Painting: Edmund Blair Leighton, 'Godspeed'

English 555/755-01
Arthurian Literature

Writing Assignments

Spring Semester 2009
MWF 12:00 - 12:50, Grubbs 312
Instructor: Dr. K. Nichols
E-Mail: knichols@pittstate.edu

INDEX

Contexts Reports (written/oral)
Art/Lit Reports (written/oral)
Literary Analysis Papers
Extra Paper for Engl. 755
Focus/Organization
MLA Documentation
Typing Directions

Contexts Reports (Written and Oral)

Due: 2/11
4 typed pages, plus Works Cited page (7-8 online sources).
10 minute oral report on your assigned day.
Undergrad. Written and oral report: 20 % of final grade.
Grad. Student Written and oral report: 14.2% of final grade.

Each student will be assigned a different topic. Browse the categories listed on Arthurian Literature and Art: Celtic and Medieval (online) for topics that interest you. If you see a good topic not listed below, get permission from your instructor to do that topic. (NOTE: About half the class will report on these topics. The rest of the class will report on Art/Lit. topics.)

Historical Arthur
History/fictional histories of the invasions of ancient Briton (by Romans, Saxons, etc.)
Legendary background of Merlin
Celtic goddesses
Celtic goddess of sovereignty, the Loathly Lady, and Guenivere
Celtic origins of Morgana and the Ladies of the Lake
Gawain and other knights as solar heroes
Origins of the Holy Grail
The Grail Heroes: Percival, Gawain, Lancelot, Galahad
Courtly love
Chivalry and real Knightly life
Real medieval women: Love, sex, and marriage
Unusual roles of unconventional medieval women
Medieval everyday life: Village and castle
Glastonbury Tor/Tomb of King Arthur

This assignment requires that you bring together and SYNTHESIZE 7-8 online sources from our class webpage Arthurian Literature and Art: Celtic and Medieval (online). After you have studied your sources, you will draw a conclusion about your topic. That conclusion will be the thesis around which your paper will be organized. Those sources should be listed alphabetically (by author's last name) on a separate page. Include author, title, date you accessed the online source, and online address. (See MLA directions for citing online sources.) However, unlike MLA style, you will NUMBER each source and insert that number (in parenthesis) at the end of the summarized/paraphrased/quoted material in your main text.

Since most of this paper will consist of summary and paraphrase (occasional short quotes are acceptable also), it is crucial that you AVOID PLAGIARISM by following these basic rules:

Summaries/paraphrases must be in language VERY DIFFERENT than the original.
Quotations must use the EXACT SAME language of the original (and be enclosed in quotation marks).
A source must be cited for both summaries and paraphrases, as well as for quotations.

Art and Literature Reports (Written and Oral)

Due: 4/06
4 typed pages, plus images of selected art and separate Works Cited page listing primary and secondary sources.
10 minute oral report on your assigned day.
Undergrad. Written and oral report: 20 % of final grade.
Grad. Student Written and oral report: 14.2% of final grade.

NOTE: About half the class will report on these topics. The rest of the class will be reporting on the "contexts" topics (above).

Select 4 Arthurian artworks and one or more of our literary texts with a common theme, character, or episode/scene--perhaps "chivalry" or "Ladies of the Lake" or "Merlin" or "Grail scenes" or the "Guinevere-Lancelot love story" or the "death of King Arthur," etc. Compare and contrast the interpretations offered by the literary and artistic treatments. Arthurian artwork can be found at the following online sites: Arthurian Literature and Art: Celtic and Medieval, and Arthurian Literature and Art: Romantic, Victorian, Modern, and Arthurian Legends Illustrated.

Include copies of your selected images integrated into the paper, if you know how to do that, or add them together to form a separate Appendix at the end of the paper. List the artist and title under each image, but make sure you refer to the artist and title in the main text itself. If you have an appendix, after your first reference to a painting, insert a short parenthetical statement like this: (See Appendix.). (I can run off copies of the images in my office, if needed.)

