I want you to try to account for an important feature or features of a text by relating it to a larger story or context. The essay should answer this question: How does the text reflect a larger story (context) that it is a part of? You will need to read The deamon lover by Shirley Jackson, that you want to discuss. Then you will need to decide on a particular context through which you would like to look at the text. Once you have chosen your context, you will then need to find secondary texts (the woman hanging from 13th floor) which offer information about that context. Your final essay should focus on an interpretation of the primary text in its context, using information from your secondary text or texts.
these are the contexts we have examined in class:
Historical: the way that a text is shaped by or reflects a larger historical pattern or the way that the historical circumstances at the time the text was written influenced its production. For example, a text written in the early 1950’s would have been influenced by the events of WWII. Likewise, a text about social justice in the 1960’s would have been impacted by the Civil Rights movement.
Cultural: any cultural factor that is a part of the society in which the text was written family structures, influences from the media, religion, trends and fashions, education, etc. Cultural context needs to be focused on one particular aspect of culture. I have brought in texts focusing on religious context, but feel free to focus on other cultural contexts.
Biographical: the way that a writers personal history shapes or influences the events of his or her text. For example, Kate Chopin wrote about a woman becoming a widow in “The Story of an Hour” while she also lived this experience in her own life. In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, Hemingway wrote about aging, depression, and suicide as he also struggled with these very same notions, eventually taking his own life.
Literary: what other writers or critics have said about the text.
Psychological: Modern psychology is a science which offers us insight to the human mind and behavior, but many of the psychological concepts afforded to us today were not well known or discussed when some of our texts were written. Applying concepts like insomnia, depression, and inferiority complex to the actions of some characters in the stories we’ve read can help us understand why people react in certain ways at specific points in their lives.
600-700 words (2-3 pages), double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, follow MLA manuscript requirements. All sources must be cited using MLA format.
Source info:
The Daemon Lover (1949)
by Shirley Jackson
in The Lottery: Adventures of the Daemon Lover
Robinson 1988
pp. 13-26
The Woman Hanging from the 13th Floor Window
by Joy Harjo
in Writing as Revision, 2nd Ed.
Editors: Beth Alvarado, Barbara Cully, and Michael Robinson
Pearson Custom Publishing, Boston, MA 2003
pp. 310-312
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