Your essay should be two to three pages long, and needs to be doubled-spaced, 12-font, and within academic margins. Please pay particular attention to organization and word choice. You should not consult outside (scholarly) sources for this paper, but rather concentrate on developing your own interpretation of the literary text. Avoid circular argumentation and DO NOT hand in a rough draft. I accept only EDITED versions of your work! Theme: Do a close reading of Ottilie’s funeral in Goethe’s novel Elective Affinities (pp. 235-39), paying particular attention to the way in which the scene ties the solemn ritual and the tragic death into the discourses of bad taste that work their way through the book. (You may refer to other scenes in the novel such as Ottilie’s integration — or non-integration — within the tableaux-vivants.) To what extent does the association of the funeral with the earlier scenes undercut a tragic reading?
