Final Essay Topics and General Plans for End of Semester

Hello Everyone:  You have been a GREAT class.  It was a pleasure to work with you.  Here is our final schedule and below I have listed topics for the final essay that we developed together in class.

Submit final essay on Tuesday August 4 between 10 and 11am in our classroom, C713.

For extra credit (optional) submit either original poem, poem of someone else (identified) with analysis of its relevance to a course theme, or analysis of film screened, Losing Isaiah--also on August 4. (Or you may post this on blog here.)

You may come by my office (E103N) on Thursday August 6 between 11am and 2pm to receive your grade and review your final essay.

Final Essay on Coetzee’s Disgrace

  In your final essay for The Novel (English 260), please respond to one of the following topics we have discussed in class.  You may also develop a topic of your own if it is approved during our final class discussion of topics on July 28.

Remember to develop a clear thesis (claim) in your opening paragraph and to provide strong supporting evidence from the text.  Extra credit if you use at least one of the secondary sources we discussed or one you find on your own through the JStor search we reviewed. Please use MLA format for all documentation.

Here are topics we discussed in class (credit given to your topics):

1.     The role of dogs in the novel: how is David Lurie changed by them?  What specific qualities do the dogs have that are significant?  David and Lucy alternate in behaving "like a dog": what is meaning of this? (Ricardo)

2.     The roles (and possible symbolism) of animals throughout the novel—their identification with specific characters.

3.     The role of Petrus in the novel: reversal of power structure—what he seeks; what he gains.

4.     David Lurie’s evolution as a character: from eros to agape to caritas: how do we see this and what is Coetzee suggesting about love, forgiveness?

5.     David Lurie’s connection to Lucifer as described in the novel via the Byron poem, “Lara,: “an erring spirit.” (Julien)

6.     “To be a subject is to be subjected, exposed to the bruising demand of the other” (Levinas quoted in Eagleton 223).  How does this idea fit what happens to either David or Lucy or both?

7.     Lucy functions as a scapegoat/martyr for white, post-apartheid South Africa. (Leah)

8.     David Lurie's assumptions about other characters in the novel are a way of convincing himself that he is in control of his identity, even his mortality. (Niko)