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The Final Exam (Paper #3): Writing to Feel



In Jean Rhys’ essay, “The Bible is Modern,” she writes, “It is a great crime to feel intensely about anything in England, because if the average Englishman felt intensely about anything, England as it is could not exist; or, certainly, the ruling class in England could not continue to exist. Thus you get the full force of a very efficient propaganda machine turned on the average Englishman from the cradle to the grave, warning him that feeling intensely about anything is a quality of the subject peoples, or that it is old-fashioned, or that it is not done, or something like that.”

Q: For your ‘Final’ paper, I want you to discuss how both Rhys and Mansfield are writing works that are trying to get people to feel deeply about other people, social situations, and even themselves. How are both authors using literature to break down the class structure, and place disenfranchised people (servants, women, former slaves, etc.) front and center in the narrative? While we could argue that everyone from Wollstonecraft to Brontë did this to some extent, what makes Rhys and Mansfield’s works somewhat revolutionary? How do they even write differently, in a way geared to make us “feel intensely” and resist the “efficient propaganda machine”? In other words, how are they using literature less as a means of entertainment or even education, and more as a kind of self-therapy for people who are deeply wounded by their own society and upbringing? In answer this prompt, you might ask yourself, 'who would most benefit from reading these stories? What kind of person?' 

Use at least 2 stories from Mansfield in conjunction with at least one significant passage from Wide Sargasso Sea. Imagine that this is the kind of essay you would write in-class during a Final Exam, so you don’t have to make it extremely polished or use secondary sources (unless you want to ). Instead, write it off-the-cuff, using both books, but see where your thoughts and feelings take you. I encourage you to just sit down, give yourself thirty minutes, and write whatever comes to you. I will not grade this like a polished essay, but rather, as a rough exploration of a central theme/idea.

REQUIREMENTS
  • 2 Mansfield Stories, at least 1 passage from Rhys
  • Quote and cite properly: introduce quotations and cite with the page # at the end.
  • At least 3-4 pages double spaced
  • Due NO LATER than Friday, May 8th by 5pm (though you can turn it in earlier)
Good luck and please e-mail with questions! Look over your response questions and feel free to use them verbatim in your essay! It’s all pre-writing! J

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