Writing #1, Draft (due Monday, 17 Sept) Your assignment is to draft a four-page paper incorporating descriptions and analysis of at least four different "representations" (textual or graphic) of either the Pelican or the Beaver (your choice) for a reader who is completely unfamilar with the material and the emblematic genre, such as a friend in another class, a parent, a sibling. The objectives of this assignment are (1) to synthesize disparate materials in a critical fashion and (2) to practice describing images precisely. (You will incorporate images into your final draft, but your first draft should include only text.) As noted on the schedule, use the following links as your sources and/or starting points for research:
Writing #1, Final (due Monday, 24 Sept) Revise your paper into a final draft after a tutorial conference, attending to the notes and comments you receive. You should add a Works Cited list and insert images into the document. See Citing Your Sources. |
| Writing #2, Draft (due Monday, 1 Oct) Your assignment is to draft a three-page paper on an emblem chosen by "lot" from Wither along with its "lottery" verses. The objective of this assignment is to remind you that in some collections like Wither and R.B., among the elements that could be synthesized in the understanding of an emblem--in addition to the motto or mottoes in English and/or Latin, the appended verses, and the image itself--readers might also have used the lottery verses designed to help them apply the lessons of the emblems to their own situations. The very existence of the lottery and of well-worn copies of these books (sometimes with missing dials, indicating that they had been used and ultimately lost) also reminds us that people really did engage in such a "Morall pasttime" (as Wither calls it), at least sometimes, rather than simply reading the books from cover to cover. Choose an emblem randomly either by mocking up the final page with a dial and following the instructions or by clicking blindly on the table of contents in the web-edition (don't cheat!). In any case, read the directions for the proper use of the lotteries at both the front and back of Wither. Once Fate has chosen your emblem, write a short but detailed analysis of the emblem in all its parts, attending closely to the language of the verses and the details of the image, then discuss how the lottery verses for that emblem might direct or determine a reader's approach to understanding that emblem in a certain way. In other words: what does the lottery verse add to the emblem? How does it alter our understanding of it? Does it close down other possibilities of interpretation? You might consider--and I think that it is safe to assume--that 17th-century readers gathering around to play the lottery probably did not take it all very seriously. No doubt any group of readers then as now would find some of the emblems chosen by chance to be hilarious. You might, therefore, consider whether your emblem might lead to a humorous as well as a serious interpretation. If you wish--depending on the emblem--you might even use yourself as an example: how would interpret the emblem in terms of your own life (or, less personally, how might an imaginary modern reader interpret it)? Such a comparison might indicate how specific the idea seems to be the 17th-century, rather than one that has stood the test of time. not have simply have read an emblem in isolation, but might have tried to understand it in termsanalyze an emblem incorporating descriptions and analysis of at least four different "representations" (textual or graphic) of either the Pelican or the Beaver (your choice) for a reader who is completely unfamilar with the material and the emblematic genre, such as a friend in another class, a parent, a sibling. The objectives of this assignment are (1) to synthesize disparate materials in a critical fashion and (2) to practice describing images precisely. (You will incorporate images into your final draft, but your first draft should include only text.) Writing #2, Final (due Monday, 8 Oct) For your final draft, you will carefully choose an emblem from R.B. (I'll help you do this) that is related in some way to the one in Wither that you drew by lot, and then write two or three more pages on your second emblem in comparison with the first. In some cases, you will be discussing more or less the same emblem; in others, you will have to find one that is thematically related (either similar or opposite) or contains the same objects. In any case, you should try to describe any differences in the method by which the two authors direct readers in their respective lotteries. Revise your paper into a final draft after a tutorial conference. Add a Works Cited list and insert images into the document. See Citing Your Sources. |
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Your assignment is (1) to invent an original allegorical emblem like those that we have analyzed in Peacham following Ripa; (2) to write a brief description of the emblem and its elements, as if for an emblem book (you could use the brief prose passages in Ripa as a model); and (3) to write an analytical paragraph concisely explaining the sources of the elements that you have chosen, especially how those elements functioned in their original emblem and how you may have transformed their application or meaning if you use what Bath calls the "agglomerative" principle of emblem formation. This assignment requires you to put into practice what you have learned from Bath's chapter on Peacham and to think creatively about elements from emblems can be reorganized by emblem writers to express their own ideas. Hints: It seems to me that you generally have two ways of approaching your emblem creation: you can begin with an IDEA and then search through Ripa for the elements to express it; or you can begin with elements that appeal to you in Ripa and then combine them to express an idea. In the first case, you might decide to write about "love" or something more specific like "love at first sight" or "married love" and then assemble the elements that express the attributes that you want to associate with that idea from related (or even apparently unrelated) emblems. (Remember how Peacham transforms the snake and the mirror from Wisdom.) In the second case, you might choose a panther and, say, a snake, as the beginning of emblematizing something about Middlebury College. You may need to sketch your new emblem if it is too difficult to extract the images from Ripa through cutting and pasting. Due Monday, 22 October, in class. |
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Your assignment is write a detailed annotation of a selected emblem in Peacham that discusses: (1) the relation between the emblem and the passage from Basilicon Doron on which it seems to be based (you must identify the passage); (2) the overall meaning of the emblem, including a description of the verses and the image; and (3) anything else in the verses or emblem that seems to require identification (a difficult word, name, or allusion). You may wish to track down references in the margins other than to Basilicon Doron, as you see fit. UNDER CONSTRUCTION |