1) The title of the selection of Eavan Boland's poems that we read is Outside History.  What does that title designate?  Explore the significance of the title, the theme that it implies, for a representative cluster of Boland's poems.  Feel free to include either or both of those poems from In a Time of Violence which I linked to our calendar of assignments.

2) Again, the title of that selection by Boland is Outside History, and the title of one of the poems (as well as her book of autobiographical and personal essays) is Object Lessons.  From our study of her poems we concluded that the lessons gleaned from domestic objects are not the lessons taught by the official histories.  Write a personal essay--an autobiographical essay--in the spirit of Boland's poetry, an essay in keeping with the thesis that the lessons inherent in domestic objects, while "outside history," are vital to the human story.

3) Explore the Oedipal drama in Maus, the psychological drama that puts Artie and his father at odds--in which Artie and his father compete with one another for priority and for the possession of the mother (muse?).

4) Examine Art as a multi-dimensional character.  Sometimes he appears as a mouse; at other times a human being in a mouse mask.  Who is Artie-as-mouse?  Who is Artie-as-human-being-in-mouse-mask?  Do we ever glimpse Artie without the mask?  If not, why not?  If we are to assume that Artie has no separate, individual identity, why is it apparent that the mask is detachable?  Explore the various identities of Art Spiegelman as they reveal themselves in Maus.

5) "Reality is too complex for comics" (2.16).  True or false--as the assertion applies specifically to Maus?  If the textual evidence leads you to argue that the assertion is true, consider also whether the comic book offers something that compensates for the loss.  This topic asks you to explore the rhetorical effect of comic book images and minimalist text.

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