Analyzing Artwork: What moment or aspect of the story seems to have particularly attracted the artist's attention? Why? What makes the artistic treatment effective? Look at separate compositional elements of the image: What objects/figures/actions/details are emphasized/de-emphasized through color or size or placement in the foreground/middleground/background of the image (especially as compared with the literary treatment)? What are some other distinctive features of the image? What mood or emotion is conveyed? How? Does the image adapt or change the literary text on which it is based? Is the artist's interpretation highlighting a particular aspect of the story/scene or adding something to the story/scene? What?

NOTE: For examples of art analysis, consult several of the essays analyzing the artistic
treatments of the "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and "The Lady of Shalott" on the
Poems and Paintings: Romantic/Victorian web page.

Analyzing Literary Texts: Literary analysis involves breaking down a story or scene into its basic elements also: character, plot, setting, theme, symbol, point-of-view. It also involves looking closely at language--the connotations and implications of selected words/phrasings. You do not necessarily have to cover every element. Instead, look closely at the ones that are most significant or telling in the literary treatment.

Literary Analysis Papers

Due: 05/08
6-8 typed pages, plus Works Cited page listing 3 primary and at least 1 secondary source (scholarly article) used. (NOTE: For graduate students, add 2 more scholarly sources.)
Undergrad. paper: 20 % of final grade.
Grad. Student paper: 14.2% of final grade.

Directions:
This paper is based on the character or general character type you selected at the beginning of the semester. Compare and contrast how at least three of our authors develop that character and why. The three authors should include Malory, a modern writer, and a third one of your choice. For our purposes, 19th and 20th Century writers are considered "modern." Although you will be focusing on three literary texts, it might enhance your paper if it revealed some occasional awareness of other treatments of that character as well--perhaps in the introduction or elsewhere.

Possible Issues to Address:
How does one author's development of your character differ from another author's? What elements are the same? How does each author relate the character to the larger themes and conflicts of his/her text? How do the different concerns of different eras affect the way the authors imagine your character? Does one author emphasize certain aspects of that character and his/her situation more than the other author did? Why? Do they use different methods of portraying "character"? What helpful points do your secondary sources add to your understanding of the character? Do you disagree with the character interpretation offered by your secondary sources? Why?

Extra Paper for Engl. 755 Credit

Due: Last day of class, at latest (earlier would be appreciated).
9-10 typed pages, plus separate Works Cited page listing primary and secondary sources.
28.4% of final grade.

Select one of the following topics and write a documented paper in which you develop your own thesis related to an Arthurian topic and cite evidence from your primary texts. Also weave into your paper material from several secondary sources (scholarly article or a chapter in a scholarly book). Think of the scholarly articles as sources you can agree or disagree with. What do they add to your discussion? What can you add to their discussion? In other words, carry on a "dialogue" with your sources while you argue for your own reading of your primary texts.

Links to online scholarly articles on Chrétien and for the Green Knight author are available at the following online sites: Arthurian Literature and Art: Celtic and Medieval; for T.S. Eliot, here are some resources: Arthurian Literature and Art: Romantic, Victorian, Modern; and for the "lost generation" authors (Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner) and for T.S. Eliot, consult this page: Jazz Age Culture: Authors. Or, you may find books or additional articles in Axe Library (see the MLA Bibliography online database). Documentation should be based on MLA Style.

