Creative Project Assignment

Write up a prospectus for your project and submit it to the instructor by email at least two weeks before you plan to complete the project. Include title and short description of what you plan to do and how it will be inspired by and supply an interpretation of a text we've read. Be as specific as you can.

The project itself should be accompanied by a statement of about one page explaining its significance and its relationship to the readings in the course, including short citations from texts we've read.

Group performance projects are encouraged. If you select one of these, try to arrange to present it at the relevant class. Confer with instructor two weeks before the performance for suggestions and feedback.

Some possible projects

1. An original emblem--graphic, motto and poem--with visual and verbal references to materials in the reading.

2. An artifact or prop that takes on symbolic meaning from its use in a text--e.g. Utopian toilet, Stephano's bottle, the silver cup Joseph planted in Benjamin's pack.

3. Performance of a Renaissance or original musical setting of an early modern poem.

4. A website devoted to a single work read in the class, including the text, critical and historical materials, paintings or other visuals and music--in the style of Luminarium.

5. An architectural model or drawing of a location described in one of the readings--e.g. the Tabernacle in Exodus, Prospero's Island, the city of Pandaemonium in Paradise Lost

6. A series of photographs literally or symbolically illustrating passages from one of the works read.

7. A drawn or painted or sculpted portrait of a character in one of the works.

8. A dramatic or fictional scene closely based on a narrative or poem or the life of one of the authors studied in the class.

9. A performance of a scene from Tamburlaine or The Tempest other than those presented to the class.

10. A dramatization of the seduction scenes in Paradise Lost --live or on videotape

11. A comic strip version of one of our books, including Biblical books.

12. An illuminated map of the world of one of the works: e.g. Babylon, Egypt and Canaan, Prospero's Island, Utopia, Milton's cosmos.

13. A calligraphed or decorated edition of a text or texts studied in the class.