Project 1: The Interpretative Essay (20%)
Overview
You will produce a short essay that engages in a close reading of one passage from Cranford or Hard Times within its social and historical context.
Objectives
- Demonstrate the ability to perform a close reading of a literary text
- Demonstrate the ability to contextualize a literary text within its social and historical contexts
- Recognize the tensions between literature and history in representations of the nineteenth century
Methods
- Identify and transcribe one sentence / paragraph / scene from Cranford or Hard Times.
- Characterize that passage in terms of a social, cultural, or historical topic.
- How does this topic recur in the novel? In the other novel? In historical documents, letters, reviews, and/or essays?
- Draw upon at least TWO of the texts included in the Broadview Appendix.
Submission
Submit your MLA-formatted Word Document to my email address.
Project 2: The Footnote Essay (20%)
Overview
All too often, students rely on plot summary or the research of other critics to fill the content of their essays. This project seeks to disengage you from this practice. You will write a two-page essay that contains copious explanatory footnotes (approximately 2-3 pages). All of your original ideas should appear in the main essay, while all of the literature review and background information will appear in the footnotes.
Objectives
- Demonstrate the ability to separate your original ideas (or “interventions”) from your research
- Demonstrate an understanding of the “explanatory note”
- Understand the importance of research, attribution, and context
Details
- Write an essay on Lady Audley’s Secret or The Mill on the Floss that engages in a research topic of interest to you.
- All of your original ideas (analysis of the text) will appear in the main part of the essay, which is limited to two pages double-spaced.
- All of your research and historical context will appear in explanatory footnotes / endnotes. You should have a minimum of 5 sources and 5 explanatory notes.
Submission
Submit your MLA-formatted Word Document to my email address.
Project 3: The Synthesis Essay (20%)
The final essay will show evidence of the skills you learned in the first two projects. Also, your thesis will engage primarily in a social or cultural issue that appears across a minimum of three novels that we have read. Your evidence will include close readings of passages in those novels, as well as passages from historical contexts. Your literature review and background information will appear in the footnotes.
Final Exam: Reflection Letter (20%)
At the end of the semester, you will write a reflection letter addressed to your professor that highlights your achievements this semester. You will include at least 3 quotes from your essays this semester to illustrate how your skills and methods have changed or developed.
Participation (20%)
Your participation will be assessed on the basis of your attendance, reading quizzes, contributions to class discussion, and peer reviews.