Explanation: I am going to send you Bishop’s and Simic’s poems, which we have worked. It is in your initiative to choose one of them as it is described in the below assignment
Assignment:
Composition Project 1: Title of Project
Composition Project 1:History is apparent in the text
To this point in the course we have read the texts, identifying and speaking to the how the theme of the course appears in the author’s writing. In this first writing project of our course, I will ask you to do a close and deep historical reading of one of the texts. You may choose to write on a selection from one of the memoirs, you may choose to write on a particular poem, or you may choose to write on a selection from one of the author’s work. Once you have identified the theme in the work, I would like you to research some historically important moment and argue for why you believe the work came out of this historical moment. If you are writing about Elizabeth Bishop, this may mean that you address colonialism or feminism, or Bishop’s biography. If you are writing about Simic, you may identify some aspect of WWII and how that aspect informs the writing. We will talk as a class and brainstorm other ways that you might go about accomplishing this task. My expectation is that you will bring at least two experts into your paper. This project contributes to the course goals of close reading, critical thinking, writing analytically, and integrating your ideas with those of others.
As you prepare and work through the process of composing this project, these guiding questions may help you:
1. What are the themes that we have read about so far?
2. What is this author’s biography like generally? What aspects of that biography do you think appear in their work?
3. What might be important or challenging to a person living through that historical moment?
4. Remember that in analyzing themes, we do not stop at the “what.”
1. How is the theme manifested in the text? In the artifact you’ve chosen?
2. Why do you think that theme is important to that cultural artifact?
3. Is it similar or different from the purpose it holds in the text?
Your Audience
For this project consider that your audience needs to be an audience interested in the topics you are discussing. What are you discussing? Certainly you are discussing the literature… what does that literature stand in for? What other groups of academics would be interested in your text? Jewishstudies? History departments? Women’s studies? Depending on what historical identifier you choose, along with your interests, you can write to a number of specific audiences… but you must choose just one!
Length, Form, Documentation
•Length: 1200 words
•Form: Academic essay
•Documentation: sources (including images) must be cited appropriately (if you are citing music, be sure to cite line numbers, as you would a poem)
There are faxes for this order.
