Примерная тематика рефератов

8 Семестр

1. Gothic and Romantic elements in W. Irving’s stories.

2. The role of American revolution in W. Irving’s stories. The analysis of “Rip Van Winkle”.

3. American transcendentalism.

4. Political ideals on W. Whitman’s poetry.

5. “The depth of our common nature” in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

6. The pessimism and tragedy in Melville’s “Pierre”.

7. “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain as a grail of the fundamental equality and universal aspirations of people of all races.

8. Brutal violence in the novels of Jack London.

9. Muckrakers’ works attacking dishonesty in politics and business.

10. Thomas Wolfe’s studies of American morals and values.

11. Nathanael West’s “The Day of the Locust”- an exposition of the shallowness of American society.

12. Anti-fascist motives in the novel “Ship of Fools” by Katherine Porter.

13. Henry Miller’s banned novels.

14. The war as the setting in “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway.

15. The dissipation of the individual in “The Snow of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway.

16. “On the Road” as an autobiographical novel by Jack Kerouac.

17. Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl, and Other Poems” as a violent protest against social injustice.

18. “Them” by Joyce Carol Oates as the exploration of the violent lives of a woman and her son and daughter.

19. “Sexual Politics” by Kate Millett.

20. The blending of realism and black folklore in the novels of Toni Morrison.

21. The artistry of postwar Jewish authors.

22. William Saroyan’s works showing his belief in people’s basic innocence.

23. Kurt Vonnegut as the most popular writer of black humour.

24. Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22”.

25. Kurt Vonnegut. The reflection of the madness in society in his “Cat’s Cradle”

and “Slaughterhouse – Five”.

26. John Barth’s comic symbolism in “Giles Goat-Boy”.

27. A mental hospital as a symbol of the modern world in Ken Kesey’ “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

28. Donald Barthelme’s fairy-tale “Snow White”.

29. The combination of fantasy and reality in “Mumbo Jumbo” and “Flight to Canada” by Ishmael Reed.

30. Racial theme in the “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.

31. Norman Mailer’s “The Executioner’s Song” - an absorbing study of a criminal’s life and execution for murder.

32. “The Painted Bird” by Jerzy Kosinski showing the brutality and terror of World War II.

33. Thomas Pynchon’s experimental fiction.

34. Symbolism and ritual in the works of Sam Shepard.

35. The conflict of the individual in the works of post modernistic writers.

36. Allegories and myths in the works of post modernistic writers.

37. Nonfictional Style in the works of the post modernistic writers.

38. The beat movement.

39. The authors of the ‘theatre of absurd’.

40. A savagely realistic study of marriage in the work of Edward Albee “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”.

41. New playwrights of the post modernistic period.

42. The reflection of Magic Realism in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s "One Hundred Years of Solitude", etc.

43. The pictures of horror in the works of Stephen King.

Формы итогового контроля

Зачет/Экзамен состоит из 2-х частей – устной и письменной.

Письменная часть включает:

• тест на знание теории литературы стран 1-го ИЯ;

• реферат/эссе/сравнительно-сопоставительный анализ 2-х произведений (contrast paper)

(выполняется во время семестра, сроки сдачи: 7 семестр – 25 декабря, 8 семестр – 3 мая)

Устная часть включает:

• раскрытие двух пройденных тем (теоретические вопросы);

• анализ произведения (практический вопрос).