Writing About American Shakespeare: September 2012

Description

This is the course blog for a second-year college writing class on American Shakespeare. At The Ohio State University, all English 2367.02 courses focus on the U.S. experience through literature, so this course explores the implications of American appropriations of Shakespeare. Because this is a writing course, each student has created a blog that will serve as a venue for writing responses to the various prompts posted on this blog. To view student responses, check out some of the blogs in the Blog Roll on the right.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Prospero's Plan(s)

The Tempest appears to be a play in which much of what happens is somehow orchestrated by Prospero. What do you think his plan is, and do you think that it changes at any point throughout the play (and if so, when and why)? What kind of impact do you think the plan is meant to have on the other characters in the play, and how effectively does Prospero achieve those goals?

As usual, these questions are intended to prompt an analytical response, and you'll need to point to specific passages in the text to support your interpretations. Please make sure that your response is at least 250 words long so that it offers the thoroughness that these questions require.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Character development thus far

Now that we have read nearly half of A Thousand Acres, we are starting to get a better sense of some of the characters, such as Caroline, Jess Clark, and Harold Clark. For the next blog post, everyone needs to choose one of these three characters to write about. Find a passage in the novel that seems to illustrate or reveal something about that character, and offer an interpretation of that passage and an explanation for why you chose it. Then, you should use that passage as a jumping-off point to say more about how you think the character is meant to come across to a reader, and to offer your own thoughtful response to what we have read about the character so far.

Remember that this assignment, like all of the blog posts for this class, should be a thoughtful response to what we have read. That means that each post needs to be interpretive, and can even be argumentative, but should not waste time summarizing the reading. It can be helpful to provide some context so that your reader can better understand your remarks, and you should definitely use quotations and/or paraphrases when they can help illustrate your point. However, the primary voice should be your own, and the blog post should be an analytical response rather than a simple plot summary. This post needs to be at least 250 words long, and also remember that you will be commenting on your classmates' posts and that they will be commenting on yours.