Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

Final Paper and Presentation Guidelines

Final Paper

We are at a remarkable point in literature where exciting new technologies, genres, cultures and languages along with their sets of conventions, aesthetics, tools and audiences, open up our field of literary studies, like at other defining moments and crossroads in the history of English, to reassessment and invention. For the final paper, as you reexamine texts in the course, think about how shifts and changes throughout literary history and now might demand responsive adjustments and innovation on the part of reading and analyzing texts. How could we look at literature? What new tools do we have to study them? How do we write about them to share our findings with others?

Consider the wide range of sources that have informed our reading this semester. In addition to solid foundational close reading skills developed since last semester, our understanding and interpretation of literary texts have benefited from diverse sources external to the literature itself ranging from other literature to biographies, dictionaries of etymology, idioms, slangs and symbols to documentaries, films, interviews, letters, journals, live readings and performances, concordances, manuscripts, maps, and more.

When you read Milton's Sonnet 19 with the benefit of knowing from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) that in his time "fondly" meant "foolishly" or when you learn from Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice that Lewis Carroll explains the meaning of "jabberwock" to a class of students thus: "the Anglo-Saxon word 'wocer' or 'wocor' signifies 'offspring' or 'fruit.' Taking 'jabber' in its ordinary acceptation of 'excited and voluble discussion,' this would give the meaning of 'the result of much excited discussion'" (153), your perception of the meaning of both works changes. Perhaps the revealed self-awareness and self-referentiality that show Milton's play and Carroll's joke on poetry and its study add new layers to your reading and increase your appreciation of these texts.

Consider the means, methods and structures of texts and these other sources and how they might influence the shape, style and argument of your writing. Expand from your reading responses and extend class discussion.

Write a 3–5-page paper (MLA style citation and formatting) on one of the topics below or on one of your own choosing. Keep in mind that these are suggestions for analysis. In working on your paper, you will eventually formulate an argument or thesis that is the result of your research and examination of the texts to develop in response to these prompts.

