Module 1: Contexts

How do values about education and success vary across different historical, geographical, and cultural contexts? From slave narratives and Victorian literature to critical education theory and first-generation memoirs, students will explore diverse perspectives on issues related to education and success, including family, work, and culture.

Students will work independently to produce a research project that engages with critical and literary texts, historical and cultural documents, and peer-reviewed research.

Readings

Nineteenth-Century Texts

  • Frederick Douglass, “Learning to Read and Write” (1845)
  • Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861)

Twentieth-Century Texts

Response Papers

Response 1: Choose Storytelling or Cultural Contexts

The objective of this first response paper is to encourage you to develop your voice as a writer. Choose the prompt that resonates with you.

Storytelling Contexts

  • Set the scene for a fictional coming-of-age story for a child/teen/adult who wants to make a difference in the world.
  • Draw upon the types of stories we developed in our “Finding Your Why” activity

Cultural Contexts

  • Select two texts from the above list to compare and contrast.
  • Focus on one issue that the texts have in common (education, identity, success, etc)
  • Write a response that discusses how each text informs the issue you’ve chosen.

Assessment for Response 1

You will be assessed on the following two criteria:

  1. Risk-taking: To what extent does your writing show evidence of risk-taking? Perhaps your writing is error-prone, because you’ve overwhelmed it with rich and complex descriptions or experimental prose; perhaps your ideas don’t all add up, but you’ve planted rich seeds that have potential for growth and revision.
  2. Voice: To what extent does your writing show evidence that you have something to say? The excitement brims from your sentences–you show energy, enthusiasm, or love for your subject.

Response 2: Choose Literary or Historical Contexts

Literary Contexts

  • Perform a close reading of a single word, phrase, or image from a course text, using the Oxford English Dictionary [access via WSU libraries] to develop multiple literal and figurative interpretations of individual words.
  • Consider as many as 3 or 4 definitions of your chosen word in the context of the passage you are analyzing.
  • Close reading resources

Historical Contexts 

Assessment for Response 2

You will be assessed on the following two criteria:

  1. Nuance: Your essay shows that you understand how history and literature contain various shades of interpretation and nuance. You avoid absolutes, and instead, you probe into more detail, seeking out greater complexity in your analysis.
  2. Close Reading: Whether you choose the history article or the literary analysis, you demonstrate great attention to language and details in your discussion of the text. You quote directly from the text, and you put yourself in conversation with the text. 

Project: Research Essay

Important Dates

  • PROPOSAL due: Feb 5, 11:59pm, on Blackboard, 2 pages, double-spaced
  • FINAL due: Feb 26, 5pm, on Blackboard, 6-7 pages, double-spaced, plus a works cited page

Overview

Write an academic essay (6-7 pages) on Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations that includes close readings, peer-reviewed research, and critical perspectives.

Methodologies

  • Your primary methodology is that of literary studies: analyze specific passages in the novel; quote and interpret specific words, metaphors, descriptions; consider plot, setting, conflict, or character.
  • You will also choose between a historical studies perspective or a cultural studies perspective for your research activity. For history, develop your research in nineteenth-century contexts. For cultural studies, focus on one or more of the following: critical studies in culture, gender, race, sexuality, disability, class, identity, nationality, or social justice.

Requirements

  • Cite and quote from the novel itself
  • Cite at least one of one peer-reviewed journal article
  • Cite at least one additional source of your choice
  • Length: 6-7 pages
  • Follow MLA guidelines when formatting your essay and providing a works cited page

Objectives

  • Perform close readings of literature and literary essays that exemplify your understanding of the complexity of words, phrases, and images
  • Conduct peer-reviewed research that advances your understanding of basic research methodologies in literary studies
  • Apply historical or cultural criticism to your reading of a 19th-century literary text to deepen your awareness of the relationships between contemporary and historical issues

Rubric

Your essay will be assessed according to the following parameters:

Concerns (Areas that Need Work)Criteria
(Standards for this Performance)
Advanced (Evidence of Exceeding Standards)
Literary Analysis
Perform a close reading of the novel that demonstrates your understanding of the complexity of words, phrases, and images in language.
Research
Incorporate peer-reviewed research that demonstrates your understanding of basic research methods in literary studies
Cultural or Historical Criticism
Apply historical contexts or cultural criticism to your reading of the novel to deepen your awareness of historical and cultural issues relating to the text
Writing Conventions
Demonstrate facility with academic style and language and competency with various citation methods (from quoting the novel to citing outside sources)