EN12i: Texts & Contexts II

Research Paper Assignment

There is a research paper due by noon on Tuesday, May 12. The paper should be approximately 7-8 pages long.

For the research paper, you should identify a question based on any of the readings or topics that we have discussed this semester, and then research sources to help you answer this question. The question needs to be narrow enough to allow for focused research, but broad enough to allow for in-depth investigation:

• What other versions of "Little Red Riding Hood" are there, and how do their differences effect the meaning of the story?
• How does a major theme apparent in a story like "Little Red Riding Hood" (e.g., childhood, sex, gender, nature, violence) appear in other fairy tales?
• What distinct fairy tale traditions are there in different national cultures?
• What similarities can be found in other fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm?
• How does Angela Carter revise or update other fairy tales?
• What are the major critical approaches to interpreting fairy tales?
• What is the production history of Othello?
• What is the production history of Romeo and Juliet?
• How do film versions of Othello or Romeo and Juliet interpret the plays differently?
• How do themes such as violence, sex, gender, love, or race figure in other plays by Shakespeare?
• How were Shakespeare's plays performed in his own time?
• How was race understood or represented in Shakespeare's time?
• What other historical version of the Adam and Eve story are there?
• How is the story of Adam and Eve retold in modern versions, such as novels, plays, or movies?
• How has the story of Adam and Eve been interpreted in different cultures and time periods?
• How do theologians interpret the story of Adam and Eve today?
• How do different versions of the story present different ideas about gender?
• What other Bible stories are retold by Mark Twain?
• What other kinds of stories are re-imagined by Ursula Le Guin?
• What other kinds of creation narratives are told in different cultures?
• How are other familiar Bible stories retold in different ways, by different historical periods or cultures, or by modern authors and artists?

Your sources should be a mix of primary and secondary sources. The secondary sources should be scholarly or academic sources, rather than popular or reference sources.