Paper details
For example, take the female love interest of Petrarch in one of his sonnets and compare/contrast his
thoughts on women with a passage in Wollstonecraft. Another example: Take an instance in Montaigne’s
essay and see its development in the mindset of Cléante. The list of possibilities is almost endless. The
better essays will narrow their focus to just one incident or character or idea or passage, etc. from the
reading list for Volume C (The Renaissance) and compare/contrast it to just one incident or character or
idea or passage, etc. from the reading list for Volume D (The Enlightenment), as listed on page 3 of the
Syllabus. NB: You’ll state a subsuming thesis and employ comparison and contrast to support it.
Reading List from Volume C (The Renaissance)
Europe and the New World: 109-19 (Helpful; Not Required)
Humanism and the Rediscovery of the Classical Past: 121-23 (Helpful; Not Required)
Machiavelli: “Letter to Francesco Vettori,”124-25
Rabelais: Book I, ch. 54, “The Inscription on the Great Gate of Thélème,” 128-30
Rabelais: Book II, ch. 8, “Father’s Letter from Home,” 136-40
Du Bellay: Sonnets 3, 5, 13, 15 from The Antiquities of Rome, 148-49
Petrarch and the Love Lyric: 151-54 (Helpful; Not Required)
Petrarch: Sonnets 1, 34, 189, 333; pp. 155-58
Labé: Sonnets 1, 10, 18, pp. 161-62
Machiavelli: The Prince, chs. 15-18, 25-26; pp. 173-78, 188-92
Montaigne: “Of Cannibals,” 329-38
Cervantes: Don Quixote, Part I, chs. 1-5, 7-8, 10, 22; pp. 367-86, 387-94, 397-01, 426-34
Cervantes: Don Quixote, Part II, chs. 64-65, 73-74; pp. 504-07, 507-15
Florentine Codex, 558-63
Reading List from Volume D (The Enlightenment)
What is Enlightenment? 101-04 (Helpful; Not Required)
Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 134-36
Moliere: Tartuffe, 144-97
Voltaire: Candide, 372-431
This essay should be written formally, so please avoid 1st-person pronouns (I, me, mine, we, us, our, etc.)
and 2nd-person pronouns (you, your, yours, etc.). Ideally, when I finish reading your essay, my
understanding of the topic has deepened because you’ve taken me to “Where the meanings are” (Emily
Dickinson). When submitting the essay, please follow the guidelines stipulated in “How to Submit Exams
and Essay” (Syllabus p. 4).