Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

SLA429S / SLA1408S, Taras Shevchenko, 2008-09

Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3:00 PM in AH 304

Term papers

Term papers are due at the last class, April 9, 2009. No paper will be accepted after that date, since that is also the last day for term work in this semester. Papers are to be 10–12 pages (15–20 for graduate students), typed, double spaced, and in English. Papers may be written on any topic after consultation with the instructor. Listed below are some suggestions for formulating a paper topic. The best topic is always the one that captures your attention, one that you are interested in. So feel free to think of your own.

This assignment is not intended as a research paper but rather as an exercise in interpretation. However, it is important that you at least know the basic facts about any poem or poems you may choose to write about. You should certainly know when and where it was written and you should be familiar with any facts or persons that are addressed in the work. You should not write about ALL of Shevchenko's work, you should choose a specific number of works. For example, if you are writing about any of the major long works, one or two may be sufficient. If you are comparing some shorter poems, you may want to choose a half dozen or ten works. You may also choose to write about the prose works, his other writing, or even his artworks.

Here are some possible topics:

• Choose a particular theme and examine its appearance and variation in a number of works. Some possible themes: faithless boyfriends, gullible women, sexual abuse of women and children, cossack and peasant uprisings, family relations, solitude, forgiveness.

• Examine poems according to their source material, for example, poems based on history, poems based on folkloric motifs, poems based on religious motifs.

• Examine a group of poems written at a particular time and trace common ideas among the poems and compare them to biographical events.

• Examine one of Shevchenko's short stories. Compare it to any similar poems. Examine it's autobiographical significance.

• Give an interpretative reading of one of the major works.

Avoid topics with too wide a sweep. Do not try to establish Shevchenko's role in Ukrainian or world literature. Do not try to prove he is a great poet (or that he is a lousy poet).

Quote poetry either in Ukrainian or in transliteration. If you transliterate, follow the rules posted on the web page.

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