Some  suggestions  to  get  you  thinking  as  you  work  towards  essay  topics.  You  are,  of course, responsible for the careful articulation of your own argument. Do not forget that the  title  of  your  essay  constitutes  an  important  part  of  the  essay;  the  title  should  be carefully conceived so as to entitle your essay to the rich display already promised by the title.  Suggestion 1) below could be applied to most of the works we have read, and illustrates how  a  topic  idea  can  be  developed;  this  example  is  followed  by  a  couple  of  skeletal suggestions  for  topic  consideration  still  in  need  of  appropriate  development,  etc. Irrespective of your topic interests, responsibility for the fabrication of a cogent argument remains yours in any particular case.  1) Short version: write an essay on concealment / revelation in two of the works on our list; if necessary, use one as a foil, and concentrate on the other.Slightly more developed version:It  seems  to  me  that  a  fundamental  contradiction  —  or  perhaps  it’s  a  paradox  —  always lurks at the very heart of fictional narrative: the narrative impulse towards disclosure (that allows  the  story  to  unfold  in  all  its  detail)  conspires  against  the  impulse  towards concealment  (that  seeks  to  preserve  some  mystery  and  that  keeps  interest  alive  by promising more). Along similar lines, I would think one could say that in any text style and structure flirt with ideology, sometimes revealing and sometimes concealing (more or less consciously)  the  ideological  issues  they  encounter  along  the  way  of  their  gradual revelation.    In  an  essay  that  describes  the  differences  in  narrative  structure  between Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart, say, (other textual possibilities come to mind also),  comment  on  the  ways  in  which  stylistic  method  in  each  of  your  chosen  texts engages with ideological issues, paying particular attention to some of the more striking contradictions or paradoxes that emerge in the course of this engagement.  Referring by way of concrete example to at least three of the works in this course and perhaps to Edgar Allan Poe’s “Importance of the Single Effect” (widely anthologizeditll be  on  the  internet),  write  an  essay  on  the  function  of  literary  titles  and  /  or,  the architectonics of narrative beginnings.