ILO #1) Analyze a variety of texts using a particular disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective.
Final Assignment
Title: What Happens to Literature as It Travels Across Time and Place?
Assignment Overview
Throughout this semester, we have read literary works that were shaped by specific cultural and historical contexts—and then transformed as they moved across time, geography, sociocultural and political context, and language. For this final assignment, you are invited to trace the “journeys” of one such text: How has it been translated, reinterpreted, appropriated, distorted, coopted, or adapted? What do these changes reveal about power, culture, and the politics of reading, translating, and interpreting texts? Your analysis will be guided by Edward Said’s theory of “Traveling Theory” and Jorge Luis Borges’ reflections on The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.
Key Themes to Explore
- Translation as Transformation
- In what ways does translation reshape a literary text?
- How does the translator’s role impact meaning, tone, and cultural nuance?
- Who is the imagined or intended audience in each version or iteration of the text?
- Reception and Adaptation
- How have different audiences, across time and place, reinterpreted the text? Who is the imagined or intended reader in each version or iteration?
- What shifts occur when literature is adapted into new forms or even genre or reframed within new cultural or historical contexts?
- The Text as Artifact
- What insights does the text offer into the world in which it was originally produced—and into the societies that later received it?
- How do power, politics, and ideology shape the meaning and interpretation of the work?
Assignment Structure
Step 1: Research Plan
Due: April 18 |
Submit a 2-3 page ( 600-800 words) research plan including:
- Chosen Primary Text: Select one translated literary work studied in class.
- Research Question: Identify a focused question about the text’s “travel” (e.g., translation, reception, ideological framing).
- Tentative Thesis: Propose an initial argument or perspective.
- Preliminary Sources with annotations: List and annotate 3–4 sources you plan to use (course readings may be included).
- Rationale: Explain why this question matters—what you hope to uncover or critique.
Wait for my instructions and feedback before you begin working on your paper.
Step 2: Writing the Paper
Due: Thursday, May 15 @ 11:00 a.m. |
Write a 5-7 page draft of your paper (1.5 spaced, not including quotes from primary text or the bibliography) that:
- Presents a clear thesis in response to your research question
- Provides a brief overview of the original text and its context
- Analyzes how the text has been translated, interpreted, or reframed
- Engages critically with Edward Said and Jorge Luis Borges
- Uses MLA citations and includes a bibliography
- Is carefully proofread
- Is Peerreviewed by a classmate- evidence of peer review must be submitted by the final submission date as a separate document. Separate peer reviewed draft is worth 5 points.
Step 3: Final Paper submission
Due: Thursday, May 15 @ 11:00 a.m. | Worth 22 points
Your final paper should:
- Present a clear thesis in response to your research question
- Provide a brief overview of the original text and its historical/cultural context
- Analyze how the text has been translated, interpreted, reframed…etc. over time or space.
- Engage critically with the works or ideas of Edward Said and Jorge Luis Borges
- Reflect incorporation of feedback from Step 1 (Research Plan) and Step 2 (Peer Review)
- Use MLA citation style consistently and accurately, and include a full bibliography
- Be carefully proofread
- Be submitted on time as a shared Word document
Appendix E. Essay #4 Instructions
STEP #1: CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS
OPTION #1. Discuss a text or set of texts by one of the writers/artists mentioned below. Your essay must make use of scholarship. Such scholarship might take the form of traditional literary criticism and/or work in a related field such as cultural studies, postcolonial studies, history, or sociology. For this option, I will expect you to make use of at least two articles, two book chapters, or one of each. One of your two required sources can be an article or essay that I gave to you: the articles and essays by Ashley Dawson, Seamus Heaney (in Broadview), Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Broadview), Philip Auslander, or Janet Gardner (referenced in the PowerPoint on Top Girls). This means that you must find at least one source on your own.
OPTION #2. Write a comparison/contrast essay on an important theme within postwar literature (broadly defined, 1945-2000) that involves at least two works by two different writers/artists (see the list of possible choices below). Your essay must make use of scholarship. Such scholarship might take the form of traditional literary criticism and/or work in a related field such as cultural studies, postcolonial studies, history, or sociology. For this option, I will expect you to make use of at least one article or book chapter that you have found on your own.
