Word-count
1,500 original words excluding footnotes, quotations and bibliography (there is no penalty for going over this minimum word limit)
Guidelines
Answers will be rewarded for relevance to the specific question, cogency, coherent selection and analysis of textual evidence, recognition of the role of literary technique, attention to detail and identification of subtle or less immediately obvious points.
If answering on two texts – or on two plots within a single text – you are more likely to achieve argumentative complexity by directly cross-referencing between texts/plots rather than addressing text/plot 1 in one section and text/plot 2 in an entirely separate one.
Be sure to produce an analytical interpretation of literary meaning and effect not a paraphrase or summarization of superficial plot content.
You can also construct your own topic and title but if so please check this with me first
Presentation
You should be consistent in your layout and use of citations but are free to use whatever system you are accustomed to employing provided that you give exact references and quotations.
Secondary Reading
You should read and include at least one citation from a corresponding piece of secondary reading which I will provide. However you should not not simply devote the whole essay to restating the critic’s argument – seek to apply and test that pre-existing reading by identifying your own textual examples and giving your own interpretations of them. You only need to read the essay that is relevant to your question. – Email me for a copy of whichever secondary reading you need.
- Frank D. McConnell, ‘Sherlock Holmes: Detecting Order Amid Disorder’, The Wilson Quarterly (1976) 11. 2 (Spring, 1987), pp. 172-183
- Craig Morehead, ‘”Rambling the streets of London”: Virginia Woolf and the London Sketch’, Virginia Woolf Miscellany (Spring 2013) Issue 83, p18
- David Bradshaw, ‘Introduction’ to Virginia Woolf, Selected Essays (Oxford: OUP. 2008), pp. xi-xxv
- David Trotter, ‘Consuming Passions’ from The English Novel in History 1895-1920 [1993] (London: Routledge, 2002) [This is not an analysis of Woolf’s essays but provides valuable context on the topic of the literary representation of commerce, commodities and consumers]
- Edward Mitchell, ‘Themes in Elizabeth Bowen’s Short Stories’, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction (Spring 1966), pp. 41-54
Answer one of the following questions:
Question 1
“Holmes [has] a passionate commitment to the act of analysis: that is a belief that a man can [examine] the universe as it is given to us […] and, through sheer force of intellect, uncover its hidden order’ (Frank D. McConnell)
Analyse how, and to what effect, Doyle depicts the ‘uncover[ing of] hidden order’ in two or three Holmes stories. (You should include at least one citation from McConnell’s article and write on at least one story that was not analysed exhaustively in class)
Question 2
‘The multiple and fluid ‘I’ […] points to [Woolf’s] belief that the mind ‘seems to have no single state of being’ (Craig Morehead)
Analyse how, and to what effect, Woolf’s London essays explore the ‘multiple and fluid “I” (You should engage with three Woolf essays and include at least one citation from Morehead’s essay).
Question 3
‘Passing, glimpsing, everything seems accidentally but miraculously sprinkled with beauty, as if the tide of trade which deposits its burden so punctually and prosaically upon the shores of Oxford Street had this night cast up nothing but treasure’ (Virginia Woolf)
Either (a) Analyse how, and to what effect, Woolf’s London essays explore the capital’s ‘beauty’ (You should engage with three Woolf essays and include at least one citation from Morehead’s essay).
Or (b) Analyse how, and to what effect, Woolf’s London essays explore London’s commercial culture (You should engage with three Woolf essays and include at least one citation from Trotter’s chapter).
Question 4
‘The charm of modern London is that it is not built to last; it is built to pass’ (Virginia Woolf)
Analyse how, at what effect, Woolf’s London essays depict modernity (You should engage with three Woolf essays and include at least one citation from Bradshaw’s essay)
Question 5
‘One situation to which Bowen consistently devotes her attention is the antithesis between external fact and internal reality’ (Edward Mitchell).
Either (a) Analyse how, and to what effect, Bowen’s explores the relationship between ‘external fact and internal reality’ in her Blitz stories. (You should engage with ‘Mysterious Kôr’ and at least one other story, eg ‘The Happy Autumn Fields’ or ‘The Demon Lover’. You should also include at least one citation from Mitchell’s article).
(b) Compare and contrast how Woolf’s Essays and Bowen’s short fiction explore the relationship between ‘external fact and internal reality’ (You should engage with at least two Woolf essays and at least one Bowen story. You should also include at least one citation from either Morehead’s or Mitchell’s articles.)
