TOPIC C: PORTRAITS OF WOMEN IN WORLD LITERATURE
Throughout time women have traditionally been excluded from the exercise of power on the basis of their presumed physical, moral, intellectual, and spiritual inferiority to men. Bearing this in mind, consider the different strategies and tactics that female characters employ in the literature we have examined to take control of their lives. You may discuss the significance of their strategies and the impact they have had on others. You may show, in particular, how some female characters in the work we have read are able to convert perceived weaknesses into strengths, challenging along the way century-old stereotypes and prominent figures of authority.
• Choose two works from the following: Sophocles’ Antigone, Hesiod’s Works and Days, The Qu’ran, the New Testament, Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale,” and Shakespeare’s Othello.
EVALUATION CRITERIA:
The following criteria will be taken into consideration in evaluating your paper:
a. The clarity of your argument in the introduction and throughout the paper
b. The analysis and discussion of your thesis and the ideas you introduce as supporting evidence
c. Your facility with language, especially the analysis and relation of your ideas to the topic
d. Your facility with grammar and the conventions of critical writing
e. The effectiveness and depth of your argument overall—its introduction, development, analysis, argumentation, and conclusion
WRITING MECHANICS:
• Your paper should be 5-7 pages in length, typed, double-spaced, and neatly presented. Consult the MLA style for writing academic papers and the checklist for academic papers on our course blog.
• Also, consult the two handouts about the mechanics of formal academic writing.