Length: 1500 -1800 words (not counting the works-cited page)

Citation style: MLA (please see The Write Stuff and/or the MLA website linked in Canvas)

Sources: Be sure to provide brief supporting quotes for all your points. References beyond the primary texts are not required; if you do use secondary sources, be sure to cite them appropriately. The paper should be primarily your own ideas.

Evaluation: Papers will be evaluated using the Brenau Holistic Writing Assessment form.

Topics: Choose one of the topics provided below OR obtain my approval–via email–for another topic of your choice no later than one week before the paper is due.

1. One way that Tartuffe demonstrates the “orderly” values of Neoclassicism is through its various balances and symmetries. Identify a character who “balances” one of the following and explore how this pair contributes to the play’s symmetry.

Madame Pernelle and ______________________________

Valère and _______________________________________

Damis and _______________________________________

Dorine and _______________________________________

2. Select any text on our syllabus that presents a character who is dangerous or causes harm to others. How does the author engage your sympathy for this character?

3. Select one of the Romantic works on our syllabus and examine how it represents a valuing of imagination and emotion over Reason.

4. How is a person’s identity constructed? What is the biggest influence (political structures, economics,

religion, society, family, self?) on who and what we become? Choose one work and explore how it

seems to answer this question.