AMERICAN LITERATURE

Essay #1-Choose from the following essay prompts. You may create your own topic if you consult me before 3 0ctober. I recommend you consult critical sources when planning your paper.

1.Many of the works we have studied this term derive from a cultural context where social imbalances are reflected in the texts (ie : class, race, gender, etcetera). Consider one or more texts from the first half of the course by taking into account how they respond to their cultural and historical circumstances and how the changes across the versions of the text reflect this social context.

2.In relation to either (or both) H. D. and Lowell, consider how their approach to Imagism focuses on locations, objects, and gender. Both poets, as women, had a different experience of Imagism than did their male peers. Likewise, the quintessentially urban images from other poets in the movement contrast against their quasi-rural and parkland settings, which you may consider as

related to or contrasting against their gendered differences. You might also/instead choose to consider how their Imagist poems imply a “subject position” from which these visions occur: that is, a position from which the poem may be read or a position from which its images are observed.

What does such a position imply, and how could you present evidence for your answer?

3.Both Lowell and H. D. write poetry in relation to other works, such as Lowell responding to other imagist poems or H. D. responding to Classical/Ancient literature. How is this �responding” another form of “versioning” for which comparisons might be made? How would you compare either set of poems to these other works and what evidence would you accumulate for your finding?