Explications and Creative Responses

According to your syllabus, you have an explication due next Wednesday (February 23), and a creative response assignment due on March 9th.  We do not have class on Monday, February 21st, for Presidents' Day.  And, I have been very slow in getting things back to you.  SO, this is what I propose.

Please turn in your second explication by March 2nd.  You may turn in your creative response at any time between next week and the final class day, March 14th.  I will take rewrites of first explications until the last class day. 
Please do NOT write exclusively on the same text for the creative response and for the second explication. (You must show that you have read/understood several pieces.)

For the explication: You may write on anything we have read since Paradise Lost. The expectations for this explication are the same as for the first--so I refer you back there for instructions.

For the creative assignment: You have a few choices.

1. Write a dialogue between 3 or 4 of the writers that we have read this term. Provide them with a context (why are they all gathered together); a topic or topics of conversation; and have each character speak in the voice that you think best represents him/her.

2. Retell or explain a text for an audience of 6-year-olds. You can do this in any form that you like. You may illustrate, if you like. (So, think about "Essay on Man" for 6-year-olds. Or a retelling of The Castle of Otranto C'mon. You can have fun with this one.)

3. Write a letter in the voice of a particular character asking for advice about a problem he/she might be having (based the problem on something you have read). Then, write thoughtful advice back to the character. (What should he or she do/do differently?)

4. Pick a character or writer from the class so far. Write diary entries that represent the character's secret, personal responses to the events in the novel or in their period of history. Entries should be consistent with the portrayal of the character in the novel.
5. Write a book review of Gulliver's Travels or The Castle of Otranto or The Vindication of the Rights of Woman. You can write it as if you are reviewing the book now, or try to write it as if you are reviewing it when it was published. Think carefully about your audience and its expectations.

These seem like "fun" activities, but remember that I am going to be reading them to see how well you have read the pieces that you are using as background. Try to emulate voice, think about the historical position of the characters/writers, weave in contemporary events and preoccupations.

These should be 4 or 5 pages, unless you really get going. I'll read as much as you will write.