Topics:

Compare and contrast Gawain and Perceval: Chrétien's Perceval (in your Chrétien anthology) and Sir Gawain the Green Knight (available in any standard British Lit. survey anthology), plus 3 scholarly secondary sources.
Discuss Eliot's use of the Grail Quest/Fisher King/Wasteland motifs: Chrétien's Perceval (in your Chrétien anthology) and T.S. Eliot's "Wasteland" (available in any standard American Lit. anthology), plus 2 scholarly secondary sources, about 15-20 pages from Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance (online), and Ch. 2, pp. 112-119, King Arthur in America, eds., Lupack and Lupack (copy in library or in professor's office).
Compare and contrast Yvain and Eliot's quester: Chrétien's Yvain (in your Chrétien anthology) and T.S. Eliot's "Wasteland" (available in any standard American Lit. anthology), plus 2 scholarly secondary sources, about 15-20 pages from Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance (online), and Ch. 2, pp. 112-119, King Arthur in America, eds., Lupack and Lupack (copy in library or in professor's office).
Discuss the uses of Grail/Fisher King/Wasteland motifs in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, plus 1 scholarly secondary source, about 15-20 pages from Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance (online), and Ch. 3, pp. 135-154, King Arthur in America, eds., Lupack and Lupack (copy in library or in professor's office).
Discuss the uses of Grail/Fisher King/Wasteland motifs in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises or "In Our Time," plus 1 scholarly secondary source, about 15-20 pages from Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance (online), and Ch. 3, pp. 154-169, King Arthur in America, eds., Lupack and Lupack (copy in library or in professor's office).
A similar Faulkner topic can be arranged if you are especially interested in that writer. See Ch 3, pp. 169-182, King Arthur in America, eds., Lupack and Lupack (copy in library or in professor's office).

Organization and Focus

Introduction: Introductions in short papers should be short--maybe 3-4 sentences long. Begin with some general statement about your topic (if you are going to write about the grail, get the words "grail" and "Arthur" and "literature" somewhere in the opening sentence). Perhaps provide some pertinent background, or explain why there have been problems with the topic or even disagreements about it, or maybe suggest why that topic is so important in Arthurian studies and literature.

End the paragraph with your thesis. In this case, your thesis will be the overall conclusion you have drawn about your topic now that you have finished studying what the experts have to say on it. Remember that your thesis is what the rest of the paper will be about.

NOTE: Most or perhaps all of the introduction will be your own writing,
but it is OK to include a short paraphrase/quotation, properly cited.

Body of Paper: Sub-divide your thesis/conclusion into 3-4 sub-points (since you can't talk about everything at once). Those sub-points will form the topic sentences for the body paragraphs--what you have to say about that sub-point, your own writing, the point you want to make. Each topic sentence should be followed by lots of specific details/examples/quotations. from your sources, as well as your explanation/analysis of that information (the "well-developed paragraph").

WRITING TIP: Arrange your sub-points according to the Order of Climax--begin with your second-best sub-point followed by your weakest sub-point and then work your way up to your best sub-point at the end so that the paper finishes on a strong note.

NOTE: I hate skimpy paragraphs that are only 1-2 sentences long;
put some meat on those bones--another 6-8 sentences of details
and examples and explanations, please!)

Conclusion: Conclusions in short papers should be short--maybe 3-4 sentences long. Begin the concluding paragraph with a re-statement of your thesis/conclusion--but in language very different than was used in the introduction. In a couple more sentences, refer to your topic as a whole-- why it is significant and worth studying, for instance, or finally, what it all adds up to.

NOTE: In a short paper, do not repeat your sub-points--much too repetitious.

MLA Style Documentation

Use standard in-text citation (author and page), and put the source information on a separate bibliography page (labeled "Works Cited"). Follow MLA directions.

See this short summary of MLA style: Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format, created by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab. Scroll down the page to find a long list of links for in-text citation and bibliographies, including how to do electronic sources.

Also check MLA Style: MLA Style: Frequently Asked Questions.

For more detailed information on MLA style, consult a hardcopy of the "official" MLA Handbook.

Typing Directions:

Use Times New Roman font, size 11 or 12. Double-space everything--no exceptions. Include one inch margins on all sides. Put your last name and page number in top-right corner (1/2 inch from top)

On the first page, in the top-left corner, put your name, your instructor's name, the class name and number, and the date. Below that, in the center of page, add a title (and sub-title, if needed).

English 555/755-01Arthurian Literature