58 59 60 61 sitting1sitting2sitting3sitting4sitting5 RESEACH TOPICS ATH 307 1. Select a country: Topic human rights issues 2. Working closely with your instructor begin collecting information on your country of choice using resources in the book. Use resources listed on page vii of the book and outside readings. 3. Prepare a presentation that provides background of the country of choice using resources beyond the country reports in the book. Give a brief presentation of your progress and outline current events in the country of your choice. 4. Write a term paper (10 pages) with complete details of your research findings of current events. Final presentations (Powerpoint) will be based on your paper. 5. The objective is for you to gain an in-depth firsthand understanding of your particular country and to educate your fellow students about the country of your choice. 6. Time line: First round of presentations starting week 7. Final round starting week 12 of semester. Paper Mechanics: Paper must be typed, double-spaced with 1 inch margins. Standard font type and size should be used (e.g. 11 or 12 point Arial or Times). Papers must also include a cover page with your name, the course number and title, and the date. Page numbers are required (do not include a page number on the cover page). You must provide citations within the paper. For example: [for paraphrase] Huntington claims that future conflict will occur along cultural lines (pg. 3). OR [for direct quote] “Civilizations are differentiated from each other by history, language, culture, tradition, and most importantly, religion” (Huntington 1993:5). If in doubt, reference the MLA for proper citation style (include this in a footnote OR in the bibliography). Failure to cite properly constitutes plagiarism. NOTE: Whenever you relate an idea that is not your own, you must provide a citation whether or not you are paraphrasing. You should restrict your use of direct quotations. Paraphrase whenever possible. Excessive use of direct quotes will adversely affect your grade because it will be difficult for me to determine whether you understand the material. Direct quotes should for emphasis only. In The Dark Prison does not necessarily mean concrete walls and bars. Isolation is a prison in itself and it can sometimes be worse than our conventional idea of prison. Isolation also does not necessarily mean alone, one can be isolated in many ways. Furthermore one does not necessarily know they are isolated or in this proverbial “prison”. In this story the main character is isolated in her own prison. Through a visit from two strangers the main character begins to realize her prison and can hopefully seize her imminent freedom. The elements of this story coordinate to accentuate the isolation of the main character Emily. The events fall in a very quick succession, as this is a story of the death of a man from his widow’s point of view. The story depicts.

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RESEACH TOPICS ATH 307
1. Select a country: Topic human rights issues
2. Working closely with your instructor begin collecting
information on your country of choice using resources in the
book. Use resources listed on page vii of the book and outside
readings.
3. Prepare a presentation that provides background of the
country of choice using resources beyond the country reports in
the book. Give a brief presentation of your progress and outline
current events in the country of your choice.
4. Write a term paper (10 pages) with complete details of your
research findings of current events. Final presentations
(Powerpoint) will be based on your paper.
5. The objective is for you to gain an in-depth firsthand
understanding of your particular country and to educate your

2. fellow students about the country of your choice.
6. Time line: First round of presentations starting week 7. Final
round starting week 12 of semester.
Paper Mechanics:
Paper must be typed, double-spaced with 1 inch margins.
Standard font type and size should be used (e.g. 11 or 12 point
Arial or Times). Papers must also include a cover page with
your name, the course number and title, and the date. Page
numbers are required (do not include a page number on the
cover page). You must provide citations within the paper. For
example:
[for paraphrase] Huntington claims that future conflict will
occur along cultural lines (pg. 3).
OR
[for direct quote] “Civilizations are differentiated from each
other by history, language, culture, tradition, and most
importantly, religion” (Huntington 1993:5).
If in doubt, reference the MLA for proper citation style
(include this in a footnote OR in the bibliography).
Failure to cite properly constitutes plagiarism.
NOTE: Whenever you relate an idea that is not your own, you
must provide a citation whether or not you are paraphrasing.
You should restrict your use of direct quotations. Paraphrase
whenever possible. Excessive use of direct quotes will
adversely affect your grade because it will be difficult for me to
determine whether you understand the material. Direct quotes
should for emphasis only.

