Assignments

=Assignments=

Response Essay #1: //Utopia//
Write a concise essay (2-3 pages) in response to __**one**__ of the following questions about //Utopia//. Your essay should have a thesis and cite evidence and examples from the text. You do not need to answer every part of the question. Use the question to prompt your thinking. Post your essay to your wiki page by 5:00 p.m., Friday, 2/4.
 * 1) At the end of //Utopi//a, Thomas More states that he has objections to Raphael, but he doesn't say what they are. He also says there are many features of Utopia that he likes, but, again, he does not say what they are. What do you make of More's ambiguity? How serious is he in recommending the Utopian way of life? Is he attempting to offer real solutions, or is he only presenting a satirical critique of European societies? Do some portions of the book seem more serious than others?
 * 2) Many aspects of Plato's Republic seem dystopian to a modern reader. Do you feel the same way about More's Utopia? Does Utopia have a dark side (or a blind spot)?

Response Essay #2: //Looking Backward//
Write a concise essay (2-3 pages) in response to __**one**__ of the following questions about //Looking Backward//. Your essay should have a thesis and cite evidence and examples from the text. You do not need to answer every part of the question. Use the question to prompt your thinking. Post your essay to your wiki page by 5:00 p.m., Friday, 2/18
 * 1) What is Bellamy's view of human nature in the novel? Was it consistent or did it shift? How important is human nature to the construction of the new society?
 * 2) Some critics of //Looking Backward// assert that it is a piece of nostalgia for a simpler time in which the society of the future resembled the Chicopee Falls of Bellamy's youth. Others have seen the book as a document that glorifies the magic power of technology and the wisdom of experts, a primary feature of modern life. Which view is correct?
 * 3) Bellamy argued that Nationalism would protect true individualism better than any other system. Does the experience of Julian West prove that claim?

Response Essay #3: //We//
Write a concise essay (2-3 pages) in response to __**one**__ of the following questions about //We//. Your essay should have a thesis and cite evidence and examples from the text. You do not need to answer every part of the question. Use the question to prompt your thinking. Post your essay to your wiki page by 5:00 p.m., Friday, 3/25
 * 1) What is Zamyatin's view of human nature in the novel? Does he offer a different view of human nature from other writers we have read this semester?
 * 2) In what sense is //We// an anti-utopia? What aspects of utopia or utopian thinking does it critique or reject?
 * 3) Write your own question.

Response Essay #4: //The Handmaid's Tale//
Write a concise essay (2-3 pages) in response to __**one**__ of the following questions about //We//. Your essay should have a thesis and cite evidence and examples from the text. You do not need to answer every part of the question. Use the question to prompt your thinking. Post your essay to your wiki page by 5:00 p.m., Friday, 4/8
 * 1) Margaret Atwood has said, "This is a book about what happens when certain casually held attitudes about women are taken to their logical conclusions." What are those casually held attitudes? To what conclusions are they taken in the novel?
 * 2) Is //The Handmaid's Tale// an anti-utopia as well as a dystopia? (In other words, does it make or imply a critique of utopia in addition to whatever critique of society or human nature is implied by its dystopia?) Does it contain an implicit utopia?
 * 3) Write your own question.

Response Essay #5: The Dispossessed
Write a concise essay (2-3 pages) in response to __**one**__ of the following questions about //We//. Your essay should have a thesis and cite evidence and examples from the text. You do not need to answer every part of the question.
 * 1) What makes //The Dispossessed// a critical utopia?
 * 2) Is Anarres a feminist utopia? If so, in what way?
 * 3) What is the relationship between revolution and utopia in the novel?
 * 4) Is LeGuin in The Dispossessed making a political or social critique of our own society?
 * 5) Is Anarres or Urras more utopian? This question might lead you to consider the novel as an ambiguous utopia.

Definition of critical utopia (by Tom Moylan, //Demand the Impossible// (Methuen, 1986), pp. 10-11):

A central concern in the critical utopia is the awareness of the limitations of the utopian tradition, so that these texts reject utopia as a blueprint while preserving it as a dream. Furthermore, the novels dwell on the conflict between the originary world and the utopian society opposed to it so that the process of social change is more directly articulated. Finally, the novels focus on the continuing presence of difference and imperfection within the utopian society itself and thus render more recognizable and dynamic alternatives.

Post your essay to your wiki page by 5:00 p.m., 5/3 or 5/6