In 50 minutes of class time, write a carefully-argued, well-structured essay on one of the following topics. Remember that these are suggested topics, and they need to be narrowed and focused in your actual paper. Remember, too, that you need to established a focused, coherent thesis at the outset of your essay: what is the main point you want to make? Make sure that you quote relevant examples from the texts you choose, and that you pay attention to the relationships between form and content, or structure and meaning. Please print off a copy of these topics on a sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 paper; you may write notes on this sheet and bring it with you to the in-class essay; you must turn in this topics sheet with your essay. You may not copy out your essay; you must write the essay in the class time provided. This is an open-book exercise; you may bring your textbooks and course-packet with you and refer to them during the writing. Please write your essay double-spaced on the paper provided.

1. Many of the texts we have read focus on appearance or image. With direct reference to two of the texts on the course syllabus, discuss the creation and interpretation of appearances. How is human perception put at issue in these texts?

2. A number of the non-fictional works we have read are concerned with identity. How are social or cultural identities investigated in two of the texts on the course syllabus?

3. Many of the images and texts we have encountered focus on the tensions between the national and the global. How is a sense of belonging -- in a community or to a place -- investigated in two of the works on the course syllabus? How are cultural boundaries either produced or broken down?

4. The texts we have read and the films and images we have seen all encounter various forms of media and mediation. With direct reference to two works on the course syllabus, discuss the depiction and the critique of mass media or of other forms of mediation.