Choose one of the following options. You should choose the option that you think will provide a spark for your thinking about the literary texts. Please be sure to reference and analyze specific passages from the literary work(s) in your response.
1) Polyphony and Empathy: If you look up the word polyphony, you will find that in addition to meaning many voices in the case of literature that it also refers to a musical composition with at least two lines of melody that work independently. In Lalami’s The Other Americans, Nora’s work as a composer and musician further emphasizes this link. As we have discussed in the course, empathy requires the ability to see and communicate across difference to understand another person’s feelings and experience. For this response, create a thesis-driven argument about how the many-voiced narrative structure of The Other Americans relates to empathy. Draw on multiple textual examples and, if necessary, outside sources to make your argument. The interview with Lalami, Jocelyn Frelier’s “Cultivating Empathy and Humility: A Conversation with Laila Lalami,” could be a useful source.
2) Mystery, Memory, and Empathy: From the moment of Driss’s death in a hit-and-run incident, Lalami’s The Other Americans unfolds as a mystery story to understand who killed Driss Guerraoui and why. The narrative eventually answers that question, but it through going through the experiences of its range of narrators, the novel also delves into their memories and pasts–the events, mistakes, experiences, and traumas that shape them. And, finally, the novel looks at the experience of a range of Americans–Moroccan immigrants, an undocumented immigrant, a war veteran, and others. For this response, create a thesis-driven argument about the relationship between mystery, memory, and empathy. How and why does Lalami draw attention to memory through using a mystery story plot, and how does this approach relate to empathy for the “other” Americans? What do you think she wants us to think about the “other” Americans? Draw on multiple textual examples and, if necessary, outside sources to make your argument. The interview with Lalami, Jocelyn Frelier’s “Cultivating Empathy and Humility: A Conversation with Laila Lalami,” could be a useful source.
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