descuss How does the narrative prompt us to understand and to assess these mens propensity to violence, will to power, and (or) their courting of risk?

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Take-Home Midterm Essay Topics

Instructions: Select one of the prompts below and write a 4-5 page essay (typed, double-spaced, 12 point font, one inch margins). The questions in each prompt are designed to launch your thinking about the narrative(s) on which you decide to write. As I noted in a discussion prompt recently, good questions are those to which we dont already know the answer and some of the questions below are interesting because they are legitimately difficult to answer. So your essay need not necessarily decide these questions — arrive at a definitive answer. But you will want to unpack them: to show how and why they are important in these narratives and how they provoke you to further thought on the topic.

Please bear in mind that, while you can and should feel free to summarize general aspects of plot, all your claims about how to interpret these materials should be grounded in citations: these can be passages from the novel, quoted dialogue from the comic or the films, copied/scanned panels from the comic, or still shots from the films.

ESSAYS ARE DUE AT THE TIME OF THE IN-CLASS MIDTERM.

All the narratives we have encountered thus far (with the exception of Zombieland) see the survivors of the apocalypse salvaging and (or) remaking the space of the home: whether the fortified Los Angeles bungalow, the well-stocked home-in-the-mall, the repurposed prison, or, for that matter, the Governors dwelling, complete with recliner and zombie-head TV. Compare the construction of home in any two of these narratives. (If one of your selected narratives is The Walking Dead, you can chose which of the homes represented to use as a comparator.) What of the vanished society is preserved in these spaces? Conversely, what new relations (to resources, commodities, or people) are reflected in these homes? What orientation to their past, present, and possible futures does the survivors construction of home suggest?

In Dawn of the Dead, a style of aggressive, hyper-masculinity, as exemplified by Rogers daredevil tactics or Stephens assault on the invading gang, appears to be a hindrance to survival. In The Walking Dead, however, several such hyper-masculine figures, such as Rick, Tyreese, the Governor, and Martinez, emerge as leaders in their groups, and claim their superior competence to secure a future. Zombieland features an unhinged gunslinger, shooting up the wilds of a post-apocalyptic United States. Compare the representation of this hyper-masculinity in any two of these narratives. (In narratives that feature multiple such figures, you will probably want to select one of these characters to center in your discussion.) How does the narrative prompt us to understand and to assess these mens propensity to violence, will to power, and (or) their courting of risk? Does this hyper-masculinity render them more or less adaptable to the conditions of their post-apocalyptic worlds? Why?

To date, all the narratives we have discussed problematize the distinction between (living) humans and zombies (or, vampires, in I Am Legend). On the one hand, the zombies represent the loss of everything we imagine ourselves to be: our identity; our self-awareness (or, consciousness). They exist in a condition of social death. On the other hand, in every one of these narratives, the reader (or viewer) is prompted to see how the zombie is a metaphor for the human: As Peter remarks in Dawn of the Dead, theyre us. Select one of these narratives and explore the relation of humans to zombies: How are the zombies represented? (What drives them? How do they function?) How do the human characters perceive the zombies and, crucially, how does their understanding of the zombie affect their strategies for survival and their relations to each other? Is the zombie always and only a nightmare vision of the human? In the world of your narrative, is there any reason to imagine embracing a zombie existence?

If only because of the studios re-edit of Romeros classic film (in the directors cut, Fran and Peter die, as well), all four of our narratives to date envision some form of continuation: a future that might not be about simply waiting to die. Neville willingly swallows the poison, expecting to endure as legend; Peter and a pregnant Fran fly away from the zombie-infested mall; Columbus and his acquired family hit the road; while in the world of The Walking Dead, small communities experiment with ways of settled life adapted to the rule of death. Pick one or two of these narratives (your choice whether to focus on a single narrative, or to compare) and discuss what it is that sustains hope for some (if not all) of the surviving protagonists. What relations to other people, objects, social norms, or habits of self-discipline make it possible for the protagonists to rediscover a degree of pleasure in their world of something worth affirming?

The Walking Dead is arguably the first narrative we\’ve encountered this quarter in which life after the apocalypse seems preferable to some of the characters\’ than what came before. As Axel suggests in his conversation with Tyreese, one possible reason for this has to do with the breakdown of old institutions in his case, the prison and the social death it imposed on him. However, other characters seem to cling to their former lives and their relation to power and/or privilege pre-apocalypse. Rick and Shane describe themselves as officers of the law even with no law left to speak of, while Lori shuts down Carols interest in making new rules by affirming her small-town Kentucky values (even though small town Kentucky is, literally, dead). Focusing on either The Walking Dead or Zombieland, or both (again, you choice whether to write on one narrative or to compare the two) consider what the narrative(s) suggest(s) about the possibility of building new worlds post-apocalypse? What are some of the challenges and possibilities in finding new ways of doing things, or new rules to live and govern by? What problematic aspects of the old world carry over? What does TWD and/or Zombieland suggest about the attraction of life in the zombie apocalypse, the characters to whom it appeals, and the reasons why?

choose the last topic
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