Russian 221, Blackwell, Fall 2018, draft due in class (mandatory) on 10/16 for peer editing; you lose credit on the paper if you don't come with a complete draft (at least 1,500 words--intro and conclusion can be left out). You will be sending your drafts to me for confirmation.

 Topics for paper # 1.  The topic selections are now complete, 10/1/2018.

NB: PAPER LENGTH is 1750 words, minimum, excluding longer quotations (>1 line)

You may also suggest to me another topic of your preference but must do this well in advance of the due date.

  Note: the questions within each topic are merely meant to spur your thinking; you are not expeced or required to address exactly these questions, although it would make sense to touch on some of them. Be sure to see paper writing tips. I advise you to pick a topic early, and begin collecting examples that seem relevant as evidence for your topic. No outside criticism or scholarship need be consulted, but if you do consult anything, you must list it in a bibliography, even if you don't quote it. If you consult only the official course text of the work(s) you write about, you do not need a bibliography/works cited list. You may just list page numbers. However, if you used a different edition, you must put it on a Works Cited page, and also of course give page references for all quotations.

Discuss the character of the poet/narrator in Eugene Onegin. Why is he important to the story? Detail several ways, with examples, that this importance is communicated and built into the novel’s structure. Why does Pushkin use the narrator’s character in this way? (This is my favorite topic)

How does the theme of interruption (such as incompletion, digression, or missing information) influence the possible interpretations of EO? (Another favorite topic)

In EO, three characters have relatively complex characters--Eugene, Tatyana, and the Poet.  What are the important features of how each of them develops a distinct personal identity, and how does this relate to interpretations of the novel? (How are their identities expressed by images, language texture and style, structural moments in the narration, or thematic elements?)

 Discuss, in a complex way from at least two perspectives, the poet’s attitude toward women in Eugene Onegin. How does this theme shape the novel’s meaning?

Give a detailed analysis of two stanzas of Eugene Onegin, paying attention to structural elements, narrative elements (the narrator, the story), poetic elements (what kinds of rhymes, what kinds of word choices and images, what rhytmic features, & how do they relate to one another and the meaning).

Option just for Russian Students: Compare two different translations of two stanzas to the original Russian.  Discuss the significant choices that each translator made, and discuss what was sacrificed by each, and why you think they chose that sacrifice rather than a different one. (You can--should!-- use Vladimir Nabokov's translation and commentary as a guide, but it shouldn't be one of the compared translations).

Discuss the theme of significance in “The Overcoat”. You can take this in a variety of directions; just use lots of examples and craft careful, well-supported arguments. (e.g.: what makes something significant? How are significance and signification related? Significance and meaning? Significance and "sign"? etc. etc.)

Discuss the personality of the narrator in "The Nose". What nuance is added to the story by the presence of such a narrator? In what narrative elements do we see the personality emerge most clearly? Who, what is this narrator? Why does Gogol create this voice and perspective--what might be its philosophical implicaitons?

Using two of three, "Diary of a Madman," "Nevsky Prospekt," and, "The Nose," discuss how Gogol explores the concept of "truth".  Keep in mind such concepts as "appearance," "rank", "beauty", and "gossip".

Discuss the concept of sincerity and self-knowledge in A Hero of Our Time. How does the novel portray real, imagined, or downright false sincerity, or (likewise) real or false self-knowledge? What conclusions does the novel lead us to draw about the way individuals function?

Discuss, from various angles, the concept of power in Hero of Our Time. What, in the end, does the author seem to be saying about power in human life?

Discuss the theme of coincidence and eavesdropping in Hero.  How does it function in the novel, and to what extent is Lermontov using it deliberately to some particular conceptual end, vs. simply using it as a lazy way to advance the plot. Does it have any thematic connection to the novel's artistic wholeness? If so, how?