Topics

Genetics in Literature

English 243 - Spring 2004

Jay Clayton, Vanderbilt University

Ideas for a collaborative semester long class project, which would count instead of the two papers:

Create a web site exploring some aspect of genetics and culture. Your web site should analyze one or more of the issues we have discussed this semester. Alternatively, it may focus on one or more of the texts we have read.

Make a short movie or a multimedia CD that illuminates one of the books, movies, or themes we have studied.

If you are interested in pursuing one of these topics, or any other term-long project, please see me to discuss your plans.

First paper (5 pages). Submit your paper to Prometheus (Files module, Jay Clayton's Inbox). Name both the file on your hardisk that you plan to upload and the title in Prometheus as follows: "Lastname, Firstname - Paper 1"

Choose one of the following topics:

1. Write a comparative analysis of scenes from two of the following movies about cloning. Your discussion should focus on a single motif, scene, character, or topic from each film and not attempt to cover the entire works. Be sure to discuss not only the content of the two scenes but the relevant cinematic techniques and structural questions raised by your subject. Bring in perspectives from the reading wherever possible.

The Boys from Brazil (1978) - Franklin J. Schaffner, dir.

Jurassic Park (1993), Steven Spielberg, dir.

The Sixth Day (2000), Roger Spottiswoode, dir.

2. Discuss Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932) in relation to Francis Galton's "Hereditary Talent and Character" (1865). Compare and contrast the authors' attitudes toward one or (at most) two important social questions, such as gender, work, reproduction, race, nationality, class, religion, science, etc.

3. Compare and contrast Huxley's "A Note on Eugenics" and J. B. S. Haldane's "Daedalus, or, Science and the Future" (1923).

5. Analyze Darwin's depiction of slavery in Ch. 2 of The Voyage of the Beagle.

6. Analyze the roles of women in Andrea Barrett's stories, "The Littoral Zone" and "Rare Bird."