Seminar Paper (Hausarbeit) Requirements:

1. You may choose a topic from the list on the class blog, or you may develop your own topic in consultation with me.

2. You may write in English or in German -- but don't expect me to comment on your German style. I will be happy to make suggestions about your English, but I will do so only if you specifically ask me to.

3. Your paper should follow normal conventions for format and documentation, which you no doubt know far better than I do.

4. The text of your paper (excluding documentation or illustrations) should be between 2500 and 4000 words long, a length which would mean about 10-15 typed pages.

5. Prepare your paper as a Microsoft Word 2003 document (".doc" format, but not ".docx") or as an ".rtf" (rich text format) document, which can be produced and read by essentially all word processing programs, and send it to me by email. Use the address "rboyd55098@gmail.com," and title your cover email "Seminar Paper."



SOME SAMPLE TOPICS:



Tennessee's Older Women: Amanda, Blanche, Big Momma. Are they convincingly female, or are they women as imagined by a man? What are their goals? How successful are they in achieving them? Should (based on the text) the audience find them sympathetic or not? Why?

Music As a Dramatic Element In Glass Menagerie and Streetcar Named Desire. From the incidental music to Glass Menagerie composed by Williams' friend Paul Bowles to the distorted polka music which accompanies Blanche's exit in Streetcar, music plays an unusually active and forceful part in Williams' dramaturgy. Analyze and describe the music specified in the scripts of both plays, showing how it is used to create moods and to add essential elements of characterization.

Whose Play Is It? Argue, with evidence from the script, from accounts of various productions, and from secondary sources, that the protagonist of Glass Menagerie is Tom, or Amanda or Laura, or that the protagonist of Streetcar Named Desire is Stanley or Blanche or Stella.