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Select one of the following topics to discuss in 1-2 paragra…

Select one of the following topics to discuss in 1-2 paragraphs. Although you aren’t expected to quote directly from the text, be as specific as you can.The more references you can make to the actual texts being discussed, the more points you will earn. Make sure you number your answer to indicate which question you are working with. 1. Throughout this semester, we have seen characters who were outcasts, struggling to live by or rebelling against the socially accepted “norms” of American society at that time. Select three characters, one from each time period covered in the class (one each from volumes C, D, and E), and discuss how this character struggled to fit in with or struggled against American society. What do these three characters have in common? Is the notion of being an outcast as American as any of the more traditional views of American life? Make sure you refer specifically to events in the literature. 2. The term “postmodern” has been used to represent a variety of ideas and styles. Many agree that postmodern literature is fragmented and experimental. The term “postmodern” can be used to describe “practically anything aesthetically edgy or off-kilter, anything that bends genres or cultural registers,” and postmodern works have been described as being filled with “ambiguity and uncertainty . . . [as well as] shifts between satire and sincerity.” Consider two works from the “Literature Since 1945” selections that fit these definitions/explanations of postmodern literature. Explain how the works fit the definitions,  and refer as specifically as possible to the literature. 3. Tennessee Williams is often listed alongside authors like William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Connor as a southern gothic writer. Southern gothic writers tend to create grotesque, alienated characters whose physical and/or psychological abnormalities, sexual proclivities, or violent temperaments alienate them from each other and society. Often alienation results from a clash between a mythic and idealized southern past and a modern present. Discuss a character from A Streetcar Named Desire which typifies the southern gothic tradition. Then, compare Williams’ character with another character by another southern gothic writer we read this semester. What similarities do you recognize? What differences? Make sure you reference specific passages from both works.