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Answer two of the following by providing specific references to the works in question. In one of your essays, incorporate your interpetation on a work that you choose, a poem, a film, a novel, a short story etc. Explain why your choice is relevant. Your arguments should be coherent and persuasive. Please type your responses. A maximum of two-page essay, double-spaced, 12-font, is required for each question. You can submit your papers via e-mail or in person, wednesday the 15th of January, 13 hours the latest.
1. Discuss the theme of constructing a cultural context through the act of story-telling, which seems merely innocuous, not to mention, entertaining, yet which marks the hegemony of one over the other. Refer to Atwood';s ";The Penelopiad"; and Barnes's 'The Stowaway' . Songs, the recounting of dreams and the news of ordeals in distant lands, the byzantine stratagems as narrated by Penelope, and the eligibility contest, the power struggles and the segregation of animals, not to mention the death of some invaluable species on Noah's Ark as depicted by the woodworm, all contribute to the laying out of the workings of a culture, whether it be Greek or cosmopolitan, antedeluvian or contemporary. Highlight how the telling of a story in itself serves to maintain/challenge the status quo and the supremacy of one over the other, whether it be a gender or a species.
2. Steinbeck';s ";The Chrysanthemums"; and Atwood';s ";Penelopiad"; both underscore the vacillation in the protagonists'; acts and thoughts to fit in and to sustain their prescribed roles. Why do you think Steinbeck introduces Eliza from the third person point of view and Atwood from the first person point of view? How do the double standards and ambiguities in their lives shape their perception?
3. Lorella Zanardo';s documentary ";Il Corpo Delle Donne"; introduces the idea of modern women presented as ‘grotesque'; or ‘vulgar'; in the main stream media. She also refers to the eradication of
1. Discuss the theme of constructing a cultural context through the act of story-telling, which seems merely innocuous, not to mention, entertaining, yet which marks the hegemony of one over the other. Refer to Atwood';s ";The Penelopiad"; and Barnes's 'The Stowaway' . Songs, the recounting of dreams and the news of ordeals in distant lands, the byzantine stratagems as narrated by Penelope, and the eligibility contest, the power struggles and the segregation of animals, not to mention the death of some invaluable species on Noah's Ark as depicted by the woodworm, all contribute to the laying out of the workings of a culture, whether it be Greek or cosmopolitan, antedeluvian or contemporary. Highlight how the telling of a story in itself serves to maintain/challenge the status quo and the supremacy of one over the other, whether it be a gender or a species.
2. Steinbeck';s ";The Chrysanthemums"; and Atwood';s ";Penelopiad"; both underscore the vacillation in the protagonists'; acts and thoughts to fit in and to sustain their prescribed roles. Why do you think Steinbeck introduces Eliza from the third person point of view and Atwood from the first person point of view? How do the double standards and ambiguities in their lives shape their perception?
3. Lorella Zanardo';s documentary ";Il Corpo Delle Donne"; introduces the idea of modern women presented as ‘grotesque'; or ‘vulgar'; in the main stream media. She also refers to the eradication of