Part I: This prompt should be a minimum of 100 words (a good-sized paragraph).
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Part I: This prompt should be a minimum of 100 words (a good-sized paragraph).
For discussion post prompts in which you focus on reading from assigned critical or scholarly texts, your prompt should include:
*a title for your post (this is a good place to try out a fun title for potential papers);
*A brief (1-3 sentence) paraphrase of the critical reading’s primary argument;
*a key word or concept on which you will focus;
any explanation of how you arrived at this key word, set-up, framing, or follow-up these questions require to make your question clear for your readers;
page numbers or passages that might anchor or enrich discussion; and
*1-2 strong interpretive questions focused on a specific keyword or set of textual echoes.
*At the start of the prompt, write the keyword or concept you are tracking and capitalize it. Note: writing good discussion prompts is hard work because they should lead to strong interpretive questions. It often requires you to do a lot of analysis in advance, as you’ll see from the models below.
Example: Here are some brief models for the body of a discussion post (neither of which are texts in this course):
[on Aristotle’s De Memoria Et Reminiscentia]
*Animals: Although there were many things in Aristotle’s De Memoria Et Reminiscentia that I found interesting and thought provoking, nothing stuck with me more than his assertion that memory only belongs to animals with a perception of time. On page 29, he states that “Only those animals which can perceive the time-lapse can remember.” What exactly does Aristotle mean by his use of the word “animals”? Does he mean that his concept of memory applies to simpler life forms, or can it belong only to complex organisms? Why might this matter? And in what ways is Aristotle’s understanding of animal life problematic for our current understanding of memory?
[on D. R. Fearon’s “Girls’ Grammar Schools”]
*Education: We see many references in Fearon’s piece on women’s schooling to doubts in the minds of his contemporaries regarding the mental ability of women to handle schooling. Indeed, he finds “natural feminine ardour and impetuosity” to be serious drawbacks when it comes to the intellectual burden placed upon women’s “untrained mental faculties” (Fearon 339). While he does subsequently place an emphasis on the lack of accessibility to physical exercise greatly contributing to that mental fatigue, he does not criticize men’s faculties with the same fervor, and dismisses games generally associated with women (such as croquet) as “too desultory, and [requiring] too little organization” (Fearon 340). Given the liberal air of Fearon’s criticisms for the period, what does that say about the general opinion of women’s intellectual abilities in Victorian England?
Part 2:
This analysis should be a minimum of 100 words (a good-sized paragraph). You do not have to answer all of the following questions. I recommend you focus on one or two.
*According to Looser, why is Austen still relevant? And how has Austen “adapted” to remain so?
*Why is it unlikely that one “bad” adaptation of Austen would “snuff out” interest in her novels? And on the other hand, if her work does “die out,” what does Looser think might cause that?
*What are some of the many forms of adaptation that Looser discusses? Were any of these surprising to you? If so, why?
*What is the “arena” in which Austen has changed the most over the years, according to Looser? And why has it changed in that location or institutional setting the most?
*According to Looser, what are some ways that Austen’s writing has been used in education? How did the use of Austen’s books in educational settings contribute to Austen’s popularity and readership?
*What connections can you make between educational uses of Austen’s work and Grogan’s question about whether we should categorize Austen as elite reading or pop culture?