3. In The Dark
Prison does not necessarily mean concrete walls and bars.
Isolation is a prison in itself and it can sometimes be worse than
our conventional idea of prison. Isolation also does not
necessarily mean alone, one can be isolated in many ways.
Furthermore one does not necessarily know they are isolated or
in this proverbial “prison”. In this story the main character is
isolated in her own prison. Through a visit from two strangers
the main character begins to realize her prison and can
hopefully seize her imminent freedom. The elements of this
story coordinate to accentuate the isolation of the main
character Emily.
The events fall in a very quick succession, as this is a
story of the death of a man from his widow’s point of view.
The story depicts his interaction just before his death with his
wife, a brief mention of his death and the visit from two
strangers afterwards. The bulk of the story concentrates on the
visit between the two strangers and Emily the main character.
The strangers, two sisters, were coming to visit the late husband
but they were too late. As the story suggests, the sisters were
likely meant to console with the wife and not the husband
anyways. Emily thought her late husband would have not liked
the intrusion anyways. She also didn’t believe she really
needed the company either, but as the interaction with the
sisters’ progresses it becomes apparent she has not spoken to
anyone in quite some time other than with her husband. The
main event of the story was really the interaction between the
sisters and the newly widowed Emily. The conversation
between them reveals the pain and suffrage of Emily and her
prison. Emily had thought of leaving but fear had stopped her.
Admitting to be unhappy for as long as she could remember she
started to realize how alone she had been even in the presence
of her husband. In her thoughts she also eluded to the sharp
tongued abuse she endured over the years and to the sisters she
told of his shellfish reason for marrying her. She even blames
herself for that and calls herself greedy for expecting marriage

4. to be something more, a classic symptom from an abused and
imprisoned spouse. As these events take place in Emily’s head
and in her outward pouring to the sisters’, it seems she begins
realize and admit to herself some of the craziness she has
endured over the years, and that it may not be normal.
Thankfully her guests, the sisters, were great listeners. Emily
thought they were different than her and while this may be true
some of this attributed to her isolation such as where she lived.
Much of the dialogue was centered on where they lived.
While the sisters lived “in town” which was only a few minute
drive according to Emily, they thought Emily was in the middle
of nowhere. While this may be true, the sisters had a point.
Emily had isolated herself, for what seemed to be years, on that
piece of property. Even though it was a short drive in, she
didn’t take it often. This definitely makes the setting very
important. Emily thought it was normal to be on that property,
just her and her unloving abusive husband, all alone. Part of
this phenomenon is the delusion that she was not alone when
she was with her late husband. Emily had been alone for
decades, isolated from the world on that property.
Emily comes to many realizations throughout this story.
Her point of view is imperative to this story as only through her
eyes could the realizations be made. As the interactions
progress throughout so does the openness and recognition, both
verbal and internal by Emily. Similar to twelve step programs
for afflictions such as alcoholism and codependency, it seems
that Emily is realizing and admitting to there being a major
issue. As with the programs the first step is admitting one has a
problem. It seems Emily has admitted to there being a problem.
The only way that can happen is through your own point of
view, no one else can admit it for you.
The story of Emily and her late husband is one of one
woman’s prison. Through a series of events, the long time
isolated woman is able to come to terms of her unhappiness and
loneliness. Although some may think this is about the grieving
process, it became very apparent the story was of a woman who

5. was imprisoned through circumstances. The real meaning of
this story is more complicated than just a grieving widow. The
meaning of this story is the death of Emily’s husband will set
her free from the prison of isolation she has lived for far too
long.
This will be a research paper with a minimum of seven credible
sources (your textbook can be counted as one of them). Two
sources must be carefully evaluated Internet sites and the rest
should have been originally found in print (from academic
periodicals or a credible book). Any researched material must
be used in your essay (either quoted or paraphrased to support
your discussion) or the source does not count.
WARNING: Summarizing a story serves very little purpose.
Keep summary to an absolute minimum and use it only when
you need to explain the story as it relates to your thesis and
your supporting points. That said, book reviews (which often do
little more than provide summary and opinion of overall worth)
have little or no value as sources for your discussion, so avoid
them in your research (unless they are particularly analytical or
academic in nature and provide you with support for your
thesis—this will be very rare).
You will want to choose an author of fiction who is compelling
to you. Adopt one of the critical approaches in Chapter 35 and
use this approach to analyze an author’s work (a single story).

