SUBIECTE WRITING LICENTA

Instructions accompanying every topic: N.B. Your essay should bear a title of your choice and abide by the stylistic and structural rules of an academic essay, i.e. should be written in a clear, objective and argumentative manner, and include clearly delimited parts: Introduction (argument in a nutshell, steps to be followed, ey terms!, Body (chain of argumentation, overt inter"paragraph transitions!, #onclusion (results of argumentation!. $he essay should not e%ceed &.' pages. Criterii e eva!uare: &( )legerea unui titlu care s* corespund* argumentului principal: "#$ puncte +( ,elimitarea clar* a p*r-ilor eseului: % punct .( /tilul academic: % punct 0( #onstruc-ia introducerii: %#$ puncte '( #onstruc-ia corpului argumentativ: & puncte 1( #onstruc-ia conclu2iei: % punct 3( % punct din oficiu

'I(ICULTATE I Compare t)e t*o perspectives on +America, in t)e t*o passages -e!o*# Consi er t)e i..erent cu!tura! an )istorica! conte/ts in.orming t)e t*o te/ts#

&( 45hen )merica was discovered,6 said the 7adical member, and he began to give some wearisome facts. 8i e all people who try to e%haust a subject, he e%hausted his listeners. $he ,uchess sighed, and e%ercised her privilege of interruption. 4I wish to goodness it never had been discovered at all96 she e%claimed. 47eally, our girls have no chance nowadays. It is most unfair.6 4:erhaps, after all, )merica never has been discovered,6 said ;r <rs ine= 4I myself would say that it had merely been detected.6 4>h9 But I have seen specimens of the inhabitants,6 answered the ,uchess, vaguely. 4I must confess that most of them are e%tremely pretty. )nd they dress well, too. $hey get all their dresses in :aris. I wish I could afford to do the same.6 4$hey say that when good )mericans die they go to :aris,6 chuc led /ir $homas, who had a large wardrobe of ?umour@s cast"off clothes. 47eally. )nd where do bad )mericans go to when they dieA6 inBuired the ,uchess. 4$hey go to )merica,6 murmured 8ord ?enry. (>scar 5ilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, &CD&! +( I can thin of no street in )merica, or of people inhabiting such a street, capable of leading one toward the discovery of the self. I have wal ed the streets in many countries of the world but nowhere have I felt so degraded and humiliated as in )merica. I thin of all the streets in )merica combined as forming a huge cesspool, a cesspool of the spirit in which everything is suc ed down and drained away to everlasting shit. >ver this cesspool the spirit of wor weaves a magic wand= palaces and factories spring up side by side, and munition plants and chemical wor s and steel mills and sanatoriums and prisons and insane asylums. $he whole continent is a nightmare producing the greatest misery of the greatest number. (E! in the bottom of my heart there was murder: I wanted to see )merica destroyed, ra2ed from top to bottom. Fcesspool G gutterH (?enry ;iller, Tropic of Capricorn, &D.D!

'I(ICULTATE II 'iscuss t)e vie*s on poetic !anguage a vance -y t)e spea0er in t)e te/t -e!o*:

?e drew forth a phrase from his treasure and spo e it softly to himself: I ) day of dappled seaborne clouds. $he phrase and the day and the scene harmonised in a chord. 5ords. 5as it their coloursA ?e allowed them to glow and fade, hue after hue: sunrise gold, the russet and green of apple orchards, a2ure of waves, the grey"fringed fleece of clouds. No, it was not their colours: it was the poise and balance of the period itself. ,id he then love the rhythmic rise and fall of words better than their associations of legend and colourA >r was it that, being as wea of sight as he was shy of mind, he drew less pleasure from the reflection of the glowing sensible world through the prism of a language many"coloured and richly storied than from the contemplation of an inner world of individual emotions mirrored perfectly in a lucid supple periodic proseA (James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man! 'iscuss t)e vie* on t)e re!ations -et*een passion an action in t)e .ragment -e!o*:

>, what a rogue and peasant slave am I9 Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, #ould force his soul so to his own conceit $hat from her wor ing all his visage wannKd, $ears in his eyes, distraction inKs aspect, ) bro en voice, and his whole function suiting 5ith forms to his conceitA and all for nothing9 Lor ?ecuba9 5hatKs ?ecuba to him, or he to ?ecuba, $hat he should weep for herA 5hat would he do, ?ad he the motive and the cue for passion $hat I haveA (5illiam /ha espeare, Hamlet II.+, ''3"'1D! Comment on t)e para o/es o. t)e artistic c)aracter .ormu!ate in t)e .ragment -e!o*:

Mood artists e%ist simply in what they ma e, and conseBuently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. ) great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. $he worse their rhymes are, the more picturesBue they loo . $he mere fact of having published a boo of second"rate sonnets ma es a man Buite irresistible. ?e lives the poetry that he cannot write. $he others write the poetry that they dare not realise. (>scar 5ilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray!

'I(ICULTATE III Comment on t)e portraya! o. stu ent )a-its o. aca emic *or0 in t)e .ragment -e!o*:

>f students@ papers: 4I am generally very benevolent Fsaid /hadeH. But there are certain trifles I do not forgive.6 Ninbote: 4Lor instanceA6 4Not having read the reBuired boo . ?aving read it li e an idiot. 8oo ing in it for symbols= e%ample: O$he author uses the stri ing image green leaves because green is the symbol of happiness and frustration.@ I am also in the habit of lowering a student@s mar catastrophically if he uses Osimple@ and Osincere@ in a commendatory sense= e%amples: O/helley@s style is always very simple and good@= or OYeats is always sincere.@6 (Pladimir Nabo ov, Pale Fire! W)at o you t)in0 t)e aut)or o. t)e passage -e!o* is !oo0ing .or in )er trave!!ing companions1 Is )er a vice sti!! va!i no*a ays1

Lrom the moment we set foot on the wild hillside, we have left behind us all the mean and petty conditions of everyday life. $herefore, if I may offer a friendly piece of advice to any would"be mountaineer in these parts, let him loo at his friendsQnot twice, but full twenty times at leastQ before he contemplates cultivating their uninterrupted society at an altitude of 1RRR feet above sea"level. Indeed a $ransylvanian mountain e%cursion is a serious and solemn underta ingQ almost a sort of marriage bondQwhen you engage to put up, for better or worse, with any half" do2en individuals during an eBual number of days and nights. /weetly feminine airs and graces which have so entranced us in the ball"room, develop to positive monstrosities when transplanted to the mountain"top. >n the other hand, many people who in town life have appeared dull and commonplace, now rise in value. (<mily Merard, The Land eyond the Forest, &CCC!