Comparative analysis of two or more complementary film and literary texts
To assess these goals students will write a 3 page argumentative research essay based on a comparative analysis of two or more complementary film and literary texts, including at least one we have studied this semester. Your essay must display an awareness of recent critical commentary on your texts, and must include reference to 6-8 sources, including at least four academic secondary sources retrieved via the University. Your essay must include a research bibliography in addition to the Works Cited list of sources that actually appear in the essay.
Your paper should advance an original argument about one of the following three topics:
1 In his article “Clowns on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” Andrew Stott explains that the clown Grimaldi “extended the idea of face-paint to a white foundation that . . . implied a much stricter division between character and performer than had been presented before” (8-9), and that, later, Grimaldi “made a spectacle of his own unmasked decrepitude” (12). Use at least two examples including one we have studied and one of your own choosing to explore the extent to which the use of the mask is typical of villain figures.
2 Joseph Campbell proposes of Darth Vader in “The Adventure of the Hero” that “He isn’t thinking, or living in terms of humanity, he’s living in terms of a system. And this is the threat to our lives; we all face it; we all operate in our society in relation to a system. Now, is the system going to eat you up and relieve you of your humanity, or are you going to be able to use the system to human purposes?” Show how at least two complementary fictional figures (including one we have studied and one of your own choosing) represent the villain as one dehumanized or “othered” by a social system.
3 In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell suggests that “the hero, whether god or goddess, man or woman . . . discovers and assimilates his opposite (his own unsuspected self) either by swallowing it or being swallowed” (89). Show how at least two complementary fictional figures (including one we have studied and one of your own choosing) represent the villain in these terms.
Satisfactory demonstration of this outcome requires a score of 3 or higher in each category of the assignment rubric.
4 The Villein’s territory is the border between the chaos of organic nature and the machineries of order. Show how at least two complementary fictional figures (including one we have studied) represent the villain either as a destroyer of nature or as the revenge of nature on the civilized.
word limit:880