Essay Assignment
construct a close-reading-based analysis that advances an interpretive argument regarding one of the core themes of a single fictional text. You may write about one of the texts we have looked at this semester or a different work that you clear with .
Consider the formal elements of narrative fiction covered in class this semester and draw on the critical terminology we have covered – as appropriate. Also, remember that your interpretive claims need to be grounded in engagement with evidence from the text in question in the form of short quotation or paraphrase. Again, the heart of your essay needs to consist of providing a detailed analysis of the development of a single major theme; if you are just summarizing the work in question, you are not satisfying the criteria of this assignment. Please make sure that you read the guide to writing analyses of works of fiction in chapter 10 of your textbook and the sample analytic essays in chapter 11 (it will be in the attachment )
Your essay should draw meaningfully on at least two scholarly secondary sources – that is, these sources should be woven in substantively to your line(s) of argument to advance your interpretation, provide cultural or socio-historical context for your analysis, and/or offer a contrastive analytical take on the text(s) in question. These sources should not be used to throw random quotations into your essay as “garnish,” draw on biographical author data that isn’t connected substantively to your analysis, or introduce ideas that you don’t connect up with in your analysis. You may use peer-reviewed books and articles (in print or from the online databases our library subscribes to), but no webpages—though copies of print articles made available online are acceptable).
SUGGESTED TOPICS:
“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin – The role of suffering and redemption through music
“The Semplica-Girl Diaries” by George Saunders – Consumerism and the dehumanization of labor
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner – Isolation and resistance to change
Last Completed Projects
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