INSTRUCTIONS:

Worth 7% of your final grade. In about one and a half pages, double-spaced with normal font and margins, answer the following question.

Upload a Word or pdf file ONLY. If you paste your content to Blackboard, first click WRITE SUBMISSION and then paste. Assignments that cannot be read will not be graded, and no late assignments will be accepted.

QUESTION 1

Like Carlo Levi's memoir, Ettore Scola's film contains an argument about how some people were marginalized in fascist Italian society. What argument does Scola present through his film, A Special Day? And how does he make this argument? Your essay should analyze his use of juxtaposition of the action of the main characters with the archival video and audio that plays throughout.

Please note that I am familiar with synopses and analyses of the film that are available to read online. I will be looking for very specific details that indicate that you watched the film in class.

QUESTION 2

Europe's twentieth century has been called the "Age of Extremes" by historian Eric Hobsbawm. We have explored some of these extremes: extreme ideologies that fall on the far Left and far Right of the political spectrum, extreme optimism, and extreme despair caused by the two world wars. We have also discussed how different countries reacted to the end of the Second World War, a process that can also be considered "extreme" as individual and collective memory swung from denial to scapegoating to overwhelming guilt.

Explain how Wolfgang Borchert's play The Man Outside responds to Germans' challenge to acknowledge the events of their very recent past. Does he emphasize victimhood, guilt, a spirit of rebuilding, descent into nothingness, a combination of these things, none of these things...?

Be sure to include accurately formatted citations when you quote from the play -- MLA or Chicago.