FINAL PAPER: LITERARY OR FILM ANALYSIS RESEARCH PAPER
NB: Please attach your document file in your email. Email subject heading should read LASTNAME Paper 2 ENGL 1020-35. Also, name your document in the following fashion: LASTNAME Paper 2 ENGL 1020-35.doc (or .docx). That would look like this, for example: MINARICH Paper 2 ENGL 1020-35.doc. Be sure that your file is .doc or .docx, or I will not be able to open it!!!
CRITERIA:
-This essay is a 6-8 pp. literary or film analysis. See WT Chapter 8 on Literary (and Film) Analyses and WT Chapter 11 on Arguments.
-There is a significant research component to this essay. See WT Chapter 14 on Research Papers.
-You must include, cite, and analyze 5-7 CREDIBLE OUTSIDE SECONDARY sources in addition to the primary text(s) you choose. These sources must be properly cited in-text and in the Works Cited page according to MLA style.
-If you choose, it could also be a compare/contrast essay. It is not necessary, however, to write a compare/contrast essay.
-Your paper must contain at least 6 paragraphs.
-Your essay must contain a three-part thesis statement: observation, significance, and "so what."
- No extensions. No revisions. No incompletes.
If you choose the compare/contrast option, you may either a.) construct a non-compare/contrast argument within one text, b.) construct a compare/contrast argument BETWEEN TWO TEXTS, or you can c.) construct a compare/contrast argument WITHIN ONE TEXT. You MAY NOT choose to write about more than 2 texts.
Your essay must be about 1 or 2 of the following texts: Brooks, "the mother" Plath, "Metaphors"
Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants" O'Connor, "A Stroke of Good Fortune" Polanski, Rosemary's Baby Jones, Moon
Please write your essay in response to one of the following prompts. As usual, if you would prefer to write on a topic not set forth in the prompts, you must clear it with me in advance. These prompts are deliberately vague in order to allow you the space to develop an argument that is interesting to you and that you feel you can sustain for 6-8 pages.
OPTION A: Please respond to one of the prompts listed below.
1.) Agency, for obvious reasons, has surfaced consistently as an essential point of analysis throughout the semester. Agency relative to birth control is one thing, as practicing birth control, or contraception, is a choice that prevents pregnancy-or at least should (depending upon the efficacy of the method in use). Agency relative to abortion-to terminating or continuing with a pregnancy that has not been prevented, that is already in progress-is another. Choosing any text from this unit, analyze a pregnant character's reproductive agency as it pertains to her choice to have (or not have) an abortion and her efforts to obtain abortion care. Are there elements of the narrative (in terms of form and/or content) that bolster or diminish her reproductive agency? Are there characters, social considerations, or in many cases, laws, that seek to restrict her access to abortion? How does she get around these obstacles-or does she? Don't forget to think about form in relationship to content. What is the relationship between agency and the structure of the text/narration?
2.) Let's think about what's missing. In "the mother," for example, the poem is motivated by the speaker's aborted fetuses. In Rosemary's Baby and Moon, the plot is motivated by a certain something perceived to be present-but it isn't quite. Why is it significant that these texts revolve around what's not there or that not there in the way it is expected to be? What do they tell us about materiality/corporeality? About abortion, choice, or time? How does presence get constructed through absence?
3.) Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, there is no doubt that the history of abortion has been-and still is-a highly contentious issue in the U.S. Using one or two texts from Unit III, craft an argument teasing out whether the text or texts is/are pro-life, pro-choice, both (?!), or whether it/they take(s) a neutral approach to the topic of abortion. What is at stake in this stance?
Considering "the mother" and/or Rosemary's Baby might be particularly generative. (Sorry about the pun.)
4.) Formalist question: Given the films we've encountered in this unit, discuss the relationship between genre and that film's treatment of biological (re)production. You might discuss Rosemary's Baby as a horror film and/or Moon as science fiction. What does the film's genre allow or disallow in terms of representation? How is the film's approach to the topics of pregnancy and abortion affected or influenced by its genre?
5.) In any of the texts from this unit, analyze how biological reproductive choice (interpret as you will) is constructed along the spectrum of public to personal. Are these categories, in fact, distinct? Do you see points at which they converge? How might you trace the confluence and divergence of the personal and the public in the text(s) of your choice? How does this play out, and what are the consequences-both in terms of the representation of biological reproductive choice as well as for our understanding of the distinctions (or lack thereof) between the public and the private?
6.) Leslie Reagan discusses how, historically, women who sought out abortions talked about their situation with and were frequently supported by the immediate community of women around them, as well as by their husbands/boyfriends/lovers. In any of the texts from this unit, how do you see (or blatantly not see) community working? This can be with regard to pregnancy, contraception, or abortion. Do the female characters who are pregnant share the fact that they are pregnant and, in most cases (really, all but Rosemary's), want an abortion? Why or why not- especially given that this is a personal, individual choice regarding her own body/emotions/life/future? If so, with whom do they share this information? What reactions do they meet with? What effects does the sharing or non-sharing of this information have for the pregnant character? For other characters? Does sharing compromise the pregnant woman's agency? Does it influence her decision, either positively or negatively? What does this tell us about the role of community within individual reproductive choice, particularly in the case of an abortion?
7.) In some of these texts, the "biological" part of (re)production becomes deeply and disturbingly problematized, if not completely redefined or even, arguably, subverted. In the text or texts of your choosing, how does the biological function with regard to production/reproduction? How is it used? By whom? To what ends? What, then, becomes of other characters' sense of reality, identity, or agency?
OPTION B: Working from one the following themes/big ideas, construct an argument. Again, you may choose to write your essay as compare/contrast or not.
-individuality
-responsibility
-(re)production
-embodiment
-knowledge/awareness/perception
-community
-ethics
-humor
-deceit
-honesty
-isolation
-sexuality
-desire
-class
-friendship
-authority
-agency
-duplicity/doubling
-violence
-history
-religion
-paranoia
-medicine/science
Your essay should include 5-7 CREDIBLE OUTSIDE SECONDARY sources. One of these sources may be from our assigned supplementary readings. (You may use more than one source from assigned class readings, but only one will count toward your source total. Also, you may use additional sources if you talk to me about it ahead of time.) The sources you choose must be reliable sources, such as scholarly books; peer-reviewed journal articles; literary reviews; websites ending in .gov, .edu, or .org; and/or reliable internet news sites. Personal blogs, Wikipedia, and sites such as SparkNotes and the like do not count as reliable sources.
Remember that you need to close read and analyze your secondary source as well as the main primary text(s).
Papers should be formatted according to MLA style-and this includes the Works Cited page; for details on formatting, citing, and/or the Works Cited page, please consult the syllabus, the Purdue OWL website, and/or WT Chapter 27.
PRO TIPS:
- With a compare/contrast paper, it's easy to fall into the trap of simply listing similarities and differences between texts. Be sure to analyze these similarities and differences in service of a larger argument.
- When in doubt, close read! This will help you to unpack quotations from both your primary and secondary sources in ways that support your claims as well as your overall argument.
- Clear, succinct topic sentences will help keep you on track and force you to think critically about the relationships between paragraphs. They will also help build momentum as you work toward a "so what" in your conclusion.
- The most important thing is the advancement of YOUR argument. Be fair in how you characterize others' arguments, but remember to make them work for you.