Brit Lit I - Fall 06

EN251: British Literature I

Fall 2006

First Essay Assignment

The first essay will be due at the beginning of class on Friday, October 13.

The essay should be approximately 5-6 pages in length.

We have read and discussed five medieval romances:

Marie de France, "Lanval"

Sir Thomas Malory, "The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkeney"

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Wife of Bath's Tale"

Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Franklin's Tale"

In the essay, you should carefully compare and contrast any two of these romances. You may write on any topic that you like, but some suggested topics are:

the concept of "trouthe" in chivalric romance and the ways it is tested in the tales

the roles or representation of women in chivalric romance

the ways romances challenge or test the inherent values of chivalry, or contradictions within chivalry

the interactions of love and duty in chivalric romance

Whatever topic you choose, it is absolutely essential that your essay be based on a strong, central thesis. Therefore, class on Tuesday, October 10 will be devoted to a thesis workshop: On that day, students are required to bring to class a prospective thesis sentence for their essays. (It is understood that the thesis and even the topic may change or evolve before the essay is completed.) The thesis should be typed and should be in the form of a single, complete sentence. In class, we will go over individual theses as examples and we will discuss our theses in small groups.

The thesis is the single, central idea that the essay means to convey to the reader. A good thesis is one that can be proven (that is, it can be demonstrated with evidence from the texts) and that needs to be proven (that is, it is not self-evident). Avoid vagueness! Make your thesis as precise and as specific as possible.

Format: All submitted papers should follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for formatting a paper. These guidelines can be found in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., which is available in the Reference Section of the library and in the Writing Center, but they are also summarized on pp. 148-150 of Diana Hacker’s Pocket Style Manual, with sample pages on pp. 151-154. When commenting on your essays, I will refer to Hacker on matters of format and style.

Following the MLA style, all papers should cite their sources on every occasion that they are used, and all paper should include a complete list of works cited.