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Essay Instructions: My topic is applying Plato's philosophy to the characters in the book "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera. Anything can be used from Plato's philosophy, however his beliefs on the soul and body must be included.

Also my professor said it would be good to include secondary sources of Plato and apply those to the characters and the text of the book.

My preliminary thoughts included how Plato believes the soul grows through experiences which is displayed by the main character, Tomas. He changes from a man who sleeps around to a man with one woman by the end. His character learned about life and his soul matured through the experiences throughout the book.

Also the idea of soul and body dualism can be applied to Tereza and her dreams. Her mother ashamed her a lot growing up with her own body, and as a result Tereza has strange dreams. It's almost as if her dreams are her body without a soul.

Those were my two first thoughts of the topic, so exploring those are definitely a must. But other than that there is no character off limits, just as long as everything is proving that Plato's philosophy can be applied, and work well, with Kundera's book.

There must be five sources other than the book itself.

Essay Instructions: I need help with an essay analyzing Nietzsche's idea of "eternal recurrence" in Milan Kundera's novel, THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING.

Nietzsche first writes about eternal recurrence in THE GAY SCIENCE and in THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA. Nietzche's ideas are actually literally in Kundera's book. Kundera allegorizes that you basically have one life, but have to repeat the same life over and over again making the same decisions. He uses his philosophy directly in the novel.

The most important thing is that direct passages from the novel need to be quoted in the essay.

Thank you!

These texts are online for download
Milan Kundera, UNBEARABLE (novel): http://www.truly-free.org/#fK

Nietzsche, THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1998/1998-h/1998-h.htm

Essay Instructions: THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING CENTERED AROUNG THE POST-MODERN STYLE OF THE NOVEL, PARTICULARLY THE AUTHOR'S ATTEMPT TO BE A CONSCIOUS PRESENCE, GIVING US HIS PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE BY COMMENTING ON HIS CHARACTERS AS WELL AS LETTING US SEE HIS IDEAS THROUGH THE CHARACTERS THEMSELVES. HOW IS THIS DUALITY HANDLED IN THE FILM? DOES THE DIRECTOR, PHILIP KAUFMAN, TRY TO REFLECT KUNDERA'S PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE IN THE SAME WAY, OR DOES HE TRY TO DO IT IN A DIFFERENT WAY? HOW DOES HIS APPROACH AFFECT THE TRANSLATION(FROM NOVEL TO FILM) AS A WHOLE? PROVIDE AMPLE EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT YOUR ARGUEMENT AND MAKE SURE YOUR ARGUMENT THESIS IS CLEARLY STATED IN YOUR INTRODUCTION.WHEN REFERING TO OUTSIDE SOURCES, IDENTIFY THEM BY TITLE AND AUTHOR AT THE END OF YOUR PAPER. IF ANYTHING IS QUOTED FROM THE NOVEL/FILM OR AN OUTSIDE SOURCE, PLEASE IDENTIFY IT AT THE END OF THE QUOTATION AS FOLLOWS:(AUTHOR'S/DIRECTOR'S LAST NAME, PAGE).

Essay Instructions: Write a paper using at least a minimum of 2-3 full length written texts and one film. The texts to choose from are: "The Kite Runner" by Hosseini, "Season of Migration" by Salih, "Persian Girls" by Rachlin, The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan, and/or "Woman at Point Zero" by Nawal. The films are, "Kandahar" by Mohsin Makhmalbaf and "sugar Cane Alley." You MUST include either Persian Girls, Woman at Point Zero or Unbearable Lightness of Being.

(We are pretty much free to write about our own ideas and come up with our own thesis),but here are a few ideas you might wish to pursue in defining a topic and thesis:

1) Argue for or against a particular literary or analytic approach in understanding characters and themes. For example, "Although Amir in The Kite Runner, Mustafa Saeed in Season of Migration, and Firdaus in Woman at Point Zero appear to be shaped by psychological and political circumstances beyond their control, I would like to argue that they are not mere puppets of fate or history, but rather, that they shape their lives the way they want to, and as such must be held accountable for their actions" You would then spend the next few paragraphs showing how these characters might be interpreted in the light of psychological and/or political approaches; but the bulk of the paper would be spent proving the thesis.

2) Or write a paper that makes some type of claim linking either the behavior, or circumstances or both, of some of the major female characters. Conversely, might wish to contrast them in order to prove a larger point. Eg. "Although characters x and y (say Tereza, or even Sabina, seem much more enlightened and liberated than, say, Firdaus and Hosna bint Mahmud), on closer examination we realize that..."
or
3) you could just do a thematic analysis linking two or three seemingly different novels/films. For eg. "Although -- and -- appear to be works that deal with very different societies and dissimilar issues, a closer reading shows that the underlying themes are the same." You would have to spell out what those identical or similar themes are, and also come to some conclusion about what the larger significance of this sameness or similarity is.

PLEASE include a CATCHY TITLE in the middle of the page.

Thank you...
Hope these suggestive topics were helpful. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me.