6. You will focus on a short story from one of our class handouts.
In addition to the class notes you can visit the following link to
ensure that you understand MLA format:
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c08_s4.html
The following pages summarize the critical approaches and
offer some suggestions on how you might approach this
assignment.
1) Reader-response criticism really applies to all critical
approaches. Review reader-response for a good discussion of
criticism in general and what makes effective criticism (the
shared understanding of evidence, for example). However, you
should not use "reader response" as your critical approach, since
this will not require that you do any research.
2) Use Formalist Criticism (New Criticism) to interpret a
writer’s work: Examine your author and his or her work through
this particular lens of criticism. Formalists look at a work of
literature and critique it as an independent subject, without
considering social, historical, or psychological context. How is
the writing crafted to achieve its effect? How do certain words
and phrases convey meaning? How does this all achieve a
unified message or form? Or how does it ultimately fail?Use
one of the author’s stories to provide evidence of what you
think the author has achieved from the vantage point of
formalist criticism
Research what other critics have said about the style, word
choice, form or structure of the author’s stories and relate them
to the story or stories you are discussing
You may also compare other works (discuss multiple stories
from the same author) in order to explore your thesis about how
the author has succeeded or failed. Look for common patterns or
stylistic choices between a couple of the author’s works (be
careful not to fill your essay with a discussion of too much
literature… the danger is that you will write a very broad essay
that doesn’t make a powerful or developed overall point). Limit
your focus to analyzing one story and use discussion of other
stories only to reinforce your points about the primary story.

7. Form concerns such things as point-of-view, plot, construction
of character, description, exposition, verb tense, tone,
vocabulary, etc.
Discuss how the form of the story shaped your responses as a
reader (a personal response is appropriate to formalist criticism)
Research discussions of formalist criticism, in general, and
apply what you learn to the author’s work
Use any and all of the above as necessary to support a thesis
about the meaning of the story or about how it makes meaning.
3) Use deconstructionist criticism to interpret a writer’s work:
this type of criticism seeks to illustrate how a work of literature
contradicts itself and ultimately how language is an imperfect
tool that fails its author. What makes the work incoherent? In
what way does a work of literature inadvertently undermine the
“truth” it tries communicate?
Option 1: Argue that the story makes an unintended point (first,
you have to identify the intended message or truth contained
within the work)Does the author inadvertently communicate
unconscious values that hurt the credibility of the literature?
From a Marxist perspective, many writings are the product of a
class system. They amount to communication that edifies the
existing power structure of a society. You could examine how
the work conforms to such a system.
Option 2: Argue that the story fails in a very specific way (first,
you have to identify how it intended to succeed)Find any
contradictions in the story that help you expose the story’s
flaws or its inability to effectively communicate a message,
truth, or single philosophy.
In either of the above choices, research and cite other
deconstructionists who have discussed the author’s work. Use
this research to support your own criticism of the work.
d.
Research and cite general texts related to deconstructionist
criticism and use this to help you discuss the author’s work in
this way.
4) Use archetypal or myth criticism to interpret a writer’s work:

