Birmingham University Course Assignments
Introduction

Level 3, Year 1 (2004/2005) Level 2, Year 2 (2003/2004) Level 2, Year 1 (2002/2003) Level 1, Year 2 (2001/2002) Level 1, Year 1 (2000/2001)

Sentiment and Empire

1 Provide a close textual analysis of The Man of Feeling (chapter 14) by Henry Mackenzie paying close attention to its language, imagery, and thematic content. 68%
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I thought this was a well written and persuasive analysis of the passage from Mackenzie's work. The piece is well presented and you employ your secondary sources in a judicious fashion. I appreciate that you're rather limited for space in a short assignment of this kind. Nevertheless, I did wonder if you could have speculated as to whether the inconsistencies within the sentimental discourse you pinpoint here are simply a produce of that discourse or are a deliverately ironical aspect of the text.
2 'He laid his left hand on his heart - the sword dropped from his right - he burst into tears' (Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling). Is it reasonable to dismiss sentimental fiction as being unrealistic? Answer with reference to one of more relevant texts. 64%
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As always, I though much of your discussion was perceptive and interesting. I did, however, find the argument here to be rather haphazard. I don't really get a sense of a thesis being developed through the discussion. Part of the difficulty is that you tend to jump between your [...] of The Deserted Village and Mackenzie's Man of Feeling in the later stages of the piece. I know it's to illustrate a point about sentimental culture, but it deflects you and the reader from the consideration of Goldsmith. The tone of the piece is perhaps rather too polemical, and the argument would have benefitted from a more detailed consideration of the [...] of the poem.