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Final Writing Assignment, E314L
(For topic proposal assignment, scroll down.)
For this assignment, you have two options:
1. Critical research essay, or
2. Creative narrative with critical close-reading component.
1: Critical research essay: Borderlands as Framework
Borderlands as framework . Use the concept of "Borderlands" (in-betweenness, frontier space, neither/nor both/and, liminality) to analyze one of the other texts we've read this year. For example, you could use the idea of borderlands to talk about Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, which is set quite literally on the frontier; or you could talk about William Apess's negotiation of various cultures and expectations; or about the different borders - often racial, but also cultural, economic, and gendered - that we see in Hughes's Ways of White Folks. You may find that the borderlands concept is a useful lens through which to view these texts; or you may find that it is not useful. Consider what this lens allows you to see that you didn't see before; also, does it encourage you to leave out things you had seen earlier?
This should be an 8-page scholarly paper that deals with one or more of the works we've read in class, and incorporates a minimum of two scholarly sources, one of which can be something we've read in this class.
Option 2: Creative narrative with critical close-reading component.
Using Borderlands as a model, create a narrative of your own life, including your ideas on what your life has taught you. Are there lessons for the rest of us in your experiences? How does your experience shape the way you approach literature, or other cultural productions? What language do you speak where? Do you code-switch? Which stories from your past are important to show how you have developed? This component of the narrative should be a minimum of 6 pages; I strongly encourage you to make use of the multimedia capabilities of the Web and submit this as a webpage. (This will allow you to make use of the non-linear formats of hypertext, as well as graphics and links to other spaces.) To ensure that you have fulfilled the page requirement (as this class counts as a substantial writing component course), I will ask you to submit a hard copy of just the text portions of your website; I will not grade this copy, it is merely to show you've completed the required amount of writing.
In addition, I will ask you to submit a critical analysis of your personal narrative - that is, treat your narrative the way we have treated literature in this class. Analyze it, offer close readings, give us a scholarly review of your own narrative, and show us why it's an important contribution to the field of literary studies. This should be a minimum of 3 pages, and should incorporate at least two scholarly sources, one of which may be an essay or book we've read for class.
Topic Proposals
For each option, please submit, as a topic proposal, an informal outline of your paper, which should be about a page in length, and typed. For the research paper, this should include your working thesis. For the creative option, the outline should focus only on your personal narrative, and should also include some mention of what kinds of technology (webpage, graphics, etc) you plan to use.