You will choose ONE of the above sets of examples – either the poems or the paintings – to work with. For each of the three works
in your chosen set, and using the background material provided, you will analyze the work in terms of how it
reflects the stylistic tendencies, the thematic concerns, and the general
cultural priorities of the movement and time period it represents. For
instance, what features and details of the Edgar Allan Poe poem “Annabel
Lee” reflect Romanticism and the Romantic style (and so on for each work)?
Support your analysis with clear references to specific details from the work to
illustrate your claims.
After analyzing each work in turn,
you will also be expected to draw
comparisons and contrasts among the three works, with your analysis
informed by the information you have regarding the respective styles and time
periods. For instance, each of the poems deals in some way with a love
relationship; each also implies something about the passage of time. In each
case, however, the attitude to these themes is different. What are those
differences, and how can those differences be traced back to the differing
motivations and concerns of the Neoclassical, the Romantic, or the Modernist?
Similarly, if you are considering
the paintings, each one deals with some kind of conflict. The way in which they
each represent those conflicts, however, differs significantly. How do those
differences in appearance reflect the stylistic commitments of the
Neoclassical, the Romantic, or the Modernist? What sort of theme or themes get
highlighted in each case, and how can those decisions be traced to the concerns
of the respective time periods of the works?
The above sorts of questions are
what you should be looking to address in your essay, but you are also welcome
to seek additional questions and comparisons/contrasts of your own. Historical
and contextual information on each of the three time periods can be found in
your textbook or other reading materials provided.
You are also required to supplement your analysis with citations to
some of the external reference sources provided on Blackboard along with this
assignment sheet. At least three of
these external references must be used and cited in your essay. You will be
required to provide a “Works Cited” page for the sources you use and
to provide internal citation notes at those points in your essay where you draw
upon information or ideas found in those sources. Use the MLA format and
citation style to document your use of these sources. (On Blackboard, you will
find a set of links that lead to resources that can assist you with
implementing this citation style correctly.)
To do an adequate job of fulfilling the critical analysis task described
above, you should expect to need a minimum of 1000 words. To perform the task well, you will probably need
approximately 1200 to 1300 words. Although I anticipate some of the more
thorough students might exceed that number a bit, please limit yourself to no more than 1500 words.
Again, remember that you should
choose only one of the sets of
examples – either the poetry or the paintings. Although each of these examples
were addressed during class discussions, you should feel free to ask additional
questions about them in class over the next few weeks as you work on the
assignment.
For this assignment I have decided to use the three poems. Here are the poems down below:
“To His Coy Mistress” –
by Andrew Marvell
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44688/to-his-coy-mistress
“Annabel Lee” – by
Edgar Allan Poe
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44885/annabel-lee
“anyone lived in a
pretty how town” – by E. E. Cummings
https://poets.org/poem/anyone-lived-pretty-how-town