Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author

INSTRUCTIONS:

All essay topics must come from our syllabus readings. For the essays you will write, you must use any one of four approaches:
1) a standard, formal literary analysis of one of our readings, written in third person; this approach would apply to short story or play analysis, such as a character study or thematic study; OR
2) a paper that relates an idea or topic from our reading to its contemporary relevance; in this paper, about 50% of the paper should deal with our reading and the other 50% with the contemporary cultural relevance; OR
3) a paper that explores a connection (subject matter, theme, character comparison, etc.) between two of our readings; OR
4) a personal essay that will explore connections between a reading and your own personal beliefs or experiences (emotional, psychological, spiritual, social/cultural).

Choices:

Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author
1. How is the theme of appearance versus reality presented in the play?
2. How is the theme of the difficulty of authentic communication presented in the play?
3. How are problems of identity (Who am I?)(One’s identity is ambiguous, not fixed.) presented?
4. Discuss the “play within a play” concept. Where does the “real” play begin?
5. How does the Father defend his claim that fictional characters are truer than “real” characters?
6. How do you explain the ending of the play?
Freud, from Future of an Illusion and from Civilization and Its Discontents
1. What does Freud say about civilization and what it must be built on?
2. What does Freud say about aggression?
3. How does Freud explain the need for the use of force in society?
4. How does Freud explain a society’s need for enemies?
Weber, “The Protestant Ethicand the Spirit ofCapitalism”
1. What does Weber say civilization should provide for human beings?
2. What is Weber’s view of capitalism?
3. What would be today’s metaphoric parallel to Weber’s “iron cage”?
Spengler, from The Decline of the West
1. What does Spengler say is the difference between culture and civilization?
2. What is the connection or relationship between imperialism and civilization?
3. What question does Spengler raise about religion?
Valery, “Crisis of the Mind”
1. According to Valery, how are civilizations measured?
2. What is Valery’s view of European civilization before and after World War I?
Encyclopedia Britannica, “Civilization”
1. How does Britannica’s view of civilization compare to other views we’ve read?
Porter, “Flowering Judas”
1. What advantages and disadvantages does Laura get from her friendship with Braggioni?
2. What sets Laura apart from all the people she habitually deals with?
3. How has the author related past times and events to the present action of a single evening?
4. In what ways has Laura’s Catholic background prepared her present attitudes as a revolutionary?
5. In what ways is the dream at the end a resolution for a person like Laura?

Orwell, from The Prevention of Literature
1. Relate one or more of Orwell’s claims to contemporary society. Do you note any evidence of totalitarianism in American society? Any institutional or governmental misuse of language? Any evidence of journalists and writers today censoring themselves?
2. Orwell says that poetry is one literary form that is least censorable? Why would it be so?
Sartre, Being and Nothingness
1. What does Sartre mean when he says, in regards to freedom, responsibility, and absence of authority, that “nothing is permitted”?
2. Discuss what Sartre says about freedom of choice and the impossibility of not choosing. How does the essential self come into being? What does Sartre mean by the French terms en-soi and pour-soi?
Arendt, from Organized Guilt and Universal Responsibility
1. According to Arendt, how did the Nazis “convince” the German people to accept their political policies and program?
2. What is the “mob man,” and how did he come into being? Does he exist today?
3. Why does Arendt say she is ashamed of being human?
Camus, “The Guest”
1. Why is the remote setting important in this story? How does it confirm Daru’s isolation?
2. Why does Balducci think he can leave the prisoner with Daru? Why does Daru say he will not take him?
3. Why does Daru give the prisoner the opportunity to escape? Why does the prisoner do what he does?
4. In what ways is the Arab prisoner treated as a guest by Daru? In what ways is Daru a guest in the Arab’s land, Algeria?
5. How can this story be seen as an expression of Camus’s personal position on the Algerian War situation?
Wright, “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”
1. What does Dave think makes a man a man? Why would he think this?
Bachman, “The Barking”
1. Describe some ways Bachman characterizes the husband Leo. What adds to the picture of this character?
2. What is “the Barking,” literally and figuratively?
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