Two views of Craiglockhart Hospital

Paper Topic for REGENERATION, due 12/8/09 4pp.

Topic #1: This novel intersects with the theme of the course in fascinating and multivalent ways. Focusing on one or two characters and their association with Dr. Rivers, explore the complexities of speech and silence in their relationship and possibly in Rivers' own psyche.

Topic #2: The novel features several fathers and father-figures, men who act as authorities or mentors to younger or subordinate men. Focussing on one or two paternal or paternalistic relationships, consider the representation of fathers in the novel. Since protests against the war were often couched in generational terms (see Sassoon's "They" and "The General" and Owens' "The Parable of the Old Man and the Young"), do relationships between men in the novel parallel that generational conflict? Pay attention too to characters who talk about themselves as fathers or sons.

MERCHANT OF VENICE Paper Topic

1. Though Shylock and Portia are very different characters, both have their liberty and choices “curbed” by the Venetian aristocrats. How do Shylock and Portia resist these restrictions? On what privileges or expectations does each rely in resisting the limits placed on his liberty? How do their strategies differ, or are they unexpectedly similar?

2. To what extent are deception and trickery represented as central components in the social economies of Venice? Which characters use deception and why? Are their motives good or ill? Is deception peculiar to the behavior of marginalized characters or does official culture employ it as well?

Remember to cite your quotations using the act, scene and line number, not the page number.

4 pp. Due 11/19

Workshoppers: Bryan, Andrew, Kerri Anne. Workshoppers ONLY need to email their drafts to epearson@stonehill.edu with the header “Paper for Peek.” Make sure they are emailed by 8AM Thursday morning.

Re: Portia and Bassanio

"We live in a land that you can choose same sex marriage or opposite marriage." Miss California Carrie Prejean.

"All marriage is opposite marriage." Kyrie O'Connor, "Wait wait...Don't Tell Me!"