The First Paper

For your first paper assignment you will submit a typed, titled, page numbered, double-spaced essay using one of the prompts below. Your essay will attempt to illustrate a researched thesis. If you are having trouble, please see me after class, during office hours, or send me an email to my email address. Please include a works cited page. There is no need to include a cover page.

You should not attempt to cover everything in this essay; rather, one major aspect of the works should be the focus.

Your paper must conform to the sample paper on page 331 of The DK Handbook. The paper will have an introductory paragraph with a thesis, body of essay, and conclusion. This should be at least 1,250 words NOT including the works cited. Please try not to go over 1,500 words. Your paper will be written according to MLA 7 documentation.

For this paper, you are required to cite from at least three credible secondary source.

You will focus in on a topic that is narrow enough to fit into the length requirement, but also fulfills the requirement that your paper be scholarly in nature. Please consider the themes we have discussed in class and points that students have brought up during our discussions.

If you are submitting a rough draft, please send it to my email by the Monday before the paper is due. Please name this file: s12_lit218300_yourlastnamelowercase_paper1RD

The final draft of the term paper will be due at 11:59pm on Friday March 16th. Please title your final draft file: s12_lit218300_yourlastnamelowercase_paper1

Topics

1. How does the additional sexualization of the characters affect the adaptation of The Odyssey and/or Dracula? Write a paper where you engage with how additionally sexualizing various characters (two or three?) affect how the text is interpreted via the adaptation. 
2. Various characters are emphasised or demphasised throughout the adaptation of Dracula and The Odyssey. Write a paper which discusses at least two of these characters and discuss how the emphasis, or lack thereof, affects how the text is interpreted via the adaptation. 
3. Pick at least two scenes and compare their effectiveness in the poem and film. My advice is to especially focus on ones that affect the plot. You could focus on a variety of issues, but in class we focused on family issues (Menelaus/Helen, Agamemnon, Penelope/Odysseus). How does the removal or editing of these scenes affect how the poem is adapted to the screen? This topic can also apply to Dracula.
   
4. Talk about the role of surveillance in the adaptation of Hamlet. Spying is definitely in the original play, but it is portrayed rather differently in the adaptation. How is this different? What does that change? Make sure you also discuss Hamlet's awareness of the cameras. 
5. How does keeping the language in Hamlet mostly the same affect your understanding of the text after viewing this adaptation? The language doesn't match the setting, but it connects you directly to the story.
6. How does linearity "ruin" the suspense of the story? This paper topic works I think for either, or both, The Odyssey or Dracula. An important issue I think you need to deal with, as we discussed in class, is the difference between how a suspenseful novel or epic poem "reads" versus how a film presents it.
7. As discussed in class: What is the difference between watching a film in one "helping" versus a long, drawn out, novel, play, or epic poem, that likely requires multiple sittings to read and understand? Feel free to engage with any of the three texts so far. 
8.  Are Hamlet/Ophelia really insane or are they a product of their environment? Make sure you discuss both the play and the adaptation’s take on this. What does the film do differently than the play that affects your close reading and/or understanding of the story?