Prof. Bruce Harvey

PAPER POSSIBILITIES

Irving's "Rip": the story if about Rip, but what if were told from his wife's vantage point.  A feminist critique of the story would argue that. . . .

Melville's "Bartleby": the story is not about Bartleby.  It is about the narrator.

Dickinson's poetry: absence . . . .

Poe's stories: think about the multiple dimensions of "interiority" in one Poe story, but use other Poe stories to provide an initial context for your analysis.

Douglass's autobiography:  find the passage in which Douglass talks about the sad singing of the slaves going back and forth from the "big house." He mentions being "inside" or "outside" of the circle.  A WHOLE paper could emerge out of this scene, using the technique of brainstorming around this passage and then finding earlier and later passages that relate to it.