Paper  Topics

First Paper (5-7 pages):

   Choose one of the following topics:
  1. Write a paper comparing and contrasting a scene, character, motif, image, or theme in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations (1860-61), David Lean's Great Expectations (1946), and Alfonso Cuarón's Great Expectations (1997).  The scene or other element does not have to appear in all three texts, but its absence from one or two of the texts must be accounted for as part of your argument.  The object of this assignment is not to discuss whether a movie is "faithful" to its original.  Rather you should work to develop a thesis about aspects of the three texts that illuminate one another in suggestive ways.  You might consider issues of gender, social class, attitudes toward money, urban life, violence, justice, or generational differences.  Alternatively, you might consider formal questions--issues of style, development of scene, genre, point of view, imagery, or narrative sequence.  Whatever aspects of the three texts you discuss, be sure to illustrate your thesis by focusing closely on a particular element from each work.

  2.  
  3. This topic is a variant of the first.  Write a paper comparing and contrasting a scene, character, motif, image, or theme in Jane Austen's Persuasion (1818), Douglas McGrath's Emma (1996), and Amy Heckerling's Clueless (1995).  The same advice as above applies to this topic.  If you want to compare characters, however, you will have to focus on traits that are shared on the basis of age, class, gender, etc., since the characters are not versions of the same person.
  4. Write a critique of Henry Churchill's "Jane Austen Information Page," focusing on the material found in one or more of the following links (found toward the bottom of Churchill's Longer Table of Contents).  Approximately half of your paper should be devoted to discussing how some aspect of Austen's Persuasion is illuminated (or not) by the information located on Churchill's web site.

  5.  
    Notes on the society of Jane Austen's time (especially with respect to Pride and Prejudice).
 
Write a critique of George Landow's "Great Expectations Page," focusing on the material found in one or more of the links on this page.  Approximately half of your paper should be devoted to discussing how some aspect of Dickens's Great Expectations is illuminated (or not) by the information located on Landow's web site.  Further directions for topics 3 and 4.
 
 

 

Second Paper (5-7 pages):

Directions for submitting papers via email attachments.

Write a paper comparing two of our authors--Charlotte Bronte, Collins, and Trollope--on one of the following issues:
 

Support your discussion by focusing closely on a particular scene or motif from each work.  Do not try to discuss the entire novels.
Jay Clayton
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt English