Project Brainstorm (Again) / Topic Brainstorm

The 3 possible topics I'm considering for this project are:

- In your project, consider the following: what does this work reflect about its historical, social, political and/or economic context? You may focus on race, class, power, cultural values and beliefs, historical events, the author's biography, gender, psychology, etc.

- Pick a subject: love, work, freedom, etc. Then choose 2 selections and discuss how that subject is discussed in those selections. Use literary devices to help frame your discussion.

- Think about a theme running through your life (failure is the best lesson, love is eternal, etc.). Choose a reading that you think also discusses this theme (even if it reaches different conclusions about it). Explore connections between how the theme plays out in your life and how the theme gets played out in the reading.


I love all three of these topics, so it will definitely be difficult to pick JUST one! I am thinking I will be using some of Emily Dickinson's work, I'm not sure exactly which yet, but I do like her poems and the way she writes. I can easily incorporate her biography, gender and time period into my project, if needed or if that is a route I'd want to talk about. There's also the use of dashes in her poems, that I'd like to somehow incorporate in my project (any suggestions are always welcome!) and also how she seems to capitalize certain words and if that has any significant meaning. There are definitely many things I can incorporate and write about.

If I were to pick a certain subject in Dickinson's writing, I think it would just depend on each individual poem. I could always find a common theme between two poems and compare/contrast them or talk about that particular subject in each poem and how they could possibly tie together. A few common themes I found amongst her poems are love, darkness and death (or so it seemed to me).

A couple themes in my life that I could try to discuss with Dickinson's work is time/time going by fast, love, change/getting used to change. Those are just a few that ideas - not saying I have to use those. I could always go through the poems and see if a theme comes to me and relates to my life somehow.