Ode on a Grecian URL

This hebdomadal is due before discussion on Friday, December 8th.

Although we don't yet have the list of essays that will appear on the final exam, we do know that they will force you to compare ideas across texts. These topics are meant to give you a chance to begin practice this comparative work.

Topic 1: Comparing comparisons

Subtopic A: As Prof. Ortiz-Robles suggested in lecture today, figures of speech (metaphor, simile, irony, metonymy, synecdoche, anacoluthon, catachresis) are fundamentally comparative, and they are at the heart of all of these novels. Compare one use of one of these figures from The Portrait of a Lady to a use of the same figure in any other novel we have read this semester. How is the difference in the way this figure is used suggestive of the thematic differences between these texts?

Subtopic B: In the novels we have read, characters are often explained in contrast to other characters; e.g. Isabel Archer is understood partly in contrast to Madame Merle; her three suitors -- Caspar Goodwood, Lord Warburton and Gilbert Osmond (and, possibly, Ralph Touchett) -- are explained by comparison with each other, and so on. Look at one pair of characters from Portrait and compare that comparison with a pair of characters developed in any other novel we have read this semester. How do we better understand thematic or ideological differences between James and this other author by comparing these two modes of comparison?

Topic 2: Comparing hebdomadals

Look back through the hebdomadals you have written this semester. Apply a hebdomadal prompt that you answered in reference to another text to Portrait, and then compare the conclusions drawn by your earlier hebdomadal to the conclusions you draw in this new hebdomadal.

Topic 3: Writing the exam

Subtopic A: Write an exam question! Here are the instructions that Prof. Ortiz-Robles sent the TAs:

The prompts should be general enough to be able to accommodate at least three or four novels, but narrow enough to generate coherent arguments. The topics can be thematic, formal, or, better yet, a combination of both, in keeping with the general tenor of lectures and discussions.

Your exam question will differ from the real exam questions in that yours has to be at least 300 words long, but otherwise you should follow his prompt as best you can. You might think about posing a general question, listing briefly how this question could be answered in reference to different texts, and then concluding with a series of deeper and more sophisticated subquestions that these essays might pursue.

Subtopic B: Write a short essay question that suggests a thematic and/or formal comparison of two of the text we have read this semester, and then answer than exam question. (This, by the way, is one of the best ways to prepare for the final exam this week.)