuss Ebenezer Falcon's ideas about philosophy, democracy, and capitalism. To what extent do you think his ideas reflect American values? Are there ways in which his ideas represent an extreme version of certain contemporary political positions?