STEP #2: CHOOSE A TEXT OR SET OF TEXTS WITH WHICH TO WORK
This is a list of our post-1945 readings by genre:
- Poetry: Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Hill, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Seamus Heaney, Louise Bennett, M. Nourbese Philip, Alice Oswald, Grace Nichols, Jay Bernard [Note: if you would like to work on poems by these poets that you were not assigned on the syllabus, I am open to it, but you must get my approve to do in advance]
- Music: David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars [working with other work by Bowie may be acceptable with approval in advance]
- Drama: Beckett, Rockaby, Eh Joe; Churchill, Top Girls; Kane, Crave, 4.48 Psychosis
- Film: Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning; Kureishi/Frears, My Beautiful Laundrette, Humphrey Jennings, London Can Take It and Listen to Britain (pre-1945, but fine to use)
- Fiction: Sam Selvon, “Calypsonian,” “Calypso in London,” or “My Girl and the City”; J.G. Ballard, “Theatre of War,” “The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race,” and “The Secret History of World War 3”
STEP #3: CHOOSE A TOPIC
Here is a partial list of topics that you might choose to address: performance; language; masculinity, femininity, gender; sexuality and/or sexual identity; race, ethnicity, and/or cultural identity; multiculturalism; business or work; colonialism and/or the end of empire; politics (the welfare state, the consensus, Thatcherism, etc.); the working class; Ireland and/or Irish writing; nature; place; ethics; music; the body; the family.
Mid-Term Paper Instructions
Assignment
The mid-term paper (4–6 pages) investigates a specific philosophical question through a detailed examination of course material. You will choose a narrow focus on a topic that interests you and conduct a detailed examination of how it is treated in two of our course texts. As part of your analysis, you will reflect on each text’s ways of knowing/evaluating, their purpose, their intended audience, and their method of delivery. This assignment gives you a chance to grapple more deeply with a topic that matters to you, while considering how different rhetorical choices affect delivery of content in different texts.
Learning Objectives
The objective of this assignment is to analyze two texts using a particular disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective, while considering how different rhetorical choices affect delivery of content in different texts.
General Guidelines
- Formulate a specific question or problem you’re investigating in two course texts.
- Compare how the question is treated in each text’s ways of knowing/evaluating, their purpose, their intended audience, and their method of delivery.
- Carefully analyze specific, relevant passages from each work, presenting evidence from the text (by quoting and paraphrasing ideas and arguments).
- Explain in detail the texts’ relevant ideas or arguments in order to demonstrate your nuanced grasp of the material.
ILO #2) Use communication strategies appropriate for one or more specified audiences.
Project 2: Profiles—the Epic Story
In Brief
- Write a profile story of about 800 words that takes a public audience inside the life of an interesting person who is not a family member or a friend.
- Your story should reach beyond a simple or two-dimensional rendering of this person, giving readers a glimpse of both the epic story of their life and the particular details of their daily living, as observed firsthand by you, the writer.
- In portraying your person, consider newsworthiness: imagine you are writing this piece for (your choice of) a specific local, regional, or national newspaper, and identify what the readership cares about and expects from that publication. Your writing should be shaped by those reader expectations, and you should explain your choices in a letter included with your submission.
- Your story should incorporate quotes: multiple from your person of interest, as well a quote each from at least two people who know the person.
Relevance
This assignment will ask you to practice these skills:
- Plan out an interview methodology. Conduct your interviews while upholding suitable public and professional ethics.
- Identify what readers of public media expect and want from the writing they read, so as to better engage those readers.
- Develop interview questions that hew to journalistic norms and expectations: they do not lead, but they do elicit interesting commentary from interviewees.
- Effectively sort interview content to identify the best quotes for your story, and then integrate those quotations following standard journalistic convention.
- Write in a tight but colorful public style that favors concrete objects and scenes, suitable to many public contexts, such as newspaper articles, newsletters, and non-profit communication.
- Organize stories of greater length, with more moving parts, so they retain clear focus.
These are highly transferable public writing skills suitable to a range of journalistic, creative, PR, communications, and non-profit-type writing; they are core skills for civil life.
Expectations
Initial planning letter [10 points] (submit physically by the start of class on 3/14):
- Choose a person who isn’t family or a close friend. This can be someone you know or someone you know of, and they can be part of your local community or a community of practice you are generally familiar with. [2 points]
- The entire production process should be informed by your goal as a writer: what kind of profile will you write? What kind of story do you think you might tell? When journalists interview, they interview toward a concept of what they think the story might be. Describe so I can understand your vision, and you can, too. [4 points]
- Create a list of interview questions that are ethical and do not artificially lead interviewees. [4 points]
Interview Phase [ungraded, but vetted; see ‘Final process letter’ below] (plan to conduct between 3/18 and 3/23):
- Plan and conduct three interviews: one with the person and two with people who can provide color or detail about that person.
- All interviews should be responsibly solicited. Interviewees should be clearly informed about the purpose to which their words will be put.
- All interviews should be accurately recorded by note-taking or audio or video recording with interviewees’ assent.
- As the writer, you should observe your interviewee doing at least one process or task related to their work, which you then represent accurately in your story.