8. Argue that the work has some underlying mythical or archetypal
symbolism that is essential to its meaning.Examine natural
symbols that lend themselves to the larger meaning of the work
(for example, birth and rebirth and how they create the
underlying foundations of the story). This option ultimately
relies on an argument concerning the natural symbols in the
story and a comparison with their generalized meanings.
Examine the story as an archetype of an older, more primal
story: the hero’s journey from innocence to experience, for
example (unearth the unoriginal, mythical, underpinnings of the
story, or its ancient theme). This option ultimately uses
comparisons with older stories to make its point.
Use your findings to argue the overall theme or meaning of the
story.
5) Use Historical Criticism to illuminate the meaning of a
writer’s work: Use research and knowledge of facts concerning
the time the work was written or when the story takes place.
Use this research to suggest a fuller understanding of the
author’s story.What do the prevailing attitudes of the time tell
us about the meaning of the story?
Examine the time of the story’s setting, or when it was written,
and discover religious, social, political, or academic thinking or
movements that help you understand the meaning of the
story.Find several examples that seem to fit together and help
explain the theme or meaning of the story.
Find one paramount example that helps explain the entire
story.Research these aspects of history and use the most
relevant discoveries to support a focused thesis about the
story’s meaning.
6) Use Marxist criticism to interpret the story’s meaning: Use
your paper to discuss how the story illustrates the struggle
between socio-economic classes (the proletariat, the
bourgeoisies, and the aristocracy). Examine how the story either
edifies the value system of one of these groups, or how it
explores or demonstrates conflict between these groups (a little
historical research is most likely needed here). Use this

9. exploration of socio-economic values and conflict to support a
thesis concerning the necessary Marxist concern or overall
Marxist realization readers should draw from the story.
a.
Pay attention to material values of ownership (middle
class/bourgeoisies) vs. more abstract values of aesthetics (upper
class/aristocracy), for example .
b.
Pay attention to the value of independence and freedom
(capitalist) vs. the values of culture and community (Marxist)
c.
How does economic status shape the events of the story? The
character’s lives?
d.
Use some basic research of Marxism to ground your discussion
and enhance your ability to discuss the story this way.
e.
Use research of the historical moment of the story to examine
these class conflicts.
f.
Use discussion from other Marxist critics to support what you
have to say about your story.
7) Use New Historical criticism to interpret the story’s meaning
and critique the present: Like historical criticism and even
Marxist criticism, the historical setting of the story may be
important. In this case, you examine the historical aspects of the
story in order to connect your discussion with the political
present. But you also use other aspects of the story to
accomplish this. For this option, you would write a paper that
compares the situation in the literature to a current political
issue or problem. Your thesis will explain the overall meaning
of the story as it relates to a current problem or condition within
society.
a. Find parallels between aspects of the story and the present
political moment
i. Does a character’s dilemma mirror the dilemma of a current

10. celebrity or politician?
ii. Does the setting, plot or conflict in the story do this?
8) Use Biographical Criticism to argue for the meaning of a
story: How does the author’s life enrich the meaning of the
literature? What parallels or comparisons between the story and
the writer’s attitudes are important? The political, the religious,
and the family life of the author might be important in
illuminating the story’s theme. Use research of the author’s
experience (through memoir, biography, autobiography, etc.)
and documented attitudes to explore the story and offer a clear
statement about the story’s overall meaning (thesis).
a. Research other examples of biographical criticism (in general
or specific to this story or author). Use this to support your
discussion as well.
9) Use Psychological Criticism to argue for the meaning of a
story: How does the psychology of the author potentially
explain the story? Or how does a psychological understanding
of the principal characters explain the story’s meaning? Use
research of Freudian psychology or other criticism of this kind
to support a specific and interesting thesis about the story’s
meaning. The thesis of this paper should make a claim about the
deeper, unintentional meaning of the story as revealed through
psychoanalysis.
a.
Is the main character insane in some identifiable way? Is an
explanation of the story found in the diagnosis of his condition?
b.
Is the author insane (or neurotic), in some way that explains the
overall meaning of the story?
10) Use Gender criticism to make a claim about the meaning of
a story: Argue for the meaning of the story from a marginalized
gender perspective, recognizing how the literature reinforces
accepted gender roles or fights against them. For example, from
a feminist perspective you could examine female characters and
how they are marginalized by the male characters or male
dominated institutions in the story. In this case, your

11. interpretation should expose the accepted patriarchal values of
the story or celebrate how the story fights against them. The
thesis for this paper should expose how, overall, this story
edifies accepted gender values or struggles against them.
a.
Pay particular attention to relationships between women and
men, men and men, or women and women in the story you are
scrutinizing (gender is the issue here).
b.
Find other examples of gender criticism that support your
discussion of the story.
c.
Research gender criticism in general and apply this to your
discussion of the story.