• Analyze Kincaid’s use of verbs in “Girl.” What functions do verbs have besides their usual part of speech role? How do they call attention to agency and kinds of actions? How do they shape the narrative?
• Compare and contrast the two sisters in Aimee Bender’s “Tiger Mending.” In what ways are they similar or different? Also possibly illuminating: What makes them the same or different? Are the elements that align them or differentiate them characters or forces within the story or are they storytelling devices?
• Analyze Victor’s learning in “Indian Education” through the years and grades in terms of a) self, b) Indians, c) non-Indians, or d) family.
• Self: What constitutes the narrator’s self? What informs his learning about self? What does the U.S. government have to do with his learning about self? How do the following relate to Junior’s learning with respect to self?
• Physical traits
• Language
• Name
• Place, location
• Family, kinship: What range of meanings does the narrator use the word brother to signify? How is the Native American sense of family different from that of mainstream America and how does that shape his understanding of self?
• Friends, friendship
• Strangers
• Afiliation
• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Tribe
• Stereotypes
• Discrimination, racism, bias, prejudice
• History
• Past, present, future: What time category does the narrator associate with himself at different points of the story? What does the description reveal about his self-perception?
• Behavior, acts, actions: How does fighting or violence enable or facilitate the narrator’s learning about himself and his identity? What role does laughing or laughter play in his learning? How does eating define his sense of self? How does he use literal vs. figurative meanings of actions to express different aspects of his learning?
• Academics, intelligence
• Death
• Culture, tradition
• Media
• Typography
• Diction, denotation, connotation: What is a powwow? What is a tavern? What does Victor's remark about the Powwow Tavern say about his classmates and himself?
• Verb tenses
• Point of view
• Reflection
• Success, failure
• Time, timing, parallels, juxtaposition
What changes occur in the narrator’s learning about who he is, what he should or can be, what he should or can do, where he should or can learn, and from whom or from what? Is the structure of the short story, divided into twelve grades and a postscript, helpful and illuminating or limited and distracting as a window into Victor's learning about himself?
• Family: What does the narrator learn regarding the meaning of family (Does the Indian meaning of family the same as an American or a white one?), the function or role of family, the presence of family, the expectation of family, his role toward family, his views of/toward family, his relationship to family, his use (and abuse) of family? What are his methods of learning, the significance of the learning, and the implications of the learning? (What does it mean that his previous understanding of family as x has now become y? What does it reveal about his growth? What further does it reflect on or about the local community, about the larger American society?) How does he learn about family, where, at what stages or points in his life? Does his idea about family change? How does his behavior toward family change, if at all? What is his language like when he describes family? What is the mood or tone? What is the connection between names and family? Place and family? Appearance and family? Behavior and family? The past/present/future and family? How abruptly or gradually does he learn?
• In Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” compare and contrast here-home with there-world in the three stanzas. What characteristics and motivations are associated with each place?
• Discuss the role of the artist in The Pillowman. Examining closely evidence in the play, what observations can you make about its ideas regarding the artist? What is the task of the artist? is a question that the play asks and attempts to answer. Is Katurian’s response “The first duty of a storyteller is to tell a story,” “The only duty of a storyteller is to tell a story,” or his declaration “I just write stories” (29) meant to be naïve? What authorities, responsibilities or functions does the play propose a creator of art can or should have? An artist creates, but does anybody who creates anything automatically become an artist? What qualities does the play consider an artist should have? What is the difference between an artist and a non-artist? What is the difference between violence and art? What is the difference between a sick psychotic disorder and artistic imagination and craft? What does the play show about how aware or active the art maker should be in society? Does the play suggest there should be no restrictions on creativity? Does the artist have no responsibility except to his/her art? In what areas does the play critique artists? What is the value of an artist in society? What does an artist have to offer the world? Why is he/she important? What rights or protections should be given artists? Why is their art important? What is the balance between creativity and responsibility? What is the price of artistic freedom? Consider the entire play and its many elements (not just characters) that comment on the role of the artist. There are props (the hood, pillows, fake blood), setting, plot (conflicts, parallels, main plots and subplots, climax, denouement), dialogue (diction, denotation, connotation; figures of speech, repetition, pace), humor, and point of view, to name a few.
• Compare and contrast the concept of time presented in Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” and in Harvey’s “Money, Time, Space, and the City.” What assumptions relevant to time are addressed? What framework (and through what vocabulary) is offered with which to view and appreciate the human vs. another alternative understanding of time? What consequences are discussed as results of time perceptions?
• Consider the different forms of thought work in “The Lady’s Maid.” What kinds of thinking is shown and through what means? How does Ellen’s belief that “thinking’s no good to anyone” affect her thinking?
• Examine how Viramontes transforms everyday life and circumstances in “The Moths” into deeply affecting events. For instance, consider how ordinary home life and growing up become disturbing? How does work and working become magical and spiritual? How does sickness become beautiful? Why is this presentation of ordinary life significant?
• Analyze Ives’s use of time in Time Flies. What devices are used to indicate time? How is time depicted? How does it shape the characters and the play? How does Ives manipulate urgency throughout the play? What jokes does he make about time and by playing with time words? Why is time and timing a rich subject for a dating scenario? How does he weave other thematic commentary with time, ex. love, fear, life, death, nature, fate, high, low, sadness, defiance, tragedy, comedy, cliches, originality/creativity, limitations, possibility, size, length, value/worth, and diversity? Which time references are literal, which figurative? Does time move at a consistent pace? Why or why not? How does Ives generate such exuberance of emotions and proliferation of ideas within such a short play? Why does ten minutes feel like a lifetime? How can one overcome the constraints of one's nature? What does the play suggest are ways one can break free from one's physical and mental shortcomings? What do the mayflies have to celebrate, to be happy about? Does Ives use time as a prison, a gift, an enemy, or a challenge? Something else?
• Analyze the function of names in Warlight. What are the uses of nicknames? Why is namelessness or withholding a name of people, places, positions important? What are the implications of naming and renaming?
• Analyze a schwer moment in the novel. In what ways is it serious, difficult or heavy, in terms of what, for whom, and why? “My heart is heavy” describes an internal struggle. What is the outward expression? What is the impact of the schwer moment? What is changed as a result of it? Examine its significance in the context of its occurrence and in the larger framework of the novel.
• Discuss the role of maps in Warlight. What kinds of things are mapped? What is the difference between topographical maps and political ones? What are the implications of each? Which is depicted in the story and how is it used? What do different maps prioritize, make seen, navigable or meaningful? Why are old maps relevant, useful or valuable? How are different characters associated with maps?
• Examine silence in Warlight. When do characters say nothing, why? What does silence say or convey? Why is silence preferable or necessary, when?
• What are “invisible details” (124) that the book makes visible? Discuss revelations of unseen or unseeable things. How is invisibility described? Why are invisible details important?
• Analyze the form and medium/media of one or more texts. How do formal qualities affect a text? Why does it matter that a literary work is prose or poetry, that it is long or short, that the lines are regular or irregular, that it rhymes, or is fragmented, or repetitive? To what extent does the work follow the conventions of its form? What narrative or poetic form(s) does the author choose or invent? What about that form enables the text the range of expression that it has? On the other hand, what problems does the medium pose on the literary product? In what ways does technology shape medium? How does changing technology and medium influence audience taste and expectations? If a text has many different forms or many different versions, how does one “read” it or reconcile its meanings? You might also consider whether this textual instability is desirable or not. Are unsettled texts useful, appropriate for their contents, or informative in any way? Texts to look at include The Bed Book, “Conversation Piece,” “,” “Girl,” “Jabberwocky,” “A Poison Tree,” “l(a,” “I Hear America Singing,” and The Pillowman.
• Discuss music and musicality in one or more works, such as in The Bed Book, “Jabberwocky,” “Emmonsails Heath in Winter,” “40—Love,” “I Hear America Singing,” The Philadelphia, Time Flies, “The Moths,” “We Real Cool,” and Warlight. How does music figure in the work(s)? What constitutes musicality? What is euphonious or cacophonous? What role does music play? What aspects of the text are musical? What inspires the music in the text? How is musicality achieved? Why is it important in the work? In what ways does the text challenge concepts of what is musical or not? What or who makes music? Can a novel be musical? Can a non-musical play be musical?
• Choose a poem and follow it like going on a journey. Where and how does it begin? Trace carefully the construction and development of ideas through the uses of line, meter, rhyme, imagery, diction, point of view, tone, etc. Where does the poem take you? What effect does it create? Where and how does it end?

