Assignment: A “reader response” essay is simply a way for you, as a reader, to respond in writing to a specific issue that troubles, fascinates, enlightens, or illuminates something within your chosen text(s). While I will not give specific provocations (or questions) to you about where to concentrate your writing, I hope to offer many questions and issues during the lectures and class discussions.
My only designations are that you should write about the material that we have read, viewed, and discussed in Units Five and Six. Thus: Perfume and Frankenstein, our readings from Natural Born Celebrities, and any concepts discussed in the discussion sections or lectures within those areas.
Example questions/topics: Compare the motives for killing for Grenouille and Frankenstein’s monster? Both use high culture topics of quest, genre, and archetypes to help us understand this idea–how do they use their literary standpoints to affect us? What is the moral purpose behind reading either of the two novels? Why do the films differ in their visual interpretations of the complex novels? Other ideas could be built from any discussion question in the last two unit’s work.
Specifics: These reader responses should be two-pages in length, double-spaced, with one inch margins, and normal pitch fonts. Longer writing will not garner you a better grade, so use the format to show your precision, focus, and support clearly within the space allowed. The work should be, otherwise in MLA or APA format, with a thesis or argument.
Resources: Your will not be required to use any resources to complete these essays, outside of our classroom text, Natural Born Celebrities or the films under consideration. If you choose to use quotations from any text, however, please use the MLA or APA format for citations.
