Q Read the following instructions thoroughly. Remember that your discussion posts are graded work and should be treated as formal writing assignments, meaning that--at the bare minimum--you should be running a spell check on your response before posting it. Your post and reply are due by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, 2/17. ________________________________________ General Instructions: 1. Choose only one of the questions/prompts below and respond thoughtfully and thoroughly to the best of your ability. o You must support your analysis with at least one piece of specific textual evidence (i.e., a direct quote or paraphrase followed by an in-text citation) from the relevant assigned reading. o You may not conduct any outside research for your response unless the response specifically asks you to do so; in other words, all of your supporting evidence must come from the assigned readings themselves, the lecture notes, or your own mind. o In general, a quality response will require 1-2 well-composed paragraphs. o I recommend allowing yourself approximately 30 minutes to write your post and taking another 10 minutes for thorough proofreading. o Your thesis should be a single sentence that briefly and directly responds to your chosen prompt; it should be either the first sentence or last sentence of the first paragraph of your response. o Because you are not composing a full traditional essay, your answers will have to be particularly concise and well-focused, so your thesis must be strong and clear. o Be specific in your response, and make sure to address every part of multi-part prompts. o Try to make meaningful observations and connections; do not settle for stating the obvious. o Do not simply summarize the material. 2. Provide at least one meaningful response to another student's post. o For instance, you might expand upon a classmate's post by providing another example, make a relevant connection with a classmate's observation, or offer an alternative viewpoint for a classmate's interpretation. o Responses to classmates along the lines of "I agree!", "That's a good point," or "I like your interpretation" will not receive credit; similarly, simply restating or summarizing a classmate's post will not receive credit. Other Notes: • Be careful not to copy other students' words or ideas. Your response should express your thoughts and opinions on a given text but must be well-reasoned and adequately supported. o Using outside sources or otherwise plagiarizing on this assignment will result in a zero grade. • You may write in first-person perspective (I, me, my), but you do not necessarily need to do so; in fact, I recommend at least attempting to write strictly in third-person perspective (he, she, it, they, them). • Do not use contractions or other informal language in your main post (use the General Academic Writing Guidelines handout for more information); it is acceptable to be less formal in your replies to classmates. • You do not need to use MLA formatting for your response, but you should use MLA parenthetical citations for quoted and paraphrased material from the assigned reading. Prompt Choices: 1. Consider the concept of "found" stories, as briefly described in the lecture notes. While some artists who employ this device indeed hope to convince their audiences that a particular piece of fiction is true, many others expect their audiences to understand that the claim of veracity is simply another piece of the tale. Which of these do you think is true for Washington Irving and his story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"? Did he expect his readers to believe the story, or were they supposed to be in on the joke? In either case, how does the "found" story device affect the meaning/purpose of this story? Explain your answer thoroughly, using direct evidence from the text to support your position. 2. In "The Black Cat," the narrator says his behavior is the combined result of an addiction to alcohol and the influence of "the spirit of perverseness." He further claims that he was exceptionally good-natured and kind prior to his descent into intemperance (i.e., alcoholism). Are these assertions plausible? Do they mitigate any of his responsibility for his actions? Is the death sentence the narrator has apparently received the appropriate punishment for his crime(s)? 3. As I mentioned in the lecture notes for the Dark Romantics, scholars still debate whether Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing represents a sort of proto-feminist literature, the common misogyny of the 19th century, or something else altogether. "The Birthmark" is one of Hawthorne's stories that fuels such debates. Using direct evidence (quotes) from the story, identify what Hawthorne intended the "deeply impressive moral" of the story to be; then discuss whether the text should be understood to support or refute feminist ideals such as female agency and equality. 4. In "Rappaccini's Daughter," Hawthorne himself points out one clear parallel between his tale and the Genesis story of Adam and Eve in Eden, comparing Rappaccini's garden to God's. Indeed, Hawthorne's story is widely recognized as a sort of inverted Eden allegory. Identify and discuss the significance of the other parallels between "Rappaccini's Daughter" and the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. Provide a possible explanation for Hawthorne's decision to alter roles in the way he did. 5. In "Bartleby, the Scrivener," the narrator points out that Bartleby was an excellent--if somewhat odd--employee at first. The narrator expresses his dismay over not understanding any of Bartleby's behavior and not knowing anything about him, with the exception of the unsubstantiated rumor that Bartleby once worked in the Dead Letter Office. However, the closing lines of the story, "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!", suggest that the narrator has drawn some significant connection between the strange tale of Bartleby and the human condition, which further suggests the author wants readers to make a similar connection. Provide a possible explanation for Bartleby's behavior and discuss what you think the connection may be between the narrator's observations about Bartleby and society in general. 6. Both Edgar Allan Poe's "Hop-Frog" and Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener" have been interpreted as their respective author's fantasy response to pressure from their readers and critics to continue producing what the audience desires, regardless of authorial desire or prerogative. Briefly explain how this idea is symbolized in each work and discuss what the differences in the authors' approaches might signify.