Paper 1 Topics :

Paper 1 (2-3 pages) must be on one of the following works: Beowulf; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”; The Faerie Queene; Urania; one or more ballads. You must write on one of the topics listed below unless you have received prior approval from your TA. The Paper is due November 1, in class.

1. The “beot” (oath, boast) is very much a part of the world of Beowulf. Discuss the characteristics and function of such oath-making or boasting in the poem.

2. Taking one digression as an example, think about the function of digressions in Beowulf or another work of your choosing. What is the relationship between the main incident and the incident told about in the digression? Is the relationship one of part to whole, or is something else happening?

3. There are characters in works and there is also often a narrator who presents the story within which the characters act and speak. Looking at one or two passages, discuss the function of the narrator in a work of your choosing. Is the narrator’s viewpoint the same as that of the character(s) he or she is describing? Is it the same as the author’s? What strategies does the narrator or author employ to create difference and distance?

4. Focusing on one instance, discuss the function of created spaces in a work of your choosing. Why are separate spaces important? How are they demarcated? What happens inside such a space and how is it different from what happens outside it? How does the created space reflect upon the world “outside” (and vice versa)?

5. Works of literature contain prominent or recurrent motifs (for example, quests, combat, boasting, feasting or drinking, gift exchange) and prominent or recurrent symbols (for example, a natural element such as water or fire, or an artifact such as a sword, shield or cup). Discuss the significance of one motif or symbol in one of the works we have so far read. Remember to focus your paper on the language of the text. Choosing one or two passages as examples allows such in-depth focus.

6. Focus on one of Spenser's epic similes and show how it is important to the narrative it describes. Does it re-present the action as a mirror image? an inversion? a contradiction? a qualification? or what? Pay close attention to the language of the simile (puzzling or resonant words, strange images, significant rhymes, alliteration, rhythm, etc.). A fruitful simile for consideration: the comparison of Error's vomit to the "fertile slime" of the overflowing Nile (1.1.21).

7. The Dwarf has a little but significant role in book 1 of The Faerie Queene. Look closely at his abbreviated description in canto 1, stanza 6 (you might consider what happens in the rest of the stanza as well). What is the dwarf? (Warning: don’t be satisfied with the footnote explanation.) As you think through this question, you will also need to consider how it is significant that the Dwarf acts like an alarm bell in the Error episode warning Redcross to flee. Furthermore, consider that he later flees with Redcross from Archimago’s house. Isn’t he Una’s dwarf?

8. In a way, Mary Wroth is deliberately “taking on” Spenser and other male authors of romance in writing her own romance, Urania. How is Wroth’s use of the genre of romance different from Spenser’s? Warning: don’t talk abstractly about “romance.” Make it clear what you mean by the term. You might want to focus your argument by discussing the poets’ different uses of just one aspect of romance (the hero-heroine relationship; knightly battles; the genre’s “high” or inflated language; or a common image to the genre, such as that of the maze or labyrinth).

9. Focusing on one passage or incident as an instance, discuss the function of the natural world in a work we have read. You might want to think about why poets dwell on descriptions of natural surroundings. What is the function of such descriptions? You might want to question what is the relation between nature and cultivated culture or society? (Remember to define your terms.) Or you might query what it means when a man literally becomes a part of nature (as Fradubio becomes a tree in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (Book 2, canto 2).

10. Looking at one work of your choosing, discuss what kind of power women exert over men in the world of that work? How is their power exerted? Is it sexual, verbal, or something else? You will probably want to focus your paper on only one woman, or two at most. If you are looking at ballads, you might consider 2 or 3 ballads. But keep your argument focused on particular passages.