Paper 4: Literary Research Paper 6-8 pgs (2,000-2,500 words) (200 points)
Objective: write a 6-8 page (2,000-2,500) thesis-driven research paper that makes an analytical argument through a critical lens about one of the long plays that we have read this semester (A Raisin in the Sun or Water by the Spoonful.)
Your thesis will present an original, complex and debatable claim based on a critical lens. Your support will come from well integrated primary and secondary evidence in your body paragraphs, which you introduce with signal phrases and analyze fully.
Complicating your argument: integrate at least one strong, carefully considered counterargument, which you acknowledge, explain, and then refute. This will prove that your thesis is truly debatable and can be reasonably considered from multiple perspectives. You may, of course, engage with more than one counterargument.
Other requirements: your paper must be in correct MLA format and include a Works Cited page (which does not count toward the 6 page length requirement) on which you list each of the sources you quote or paraphrase in the paper (including the story itself). Use our textbook and library resources to help you format your citations correctly. Sustain your argument throughout (the claim you are supporting), employ strong transitions, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Be sure your ideas are well organized, clearly explained, and carefully focused.
Primary source: your primary source for this paper the original piece of writing and the source of the focused topic you will explore.
Secondary sources: you must research and cite from (quote, paraphrase, or summarize) at least four secondary sources (but more is fine!). These should be credible and appropriate to an academic assignment, such as articles from a library database, books, or credible websites. You are required to use at least TWO sources found from a library database.
Paper topics
For this paper, our topics will be based on the work that you have done throughout the term and our specific conversations about these plays. Use a key question from any of the critical lenses that we have explored this term as the starting point for your research.
Note: You may use more than one lens for this paper. For example, you could write about Ethnic Literary Studies AND Feminism in A Raisin in the Sun. However, ONE of these lenses must be at the forefront of your argument. The second lens should inform and support the first.
This assignment is worth 200 points. The first draft of this essay will be worth 30 points of the overall 200 points available for the assignment.
An automatic grade of F will be applied to any final version of a paper that is not accompanied by a first version.
Here is a list of the key questions we have covered for all of our critical lenses this term:
Psychoanalytic Criticism
Freudian Criticism
How does the concept of repression fit into the work?
Are there oedipal dynamics or other family dynamics in the work?
How can the behavior of the characters, narrative events, and/or images be explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts (for example, fear or fascination of death, or sexuality) and how can they be identified as operations of the ego-id-superego?
Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or hidden meanings? Could there be a subconscious reason for the author using these words?
What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the psychological motives of the reader?
Jungian Criticism
How do the characters in the text mirror archetypal figures (ex. the mother, whore, destroying crone, destroying angel, lover, hero)?
What connections can we make between elements of the text and archetypes?
How does the text mirror the archetypal narrative patterns? (ex. quest, heros journey, journey into hell.)
How does the protagonist reflect the hero of myth?
Does the hero embark on a journey in either a physical or spiritual sense?
What trials or ordeals does the protagonist face? What is the reward for overcoming them?
Kristevan Criticism
How is abjection presented in the text?
What do the characters consider abject or outside the social norm?
How is abjection gendered? That is, does the text present certain masculine or feminine qualities as abject?
Feminist Criticism, Gender Studies, Queer Theory
How are the sexes depicted in the text?
What are the power relations between the sexes?
How is sex and sexual identity depicted in the text?
What sorts of dualisms are present in the text (man/woman, straight/gay)?
Does the text present identities that are alternative to the gendered or sexual norms?
Does the text present these depictions as accepted or abnormal? In either case, how does the depiction complicate our understanding of gendered and sexual norms.
Marxist Criticism
What is the social class of the author and how might that be represented in the text?
What social/economic values does the text reinforce?
What social/economic values does the text subvert?
What social classes do the characters and or the text represent? What does the text tell us about this social class?
How do the characters of different classes interact or fail to interact?
How does the text represent a Hegelian dialect? That is, how is a norm (thesis) disrupted (by an antithesis) and do the characters reach a new norm (through synthesis)?
Ethnic Literary Studies
How does race appear in the text and how does it shape the way we interact with one another?
What is the significance of depictions race in the text?
How does the text reflect or undermine dominant cultural perceptions of race?
How does the text depict a distinct ethnic identity?
How does the text depict the lived experience of an ethnic identity in American society?
How does the text depict racism as a persistent force in American society?
How does the text accurately reflect the experiences of victims of racism?
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