For Monday, September 9

WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT:

Select the topic for your Kafka essay.  Below you will find a copy of your assignment sheet which contains several suggestions.  You could also look at the questions at the end of the story in your textbook for some ideas.

 

Once you have chosen your idea, begin gathering evidence:

Required:

Step 1:  Mark every place in the story where your topic can be found.  Highlight the scene/quote and then decide what it says about your topic.

Step 2:  Think about the outside sources you might use for this essay:  a second short story, a Kafka poem, Kafka's biography, or the era in which the story was written.

Optional:

Step 3:  If you have time, you might read or look at the secondary sources to see if you can use them.

Step 4:  Write a thesis.

 

TEMPLATES FOR THESIS:

In Franza Kafka's The Metamorphosis, he explores the condition of the modern man through the transformation of Gregor Samsa into a "monstrous vermin".

Here:  I would look at each stage of Gregor's transformation and compare it to the modern man's feeling of powerlessness.

So a template:

In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, he _____________ the __________________________________ through _____________________________________.

Choices for that last blank?  characterization, plot, theme, imagery, humor, etc.

 

 

Copy of your handout.

 

The Metamorphosis Essay Assignment

Kafka's The Metamorphosis strikes me as a particularly well-chosen novel for the Penn Reading Project, and I say this not only because the adult life into which you are entering will inevitably have its kafkaesque moments. Rather, with its exploration of identity, of belonging and exclusion, of tolerance and intolerance, The Metamorphosis raises many questions for people like you, students who are facing a time of transition and transformation. Of course, my hope is that your education at Penn (you can think Covenant) will not transform you into beetles, but into less earth-bound creatures. Nonetheless, the tale of the unfortunate Gregor Samsa can make us think more deeply about our own identity, about the fluidity of what we take to be stable and fixed, and about the perils and miracles of our own metamorphosis.  (Breckman)

http://www.upenn.edu/nso/prp/met/breckman_lecture.html

Essay Requirements:

·         You choose your own topic.

father-son relationship, family relationships, displacement/ isolation, the modern man, human condition, the nature of sacrifice, all transformations within the story, the plight of the artist, voice and power

·         1000-1200 word (exactly…no less/no more))

·         A balance of detailed examples (embedded quotes), explanations, and structural fluidity

·         Minimal use of “to be” verbs and helping verbs (maybe 5 for the essay)

·         Adding outside resources or additional Kafka short stories into your writing will give your essay added academic weight; therefore, “A” papers will probably include one or both of these. DO NOT RESEARCH WHAT OTHER LITERARY ANALYSTS SAY ABOUT THE METAMORPHOSIS IN PARTICULAR; STICK WITH KAFKA BACKGROUND, HISTORICAL RELEVANCE, AND/OR FAVORITE THEMES.  “A” papers that only include The Metamorphosis will be so spectacularly written that I will be weeping at their beauty as I grade them.

·         A bonus of 5 points will be given to all papers that include an artistic rendering (artwork must match your essay’s theme)

 

FINAL DRAFT DUE DATE:  BOP~18/19 SEPTEMBER 2013

ROUGH DRAFT DUE DATE:  11 SEPTEMBER 2013