English project -- please help?

Question

Alright, I have an English project that's dubbed 'Multi-genre Research Paper'. My teacher hasn't given us the full details in order not to overwhelm the class, but the basis so far is that we need to read at least four books that are, of course, different genres.

The first book I have chose is Dante's Inferno. I'm a little confused about the theme, due to multiple websites that have different opinions. Some say it's philosophical with religion and what not while others say it's just allegorical with pure historical context.

If I was going to assume Inferno is a philosophical etc piece, I need three other books that have similar ideals or themes.

My teacher gave me two recommendations-- Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis and Letters from the Earth by Twain. I have no idea if these are suitable books.

There has to be a 'guiding question' for all the books such as 'how does feminism effect todays female protagonists?' Basically anything can be the question and I'm at a loss of what mine should be.

Bottom line, what should relate to Inferno and what should be the guiding question for the project?

Answer 1

Dante's Inferno is an allegory. For the kind of project your teacher is assigning you, you should rely on more trusted sources than multiple websites. Unless a cite has academic credence, don't let it influence you.



All three of those works have similar themes, so your teacher isn't wrong. Are you asking how to argue with your teacher, or are you asking how to do your own critical analysis, or are you asking for us to regurgitate your idea? Because if you're doing a multi-genre project and you've chosen The Inferno as the first work, that locks you into options for both other works and suggested topics. Your best bet on a guided question would be "how does the author's understanding of both the supernatural and the afterlife affect his writing?" And thus your best bet on a fourth work would be either Sartre's "No Exit" or Beckett's "Waiting for Godot." Both are plays, which might hamstring you a little. But Dante wrote The Inferno following an accusation of graft, so what he does to grifters is a direct response to that. Each writer who touches on religion/the afterlife/the supernatural is doing it from his own perspective. Maybe that's relevant to the world, maybe it's personal.



Hope this helps. Good luck!

Answer 2

This is an English project. Why have you chosen a 14th century Italian text? Yes, it's available in an English translation, but it is not English literature, it's Italian literature. Surely your teacher must be aware of this, unless he/she is poorly educated.

Multigenre - all the different kinds of fiction, 19th century novel, post-modern novel, cyberpunk...; drama - from Shakespeare to Pinter.

Screwtape letters? You don't imagine there are any women in there? You do not expect to find anything about feminism in C S Lewis?

Just pick 4 books of different genres. You will find many books in the library. Read. Read widely.

Answer 3

One big problem you have is relying on "multiple websites" without paying any attention to who wrote those "websites" or why you should rely on them in the first place. Yeah, there's a lot of information out there in the internet. And 90% of it is utter crap.



You need to learn a whole lot of critical thinking skills before you go any farther. Find a good, reliable, expert-written encyclopedia of literature or something like that in your library (ask the librarian for recommendations). Stop randomly gloobling around "websites."



Or -- here's a totally radical idea -- you could read the books yourself and use your own brain to determine what they're about. Just a thought.

Answer 4

In the "Inferno" Dante ranks sins according to his thinking. Each descending ring presents the order from least to worst with Brutus and Cassius being at the lowest ring. Have a look at each sin and its corresponding ring. Then ask yourself why Dante chose this particular order. That should help you find the theme. You could then relate this theme to Lewis and Twain.

Answer 5

Pick a horror book, a sci-fi book, a historical fiction book, and a pure drama. The weird thing with this assignment is one book can encompass all four of those genres and meet your requirement of having a single theme.