Wiebke Engel, M.A.

A Survey of American Literature (Summer Semester 2016)

Topics for Assignment 5 and for Research Papers
Research Paper (Modulprfung E) due September 15, 2016
Before you start working on a topic:
consult the guidelines for writing research papers in your reader (MLA style papers)
for secondary sources consult the university library, the electronic version of the MLA International
Bibliography, www.jstor.org or the Semesterapparat 244 at the university library do not solely rely on
internet sources (prove that the sources are valid!!!!)
take a look at the model assignment in your reader
Remind yourself that you should not retell the plot of the primary texts you analyze. Assume the reader
of your paper is familiar with the texts you discuss.

Come up with your own thesis, i.e. a hypothesis or opinion that you will prove in your paper.
Here are some sample topics. But feel free to come up with your own choice of topic. If you choose a topic that
is not on this list below, discuss it with me before you start working on your paper or otherwise the paper will
not be accepted.
1. Analyze functions of trickster figures in selected Native American tales (pre-Columbian and Contemporary). Some
questions you may want to consider are: Do they still serve as voices of reason; do they still teach others a lesson do
they still embody aspects of a tribes/societys values and traditions?
2. Analyze the role/position of Creator Figures in two selected Native American creation stories and compare it to
Gods depiction in the Book of Genesis in the Bible? What do we learn from these differing depictions about the
cultures for which they were originally intended?
3. Describe the attitude of Puritans toward literature. Then analyze a poem by Anne Bradstreet and one by Edward
Taylor and analyze in which ways these poets went along with Puritans attitudes and in how far they might transgress
from the rules of society?
4. Analyze John Winthrops A Model of Christian Charity. What biblical concepts does Winthrop employ to create a
sense of a chosen community and argue in how far these ideas still play an important role in todays American
society and for Americas national identity?
5. Analyze the strategies that Benjamin Franklin uses in his Autobiography to guide reader reactions. Which rhetorical
and other means does he employ to win his readers confidence and approval?
6. Choose three to five poems by William Cullen Bryant and argue that he (a) is a distinctly American writer and (b) a
distinctly Romantic writer.
7. Discuss the use of mirroring in Poes The Fall of the House of Usher. How does this mirroring contribute to our
understanding or to our difficulties of understanding the tale?
8. In how far can both, Irvings Rip van Winkle and Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter be considered as comments on
Americas national identity? What is the historical situation of the U.S.A. at the time when those stories were first
published and how do the texts contribute to discussions of what a young nation should be like?
9. Compare and contrast Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter and Poes The Fall of the House of Usher in terms of
Gothic Fiction/Dark Romanticism. How do both authors achieve to imbue the genre of gothic fiction with great art?
10. Is The Scarlet Letter a protofeminist novel? When Hester undertakes to protect other women from gender-based
persecution, can one interpret her actions as pointing to a larger political statement in the text as a whole? Support
your arguments with specific passages from the novel.
11. In how far is it appropriate to use Benjamin Franklins concept of the self-made man for the development that
Frederick Douglass describes in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass?

12. How does reading Frederick Douglass's autobiography affect your understanding of and feelings about Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn? Does Twains novel contain a realistic portrayal of slave life? Why or why not?
13. Choose three to five poems by Walt Whitman and argue how justified we are in calling Whitman the American
poet of democracy.
14. Analyze selected poems of Emily Dickinson with regard to the authors views on the human ability to make sense
of the world, to assign and grasp meaning, or to attain truth. Which stylistic elements does she use to illustrate her
point?
15. Analyze the impact of selected (medical, social, political etc.) 19th century theories on the female condition in
Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper. How does she refute or defend certain theories of her time?
16. Analyze references to the history of the Southern United Sates as a background to Faulkners A Rose for Emily.
Pay particular attention to Faulkners use of symbolism.
17. Analyze the treatment of AIDS and homosexuality in Tony Kushners Angels in America. Also consider the fact
that Kushner has subtitled his work "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes". What national themes might he be
referring to? And what is the relationship between "gay" and "national" in the play?
18. Tony Kushners Angels in America is a major departure from prevailing theatrical realism, with detours into the
religious and the supernaturalangels, ghosts, apparitions and visions appear over and over in the drama. What effect
do these fantastical elements have on the play as a whole? Go beyond a simple analysis of plot to consider the
implications for characters, messages and themes.
19. Look up John Gasts picture American Progress (1872) and compare it to the depiction of progress in Tony
Kushners Angels in America. Discuss Kushners criticism of concepts like progress or manifest destiny as integral
parts of U.S.-American national identity.
20. Analyze the renderings of loneliness as a modernist characteristic in T.S. Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock. How does the poem create empathy for the title character, in how far is he a tragic figure, a representative
of a certain time and period?
21. Look up characteristics of confessional poetry and argue in how far those characteristics apply to Plaths poem
Daddy.
22. Compare and contrast two different images of (homo) sexual identity in Tony Kushners Angels in America.
23. Sherman Alexies The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a contemporary Native American text.
Determine and analyze effects which the European settlement and the removal of Native Americans had and still has
on these people and in how far their native American heritage still plays a role for them.
24. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 shell-shocked the U.S. American literary scene. Words could not
express what was happened that day. By either selecting a Nine-Eleven novel or 3-5poems describe which narrative
techniques or plot elements are made use of to make sense of this national trauma.