Great literary works aspire to be more than entertainment. By mobilizing the power of language in creative and unconventional ways, literature challenges us to reflect on and reconsider society’s most fundamental assumptions. Literary works often transform readers through emotional effects induced by plot, characterization, rhythm, and figures of speech. While it is important to think about literature in historical context, we will miss out on one of its fundamental capacities if we don’t ask what it has to tell us about our world and ourselves.
The Signature Assignment is an essay, you will develop a thesis-driven argument about an ethical dilemma presented in a work or across two works. You will perform a close reading of one (or possibly two) of our literary readings for how it presents and comments on an ethical problem. The ethical issue that you address could be primarily interpersonal (e.g. how does the writer explore the ethics of certain behaviors or actions as they relate to individuals or families?) or primarily social (e.g. how does the writer explore the ethical implications of societal forms of oppression, such as racism, classism, sexism, or homophobia?) or, perhaps more likely, could involve the intersection between the two. In your conclusion, you will reflect on your own view of the ethical issue raised in part one.
You may write about either option below
1. What different ideas about life are propounded in “Moxon’s Master” and R. U. R.? What do these differences suggest is overarching life philosophy implied by each work?
· Bierce, Ambrose (United States). “Moxon’s Master” (1899) PDF Download “Moxon’s Master” (1899) PDFand a link to the Library of America’s Story of the Week website (Links to an external site.) Comment by Thomas,Nakithia (DFPS):
· Čapek, Karel (Czech Republic). R. U. R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). 1920. Translated by Paul Selver and Nigel Playfair. Dover Thrift Editions, 2001.
2. How is friendship depicted differently in “A Disembodied Friend” and “The Chrysanthemum Vow”? What do these differences suggest about the significance each text attributes to friendship?
· Pu, Songling (China). PDF of “A Disembodied Friend” Download PDF of “A Disembodied Friend” and a version of it in Word
Download a version of it in Word
· Akinari, Ueda (Japan). Tales of Moonlight and Rain , which contains “The Chrysanthemum Vow”
Learning Objectives
· Analyze an assigned reading for the thinking it mobilizes about ethics
· Compose an effective literary analyses of one or two of our readings; to do this, you will be able to
· Select textual or narrative details that help extend your analysis
· Demonstrate that you can effectively situate textual and/or narrative details in your writing
· Develop close readings of textual or narrative details in order to elaborate or further flesh out your analysis
· Provide topic sentences that conceptually frame the subsequent discussion and, if it isn’t self-evident, make explicit the relation between the overarching ethical problem and the content of the paragraph
· Integrate your paragraphs using transitions and stitching between them so that the essay feels like a single extended discussion
General Instructions
Format: Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, double spaced, default margins
Heading: Clever title that points to the ethical problem you will analyze
Length: Your essay should be a minimum of 1000 words.
Citations: Use MLA in-text citations for textual and narrative evidence; you do not have to include bibliographic information if you are using the assigned version posted in or linked through Canvas or, for standalone texts, the edition identified in the syllabus.
Specific Instructions
WHICH LITERARY WORKS?
Although many of the discussion forums in the four or five modules were created with an eye towards serving as pre-draft exercises for this assignment, you can focus your essay on any literary work (or any two works) from our course that you did not write about in your Three-Paragraph Writing Exercise or in your Five-Paragraph Writing Exercise.
WHAT?
Your essay should answer one of the two following overarching questions, depending on whether you decide to discuss a single work or two:
· What complex idea about an ethical problem does the work present?
· Or what different but mutually illuminating ideas do two works present about an ethical issue?
Your answer to one of these questions will serve as your thesis statement, a specific and arguable interpretive claim about the literary work or works. To provide a persuasive, richly textured account of this ethical dilemma in your work(s), you’ll need to consider and smoothly integrate into your discussion the following sub-questions:
· How is the ethical dilemma concretely depicted in your work(s)? What are the nuances of that depiction?
· What ethical values are at stake in this dilemma (e.g. individual liberty, duty toward others, truthfulness, fairness, etc.)?
· What relation does this depiction establish between individuals and institutions?
· In what sense does the ethical dilemma represent a specific form or instance of a broader social conflict (e.g. does it seem related to societal forms of oppression, such as racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, or religious intolerance)?
· What are the economic, political, and cultural origins of the conflict, as represented by the author or authors?
HOW?
Your argument should be well-organized, original, and plausible. You should aim to educate your readers about the work(s) you examine. Each body paragraph should develop a clear idea that helps you to advance your thesis statement through evidence—paraphrased narrative details or direct quotations—that supports your interpretation of the literary work(s). You should analyze the evidence you present in order to explain how it confirms your thesis and to flesh out your interpretation. Be sure to cite any sources that you consult.
SO WHAT?
A good conclusion doesn’t simply restate the thesis. Rather, by reflecting on the larger ethical and social implications of the issue that the work raises, you can underline why your argument matters. Consider the following questions as you craft your conclusions:
· In what way is the ethical dilemma you’ve described in the work(s) related to an important ethical issue that we see playing out today? How does the same or a similar ethical problem show up in the world outside of the work?
· To what degree does this problem resemble those in your work(s) and to what degree has the problem evolved or changed since the work was first written? Is this ethical issue specific to a certain historical or cultural situation, or is it universal? Is it a local, regional, national, and/or global issue? How are perspectives on this ethical problem affected by cultural or social differences?
· How has your analysis of the literary work challenged you to rethink your understanding of this contemporary ethical issue or affirmed and extended your previous thinking on this topic?