Final process letter [10 points] (submit physically as part of article submission by the start of class on 3/28):
- Provide contact information for all three interviewees, and briefly describe the interview process. [2 points]
- Briefly describe the publication you are writing for: where is it published? what kind of writing conventions are common in it? who are its readers? what do they expect from the writing they read? [4 points]
- Briefly describe your process of writing: planning, challenges, choices, insights, and observations about your version history/workflow. How did your work reflect and meet the needs of the audience? [4 points]
Article [130 points] (drop link with complete version history into Moodle text box and hand in physical copy for professor review on 3/28):
Organization [30 points]:
- The story should be effectively organized in feature style:
- anecdotal lede [4 points]
- nut graf [6 points]
- a series of scenes (interspersed) [6 points]
- chronology of events, history, biography, etc. (interspersed) [6 points]
- what lies ahead [5 points]
- kicker. [3 points]
- Stories should use standard journalistic style, in which every paragraph has one point of focus. Paragraphs should be short.
Quotation [16 points]:
- Quotations should be distinct and compelling, never dull or obvious. [8 points]
- They should be formulated according to journalistic norms; for example, quotations in a journalistic story rarely begin in the middle of a paragraph, and they always include attribution. [5 points]
- They should be punctuated accurately. [3 points]
Style [34 points]:
- Writing should be precise, meaning that it should be concise without erasing nuance. [8 points]
- Writing should be neutral, earnest, and interested in the subject, not evaluative. Critical appraisal of the story’s character(s) should come only from the characters in the story, although the writer may exercise light observational commentary on the subject’s daily life or routine. [8 points]
- Writing should recreate scenes, with clear objects and actions that help readers understand events and appreciate them. [10 points]
- Writing should favor implication: particularly in the use of quotes, writing can imply more about a subject that is explicitly on the page, and this is one of the core arts of effective writing. [8 points]
Written content [40 points]:
- The story should provide readers with a glimpse into the subject’s daily living. [9 points]
- The story should also provide a sense of the larger tapestry of the person’s life: glimpses of biography, belief, culture, philosophy, activity, etc. [9 points]
- Readers should know why this person is newsworthy. [8 points]
- Aim for about 800 words, give or take. You have some flexibility here. [4 points] Include a meaningful, interesting title. [2 points]
- Use AP style. [8 points]
Visual content [10 points]:
- Concept: photograph your subject in flâneur style, revealing them candidly at work or in the course of daily life for readers who do not know about them. [4 points]
- Composition: frame the subject appropriately to reveal something about their identity. [4 points]
- Journalistic ethics: ensure the photograph is sharp, clear, and undergoes a minimum of editing restricted to cropping, white balance/color correction, and adjustment of brightness and contrast. [4 points]
- Caption the photo in journalistic style and position the photo logically within the story. [2 point]
Journalistic Integrity
In keeping with general journalistic practice, any falsification of information, use of an existing news story, or generation of first-draft content using AI will result in failure for this assignment. If you have questions about this point, please ask.
SHORT TAKES (20% of grade): HOT TAKES & COMMENTARIES
Throughout the semester, you will write two “hot takes” and two “glosses” on works of literature and/or criticism that we are reading. These short writings should be no longer than 400 words each. They are meant for different audiences–so as you write them, consider the tone and intent of your writing choices! Your hot takes and commentaries will be turned in digitally. For each hot take/commenta1y due date, you will have the choice of which to write (as long as there are 2 of each).
HOT TAKE:
As in today’s online, hypersaturated journalism universe, HOT TAKES are meant to be a bit sharp-edged, attention-getting, even a little controversial or polemical. They are meant to turn heads and draw attention to an opinion that’s perhaps a little saucy. In the media, a hot take often means little more than the clicks it baits, but in the context of this academic course, your hot takes should also be based in good, thoughtful reading of the text itself, using direct, quoted evidence followed by shrewd, insightful commentary in order to make your point.
COMMENTARY:
A COMMENTARY is a more traditional short write-up, meant less to turn heads than to provide useful, summarial interpretation of a text or a textual moment. These also must incorporate direct, quoted evidence, but they should not make a point of being very edgy. Rather, they offer critical insight and helpfully contextualize the text under consideration in an academic setting (e.g., what issues or problems does it engage; what tensions does it evoke; what history is it a part of?). Feel free to incorporate a secondary text (e.g., a scholarly article) to reinforce your commentary.
Assignment Description:
For your assigned sonnet, keeping a high-school or early college-level audience in mind, produce a standardized-spelling edition that includes:
- Thoughtful footnotes that illuminate
- early modern meanings of words, including double-meanings
- allusions to other poems, myths, and/or historical events
- formal elements of the sonnet (including metrical variations and line ending types)
- viewpoints on the text inspired by queer theory
- A paragraph to guide readers, including explication of the formal and historical/contextual elements you’ve identified in the footnotes
- 3-4 questions for discussion based on the sonnet
- at least one should involve queer theory or cite a queer theorist