English 2850 Fall 2021: Great Works II

This artwork is called Yorkshire Village and is by Edward Alexander Wadsworth. He was an English artist who lived from 1889-1949. He attended Fettes College. He knew the area of Yorkshire village from his childhood, which was what inspired him to make this art. He was a modernist and a vortocist (a type of modernist that was fascinated by the industrial revolution or as some would call it, the “machine age”) which could be guessed by viewing his artwork. This artwork resembles the industrial (the vortocism) landscape of Yorkshire– a lot of buildings. This artwork looks very cube-ish, which was the intention. The cubic form of his artwork reflects on modernism by using, well, cubism. By looking at this piece, you can see the fragment pieces of buildings (in Yorkshire) placed closely together. You can see several aspects and features of the buildings: they are tall, prism-shaped, have pointy corners, and are lack space between each other. I encountered this work while visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art on fifth avenue. While I was looking around the museum, this artwork caught my eye since at first I thought it was a middle finger and was amazed since it might be deemed  “dirty” or “inappropriate” by many people. But after closely examining it, I realized that these are buildings, specifically of Yorkshire village (hence the name of the artwork). After realizing this, this artwork kept my eye glued to it since it has shapes fragmented together, yet someone can interpret it as a building– most artwork with shapes fragmented together confuse me in regards to what they are exactly suppose to be– it happened here, but I quickly figured out what the artwork is supposed to be.  I also like that this artwork is simple– no crazy out of place drawings. I also like how the viewer is made to focus on one thing– there are no bright colors or anything else that would potentially distract you from the main piece. It is straightforward, and has one thing that should be focused on. The uniqueness of this artwork drew me to this piece since not many artworks contain simple shapes just bunched up together. Some questions I have about the artwork are what were the reactions of other (non-modernist) artists during this time? Why was cubism chosen for this artwork and not something  like impressionism or surrealism? Why did Wadsworth choose to make the artwork about the buildings in Yorkshire village and not the people?

Question Due: Friday, Nov. 26th (submit electronically via email to [email protected])

Paper Due: Wednesday, Dec. 15th.  Please submit your essay by sharing it with [email protected] as a Google Doc or by emailing it to me at [email protected].  Give your file the name “Your Name ENG 2850 Final Essay”.

5-7 pages, double-spaced, with one-inch margins

Essay Prompt: 

Drawing on any two readings we’ve read over the semester, consider the complicated relationship between the individual and society as it’s explored in the works we’ve read.  What issues emerge when society’s demands are not in line with the desires of the individual? How do the authors we’ve studied see that struggle?

Step One: Formulate  and Submit Topic

Due by Friday, November 26th via email to [email protected]

This is a broad subject, so you will need to narrow your scope in order to construct a tightly focused analytical essay. 

Your written topic should show how you’ve adapted the broad issue of the individual and society to suit the particular texts you’re discussing. For example, you might choose to think about the issue in terms of gender and focus your attention on the conflict between societal demands and individual desires as they relate to women in two of the texts you’ve read. (This is just one example; we could come up with many more!) 

Formulate your topic in the form of a single question you are asking about the two texts you’ve chosen.  Your question should include the two texts you are writing about.   Keep in mind that this is an analytical essay, not a descriptive one; be sure that your question is one that will yield analysis rather than description. This means not just letting us know what happens in the two texts, but also giving us a way of understanding or interpreting it.

One strategy you may find useful for coming up with your topic is as follows:

–What two texts do you want to write about?

–What area of overlap or point of connection do you see between the two texts?

–What are you asking about the two texts?

–Once you’ve identified the question you’re asking about your two texts, be sure that your question is not a “yes or no” or “either/or” question and that you will be providing an answer to the “so what?” question.

You may choose your texts from anywhere in the syllabus up to and including “The Metamorphosis.”  However you may not write about the text you wrote about in your first paper of the semester. 

Once you have emailed me your proposed topic (in the form of a question), wait to hear back from me.  If your topic is ready to go, you will get an email back from me that ends with “good luck with the essay.”  If I write back and ask you to adjust your topic, you will need to make the changes I suggest and then re-submit your topic. This process will continue until you have arrived at a topic question that will yield a focused analytical essay.

Drafting the Essay

I will be providing information during the first week of December about how to organize this comparative essay. In all other respects, this assignment is much like your first essay for ENG 2850.  Your goal in this particular essay is to come to a deeper understanding of the two texts you’re writing about.   Once again, you will be backing up your assertions through the inclusion of textual evidence – both paraphrase and direct quotations.  Use simple parenthetical citations to identify the page number of your quotations where appropriate.

 Like your first essay, this paper is a close textual analysis, based on your own thinking about the texts we’ve studied. DO NOT CONSULT ANY SECONDARY SOURCES IN THE PROCESS OF WRITING THIS PAPER.

Hedda Gabler

What does Lovborg’s death mean to Hedda?

The way in which Lovborg died in the story was not how Hedda expected him to die, and for that reason, she felt that he did not follow her instructions in killing himself. In addition, the death of Lovborg was an opportunity for Hedda to see George in a high position without having a competition to him getting his title.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Page number 749.

“He tried to ignore his wife’s disagreeable moods, continued to live in his usual easy and pleasant way, invited friends to his house for a game of cards, and also tried going to his club or spending his evening with friends. But one day his wife began upbraiding him so vigorously, using such coarse words, and continued to abuse him every time he did not fulfill her demands, so resolutely and with such evidence determination not to give way till he submitted that is, till he stayed at home and was bored just as she was that he become alarmed”.

In this quote, Ivan Ilyich refuses to give his wife attention, knowing that she is pregnant with his child, and instead, he decides to play games with his friends and go out to have fun. Forgetting that he has a responsibility to take care of his wife, she decided to take action to make him realize his duty as a husband.

In other words, how my passage connects to the larger theme of this work is that Ivan Ilyich seems to have been a good man. Moreover, a people person to the extent he knew he had responsibility, but he wanted to spend more time doing what he loved with his friends when he was single.