Write ONE focused, well-organized, detailed essay (approx. 1,000-1,500 words; 12 pt font; double-spaced)—based on a focused topic you shape from ONLY ONE of the prompts below. Make sure that your essay has a clear thesis or main point and that it includes specific supporting detail from the primary source (the literary texts) and ALSO from relevant secondary sources assigned in class (Introductions in assigned texts, any documents posted in “Files” folder, documentaries, notes from lecture/discussion). You may draw directly from any WRs that you have written in this course, but make sure to revise them fully and work them into your essay coherently. If you’re quoting 3 or less lines of verse (verse=jagged right-hand margins), lead into quotation, set off with quotation marks, and designate the end of a line/beginning the next with slash marks (/). No need to designate line endings if you’re quoting prose (prose=even right-hand margins). When citing from plays, give act, scene, and line numbers (e.g., 3.2.56-75); from regular text, note author’s last name and page numbers in parentheses following a quotation. If you’re quoting more than 4 lines of prose or 3 lines of verse, indent ten spaces for the entire quotation (block quote). When block quoting verse, type exactly as lines are printed in your edition; when block quoting prose, type as you would normally. Follow with parenthetical reference (act, scene, line numbers or page number) as indicated above. Attach a Works Cited page listing the course materials you cited in your essay, using MLA style. See OWL by Purdue for help with MLA style (the latest or an earlier edition of MLA is fine): https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html.IMPORTANT NOTE: Since your text and other classroom materials provide ample materials to synthesize and draw from in writing your essays, there is no need to conduct outside research for this test—nor is there time to do it properly. Moreover, the purpose of this test is to see how well you select, synthesize and draw from course materials and readings (assigned readings, electronic handouts, posted links, documentaries, class discussions, etc.) to develop and support a strong argument on a focused topic drawn from the prompts below. Therefore, you should only use course materials. If, however, you do incorporate any information from sources other than those listed above, make sure they are appropriate, legitimate, up-to-date scholarly sources, and make sure you document them responsibly and accurately in MLA style. Also note that outside sources may not substitute for course materials that are required to be included in the essay as designated in the grading rubric.DUE DATES: Bring a rough draft of your essay to class for peer review on 11/21. Upload a file of the final draft to the “ET 2” link while it is available on Canvas, after class on R 11/21 to T 12/10 at 11:59pm. (See topic prompts below.)~WRITE ON ONLY ONE OF THE FOLLOWINGTOPIC PROMPTS~Please note that below are topic prompts. You need to use these prompts to carve out a focused topic, on which you develop, sustain, and support a sound argument, thesis, or main interpretive point.TOPIC PROMPT CHOICE A: Shakespeare takes on the conventions of Petrarchan poetry and their assumptions about gender, love, and desire as a main subject of Twelfth Night. Fully examine how Shakespeare treats these conventions in this comedy. How does Shakespeare stage and, perhaps, challenge early modern notions of gender and ideals of love perpetuated by the Petrarchan tradition? How do particular characters parody or disrupt these conventions? Focusing both on the central characters who most fully exhibit these conventions and those who undercut them, show how Shakespeare explores assumptions about love and gender underlying Petrarchan poetic conventions and, thus, Elizabethan culture.TOPIC PROMPT CHOICE B: Explore the same-sex relationships and/or cross-dressing in Twelfth Night. In so doing, you may consider eroticized same-sex relationships in contrast to heterosexual (marital) ones, in relation to the genre of comedy, and/or intersected with issues of gender. In addressing this topic, consider one or all of the following questions as well as others related to your focused topic: How would you describe the nature of the bonds in these relationships? In Twelfth Night, how does the Petrarchan erotic dynamic help shape these relationships? How does cross-dressing complicate this dynamic, and what meanings does it create? How does the role of Antonio comment on the norms of sexuality in Shakespeare’s culture and within the world of comedy?TOPIC PROMPT CHOICE C: Examine how King Lear deals with issues of kingship and identity. What kind of a king has Lear been, and how is his reign treated in the play? In your response, consider some of the following questions: how does the challenge to Lear’s title as king affect his identity as a father and man? How might the play as a whole be interpreted as an extended analysis of the English monarchy in general, the Jacobean (James I) reign in particular? If Lear works toward wisdom through suffering (big if), what moment(s) of awareness or realization does he have? What does he realize, if anything? Does his recognition entail a deeper awareness than merely a literal recognition? What is it that Lear realizes, if anything, about his kingdom? His failure as a king? His relationship to the world around him? His responsibility to others? Human compassion and cruelty? How does such awareness, to whatever degree you think he experiences it, relate to problems of identity, to Lear’s “identity crisis” or breakdown? At what cost and at whose expense is such awareness gained, if it is gained at all?TOPIC PROMPT CHOICE D: King Lear addresses the questions of what it means to be human, what distinguishes the “human being” from the non-human or animal. What determines the difference? Explore how the play treats in this question, dealing with some or all of the following: What signifies human worth in this world, and how substantive (or “real”) is this signification? How do questions of the human being relate to images of clothing and stripping off of clothes in the play? If you remove the signifiers of worth—such as robes, titles, and so on—what then is left? What worth is the “unaccommodated man”? What does the play reveal about the vulnerability human beings? How does it treat ethical or moral issues of kindness, cruelty, or the treatment of other human beings? Ultimately, how does the play address the question, “What is a human being?” What distinguishes the human/non-human or animal? What constitutes human as opposed to non-human identity?TOPIC PROMPT CHOICE E: Focusing on The Tempest, analyze how Shakespeare treats particular kinds of otherness. How do marginalized, enslaved, indentured, or oppressed characters respond to Prospero and his power? What might Shakespeare be suggesting about that power and the treatment of the Other? Be sure to examine particular representations of otherness within relevant early modern contexts, such as how The Tempest explores issues of the New World on both literal and emblematic levels. Remember to draw from sources listed in introduction as well as any other relevant course readings or materials.TOPIC CHOICE F: Discuss how The Tempest addresses philosophical questions concerning the “nature” of the human being (i.e., is the human being inherently good or evil?) that were being hotly debated in the seventeenth century. In your essay, consider some or all of the following questions, depending on your focus: In what ways does Shakespeare’s play dramatize this debate and raise questions about these positions? In your response, you should consider Shakespeare’s inclusion of the excerpt from 16th century philosopher Michel de Montaigne’s Of Cannibals and examine its importance in light of the questions above. How might the play be seen to support or refute (or something in-between) Montaigne’s utopian notions of the New World and “natural” human society? Explain and support your point of view.
