Third and Last Short Essay Assignment

As you know, I had planned to have you write four short essays as half of your course project grade (2.5 X 4=10). However, we have run out of time and energy for such ambitions. So I will ask you to make one more post. Then from the three postings you have made, I will take the highest grade and give it to you as the fourth grade.
This means that if you are satisfied with the grade that you received on at least one of the first three posts, then you don't need to do anything. However, if you wish a higher grade, you can do one of the following:
1. Revise an existing post to get a higher grade (easiest option)
2. Write a new post in the hopes of getting a higher grade. This is perhaps a good option if you didn't write one of the three earlier posts. PLEASE NOTE YOU CAN ONLY WRITE ONE NEW POST TO REPLACE ONE YOU DIDN'T WRITE. If you missed more than one of the first three posts, then it's too late to make them up.

OK...

So, for your final post, I'd like you to write about one of the following topics:

KAFKA TOPIC
1. Choose a Kafka parable and write a response that explores the different ways that it can be interpreted. As the materials I provided you with indicate, these parables are notoriously difficult to explain. One reason for this is that Kafka viewed the modern world as absurd and nonsensical, and perhaps even meaningless. Another reason is that he was very interested in how people living in such an absurd world still manage to find meaning, create art and live their lives...

So, your short essay should show how the parable you have chosen can be read in several different ways. Ideally, you should also be able to argue that these different ways of reading are not compatible, since they require adopting a certain point of view, which excludes other readings. Of course we can adopt many different points of view and create many different interpretations, but the parable will never have one single unified meaning.

You might wish to think about our reading of "Give it up!" as an example, but you should write about a different parable, since we talked so much about that one in class.

OR

HISTORY/MEMORY TOPIC
If you like, you can write about the film we viewed in class, La Jetée, and/or the associated readings by Kierkegaard and Benjamin.
Here you will have to focus on one aspect of the relationship between the study of history and memory. We have of course over the course of the semester been studying the past, and the purpose of this study is to help us understand some of the ideas and ways of thinking, feeling, and perceiving the world that define our modern present.
But La Jetée and the readings I gave you about it suggest that understanding the past and remembering are not such simple or easy tasks. Not only may our personal memories be inaccessible, confused, and uncertain, marked by trauma, but the collective memory that is history may also seem to us devoid of any real order or meaning. Recall Macbeth's speech after the death of Lady Macbeth, where he looks upon his life and life in general as "a tale / told by an idiot, full of sound and fury / signifying nothing." (5.5.26-28).
Considering the history of Western Civilization from the point of view of the 20th and 21st centuries, where humanity has reached new heights of technological achievement, but also new heights of murderous barbarism, with the exploitation and mass murder of huge numbers of people, evaluate what sense we can make of history. Are there some lessons that we can find to guide us in the materials that we have read?

Do you think that it is truly impossible to stop the mounting catastrophe of destruction that Benjamin's angel of history sees growing every day? What would it take to do so? If you were able to travel in time, do you think you could make a difference in either the past or future of humanity? Would this be without danger?
Please give specific examples from one or more of the works we have read to support your argument.

OR

CREATIVE TOPIC: WRITE YOUR OWN PARABLE

Finally, if you are feeling inventive, you might wish to write your own parable. It can be about anything, but try to follow either Kafka's or Benjamin's example so that your parable suggests something about either human history or some absurdities in the way we live our lives today.

Remember, one of the keys to the success of Kafka's parables is to make the story very simple and not to give us any real insight into the motivations and inner worlds of the characters. If your parable is successful, then it should be somewhat puzzling and ambiguous, and capable of being interpreted in multiple ways.

This assignment is due Tuesday, March 3 at 19:00. Remember, as always, you must also make a constructive comment on another of your group member's essays. This comment is due on Wednesday by the 12:00 (noon).