Write a dialogue between yourself (or a fictional alter ego) and a major character from The Plague.
Option One Existentialist Monologue
Writing in the first person and modeling your tone on Tarrou’s (“I, anyhow, have had the plague…”), create a monologue that tells your story from your perspective and thus asserts your subjectivity in an world without pre-given meaning — an existentialist world. Start with a snappy opening statement, as Tarrou does, and interweave your philosophy with your story. Feel free to make this fictional!
INCLUDE: At the end of your monologue, include a brief analytical discussion, pointing out how your piece imitates the style of The Plague. Be as specific as possible. This analytical discussion counts as part of your total 3 to 4 pages; you will need page numbers and a Works Consulted for this part only.
Option Two Philosophical Dialogue
Write a dialogue between yourself (or a fictional alter ego) and a major character from The Plague. Like key scenes in The Plague, (and like the Phaedrus from early Fall), your dialogue should deal with some philosophical or historical event, theme, or issue; in other words it should develop one specific topic rather than wandering from one topic to the next without development. Probably this means at least some of the speeches will be a paragraph or more in length. You are free to use your imagination to take your chosen character beyond the ends of his actual plots, or to confront him with new information not provided by Camus. But your dialogue should also show off your insight into this character, as written by Camus. Please use parenthetical citations to signal references to the text of The Plague.
Option Three Two-Text Dialogue
Write a dialogue between two fictional characters from two different texts from our syllabus this year. (Do not write a dialogue between authors, or mix authors with characters, unless you get approval from me.) Like the Phaedrus, your dialogue should deal with some philosophical or historical event, theme, or issue; in other words it should develop one specific topic rather than wandering from one topic to the next without development. Probably this means at least some of the speeches will be a paragraph or more in length. You are free to use your imagination to take the characters beyond the ends of their actual plots, or to confront them with new information not provided by their authors. But your dialogue should also show off your insight into these characters, as written by their authors, and into the texts from which they spring.
Include a scene-setting introduction in italics; a concluding comment in italics; in-text citations for specific references (no quotations necessary); and a List of Works Consulted. Note that you will be using citations not to avoid plagiarism, but to help me give you credit for developing ideas from the two texts. Speeches are single-spaced with an extra line between speeches, as in a play.
