Since you are thinking about a major in the humanities, most of you are probably already readers. The ways in which literature is read, analyzed, and interpreted in the academy, however, are very different than how you might read for pleasure. In this unit, we will begin our study of the academy by examining its approach to a familiar form: the short story. Both in class and in your assignments, we will pay particular attention to how arguments are constructed, to whom they are directed, and what constitutes evidence.
Feeder 1.1 (DUE DATE: Wednesday, September 14)
For your first feeder assignment, you will compose a persuasive essay about a famous short story. Begin by choosing a short story from americanliterature.com’s web site:
There are over 2,000 short stories on the site, so there are a number of ways you can choose one. You might find a short story by an author you’ve always wanted to learn more about, you might scan the titles and find one that jumps out at you, or you might even pick one at random. Be sure to pick one that you don’t loathe, though, because you will also be working with this story for the rest of the unit. You can choose any of the short stories on the site, but I ask that you please not choose a story that you have read before.
After you have read the story closely, compose a persuasive essay in which you argue that the story either is or is not relevant to current, young adult readers like yourselves. You may be tempted to research more information about your story or its author, but I ask that you refrain from doing so right now (we’ll do that in the next assignment!). If you have chosen a story that you can’t understand well enough to write this essay, you may want to try a different story. Similarly, your essay should not include any biographical details about your author: the evidence for your argument should come strictly from the story itself: its setting, characters, plot, themes, language, etc. Your essay should be 4-6 substantial paragraphs, or the equivalent of 2-3 typed, double-spaced pages.
Feeder 1.2 (DUE DATE: Wednesday, September 21)
Now that you have thought about how your story relates to your life and background, it’s time to examine how other authors and critics have responded to it. Using the Library’s e-research tools for literature (http://eresources.lib.unc.edu/eid/subject.php?subjectName=Literature), locate an academic journal article or scholarly book chapter that analyzes your story. We will talk more about this in class, but the article or chapter you find must be scholarly or you will not receive credit for the assignment. Also, please note that your article might not focus exclusively on your story; it is rare to find a journal article that is simply a sustained analysis of one short story, so try to find an article or chapter that devotes at least a few paragraphs to your story. Read the article closely and try to determine its thesis statement and the key evidence the author uses to prove that thesis. You will almost certainly need to look up unfamiliar terms, so be prepared to do a lot of googling as you attempt to understand the article.
After you have fully digested your article, compose an essay in which you summarize the article’s main argument for your blog’s audience. Remember that your article was written for a very particular audience—mostly professors and graduate students—and your blog has a very different readership. Do your best to explain how the material from the article relates to your audience and what they can learn from it. Your essay should be 4-6 substantial paragraphs, or the equivalent of 2-3 typed, double-spaced pages.
Unit 1 Project (DUE DATE: Monday, October 3)
For your Feeder assignments you mostly looked at your story in isolation, trying to understand how it works as an individual piece of literature. For your Unit Project, however, you will begin to understand how this work is part of a wider context. Begin by choosing another short story that is related in some way—either by the same author, from the same time period, set in the same time or place, deals with similar themes, etc.—to the one you already wrote about. Read this story closely, using the critical skills and methods that you have learned in class and in your first two Feeder assignments.
Next, compose a longer essay (equivalent to 3-5 typed pages) in which you pose an argument about how your pieces relate both to one another and to a wider cultural context. Your context can be most anything, but it will probably relate in some way to the aspect of your stories that is related. For instance, if you chose two stories by the same author, you might explain how each of these fit into the author’s larger career trajectory. If you chose two stories set during World War II, you might explain how the war influenced these stories and how literature changed in response to the war. In addition to reading and re-reading your stories carefully, your essay will require some outside research in order to prove your thesis.
A successful essay will:
· Present an original and surprising thesis that helps the reader to understand the context of the stories you examine.
· Use scholarly research to support the author’s claims about the works’ cultural contexts.
· Include thoughtful, sustained analysis of both of the stories.
· Cite all sources in a manner appropriate for the blog and its audience.
· Be written in a lively, engaging and authoritative style.
· Be free of errors in spelling and grammar as well as visual formatting.
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