Instructions
Choose one of the following topics, and write a 2500 word (eight-ten pages) research essay. A research essay differs from other kinds of assignment, such as the passage analysis, in that you are expected to develop your thesis with reference to the secondary criticism that is relevant to your topic and/or text.
You will be expected to use at least two secondary sources, and to choose these sources carefully. Are these sources reputable? Were they authored by acknowledged experts in their field? Were they published in respected academic journals or by a university press? Furthermore, are these sources truly germane to the topic or text to be studied, that is to say, do they address the issues that are at the centre of your argument? In order to identify which two sources are most relevant to your topic, you may, of course, have to consult many more books and articles than you end up using.
Books and articles from reputable academic presses can be found using the Omni facility available at the home page of the Western Libraries Website: https://www.lib.uwo.ca/. You will want to filter the results by selecting “Peer-Reviewed Journals” filter on the left. I strongly suggest that you use the MLA International Bibliography, the most authoritative aggregator for peer-reviewed scholarship in literary studies. You can find it here. In general, avoid non-academic internet sources–Google isnt always your friend!
You should use secondary sources to help support an argument you would like to make, or to highlight what is distinctive or different about your argument. In either case, remember that the essay must be your own; it should not be simply a summary of the articles and books you consult.
Be sure that all citations conform strictly to the MLA Style for parenthetical citations followed by a list of works cited. A good online guide to the MLA method can be found here.
Topics:
1. Choose ONE text from the course syllabus and discuss its relationship to the literary genre to which it belongs. Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, for example, could be studied in terms of the gothic, Asimovs I, Robot and Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous as science fiction, Dicks Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? as a postmodern novel, or Gibsons Neuromancer as a cyberpunk novel. How does an understanding of the literary conventions commonly associated with this genre help us to better understand the text? Are there ways in which it deviates from these conventions, and, if so, how do these deviations compel us to reconsider the genre to which it belongs?
2. Our course has identified several distinct varieties of artificial life, including the monster, the robot, the android, the cyborg, and the digital assistant Choose TWO of these figures, and with reference to TWO texts from the course syllabus, compare and contrast how they are presented by the different authors. What are their constituent features, and what kinds of philosophical, political, and cultural problems do they pose for the humans who confront them? How are they different and how are they similar?
3. Choose ONE text from the course syllabus and discuss the representation of gender. What role do women play in this text? What role do the men? Do they conform to traditional notions of how men and women ought to behave and act, or do they challenge such conceptions? You may wish to focus on one gender or the other.
4. With reference to TWO texts from the course syllabus, compare and contrast the ways in which these authors represent nature and the natural world. What cultural values are associated with nature, and how are these values aligned or contrasted with those of technology, science, and the manufactured world? Is the figure of the monster, the robot, the android, et al., a product of nature or a threat to its future?
5. Many of the texts that we have studied show humans involved in intimate and complex relationships with artificial forms of life. With reference to ONE text from the course syllabus, discuss the ways in which human non-human intimacy is described, and how such relations compel both the humans and the non-humans to reconsider what it means to work with, love, or belong to another.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this assignment, please feel free to raise them during your tutorials, or to visit with either me or your Teaching Assistant during his or her office hours, or if those times are not convenient, feel free to contact us to make alternative arrangements.
When submitting your assignment please note the following:
1. Submit only one attachment
2. Only use file types: Word, PDF, HTML, RTF, or plain text (Word files are
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