College Comparative Literature Essay Topics
1. College Comparative Prompt
Read James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist and Samuel Selvon's The Lonely Londoners. Choose a common theme such as sexuality, religion, isolation or patriotism. How do the different books treat the theme and what conclusions do they come to on the subject?
2. Literary Criticism Writing Prompt
Read Percy Bysshe Shelley's A Defence of Poetry. What does he mean when he says that poets are the "unacknowledged legislators of the world"? Apply his thesis to his own poem Mont Blanc. How does his essay change or enhance the effect of this poem?
3. College Comparative Topic
Read Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote and Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote. How is satire and hyperbole used in each of these novels and what are the effects? Do the two novels reach the same conclusions about romantic delusions, or are they different? How do gender roles affect the different protagonists?
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Index of Writing Prompts