Please write an essay that makes substantial use of a critical approach

ENGLISH 2000 – Introduction to Textual Studies

Essay – (25 points) – Due by July 30

• Please write an essay that makes substantial use of a critical approach (See pages 1359-1376), and through that lens analyze a particular work(s) of literature that is on our syllabus, remembering to base your paper on a thesis/claim that unites your paper. (See pages 1420-1424) for an example of a student’s research paper.
• Read pages 1377-1393 and 1397-1407 very carefully, paying particular attention to the chart on pages 1385-1387!
• Since you are writing a Literary Analysis, please read pages 1408-1424, on writing a Literary Analysis using sources. Remember to use at least three scholarly sources that either support or refute your thesis. Follow MLA format using pages 1415-1420 or using the Auraria Library’s resources or Purdue Owl online.
• Use Parenthetical References (see pages 1419-1420) whenever you quote texts/rely on textual material (paraphrase, summarize), or whenever you cite a reference. Punctuation matters!
• Please include a Works Cited page also in MLA format.
• This paper should be approximately 5 pages, excluding the Works Cited page.

Here are some possible subjects, but feel free to explore any combination that deeply interests you.

• The role of women in male texts: Ruth in “Killings”; Desdemona or Emilia or Bianca in Othello; the grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”; the woman in Stevens’ “Sunday Morning”.
• Race as depicted in diverse texts, e.g. O’Connor’s stories; Othello; the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance; Ellison’s “Battle Royal”.
• The interplay of text and graphic/comic in Bechdel’s Fun Home.
• The different versions of our future as depicted in “Harrison Bergeron” and the film Arrival.
• The role of Nature in any of our texts. See particularly “Sunday Morning”, “The Dead”, Fun Home.
• “Othering” in any of our texts. See particularly Othello, Fun Home, Arrival.