Back to English/WS 315 Home | Paper Guidelines
I do not accept late papers, unless you have discussed the matter with me first.
Your paper should be a close reading of one of the assigned texts, or a discussion of some of the theoretical issues we have discussed in class. (If you would like to write about something we have not yet discussed in class, whether it is on the course syllabus or not, please make sure you see me and clear your choice of text with me first.)
These topics are to help you focus your argument. You are encouraged to read a few pieces of literary or other criticism on your text, or to contextualize your discussion in other reading that you have done (for example, historical or theoretical readings). Try to engage in some kind of dialogue with these other readings, if you can, so that your paper becomes part of an ongoing critical debate.
You do not have to base your answer around one of the questions that follow, but if you decide not to, you must discuss your chosen topic with me before you start to work on the paper.
- "The Well of Loneliness has no concept of desire outside heterosexual models. Stephen Gordon is "masculine", her lovers are "feminine", and the book cannot imagine any other kind of relationship between women." Do you agree?
- "The Well of Loneliness is a liberating text because it insists, however obliquely, on the possibility of sexual desire and satisfaction between women." Do you agree?
- Is Orlando a lesbian text? Justify your answer.
- How does Orlando engage with, and critique, the genre of biography?
- What kinds of "passing" are there in Passing, and how does the book explore the relations between them?
- How far can Passing be said to explore the development of a "lesbian" consciousness?