The paper is due on Thursday, May 2, 2019. You can submit a paper copy to me in class, in my box at the end of the hall past my office (BRK 1106) or attach it to an e-mail to me before midnight.

Revision

• Does my title show that I have a point to make?

• Is my thesis sound, clear, and interesting?

• Have I supported my thesis with compelling evidence?

• Is the organization of my paper logical and appropriate to the arguments I am making?

• Is my language clear, consistent, and suited to the subject matter?

• Do each of my paragraphs have a clear point and coherence?

• Have I incorporated quotations smoothly into my own prose?
• Do I provide balanced analysis of the quotes I cite?

• Are my sentences varied, interesting, and effective?

• Do my verbs agree with their subjects? Pronouns with their nouns?

• Is my paper free of spelling mistakes?

• Have I cited my sources properly and formatted my paper using MLA style?

Final Presentation

Presentation of your final paper is in week 17 of class: Monday, April 29 and Thursday, May 2, 2019. Each panel of three or four papers will have fifteen minutes to present their study of texts we have read in this course. This will be followed by a ten-minute question and answer session. A moderator will be presiding over the presentations and discussion session of each panel, introducing the speakers, mediating the questions and responses, and making sure things stay on schedule.

Practice reading your presentation aloud, with visual aid if you have any, and edit for speakability, clarity, and time.

Respondents give constructive comments on the panelists' talk, indicating illuminating and effective points made, pointing out problems to fix ex. content, logic, substantiation, organization, clarification, delivery, and giving further commentary and opinions on the issues being discussed. Respondents assigned to a panel are responsible for giving feedback to any and all of the speakers on that panel but are free to comment on papers of other panels as well.

 
You will be graded both for your performance in giving your talk and in responding to your classmates' presentations, how you present your own ideas and how you show that you know how to listen to, think about, and discuss ideas that others propose.

A program of the final presentation schedule will be posted on our detailed schedule page once panel and paper titles, speakers and moderators are finalized. You are responsible for e-mailing me any revisions to your presentation title by Friday, April 26, 2019.

Please inform me of any special equipment needs, otherwise our in-class computer (which uses Microsoft Office 2013) and LCD projector is provided.

Links

Home |  Reading and Analysis for the Study of English Literature  |

Last updated April 29, 2019