Length: 4-5 pages (with 1" margins, in 12-point Times)
"[The] historical mode is grounded on the concepts that history itself is not a set of fixed, objective facts but, like the literature with which it interacts, a text which needs to be interpreted; that a text, whether literary or historical, is a discourse which, although it may seem to present, or reflect, an external reality, in fact consists of what are called representations Ñ that is, verbal formations which are the 'ideological products' or 'cultural constructs' of a particular era; and that these cultural and ideological representations in texts serve mainly to reproduce, confirm, and propagate the power-structures of domination and subordination which characterize a given society" (Abrams 249).
Your second assignment is to write a paper which performs a careful, comparative cultural analysis of TWO of the texts we have read so far this semester. You may select Sister Carrie or The House of Mirth to be one of those texts; however, you may not select the same text you wrote about in your first paper.
This assignment will require you to formulate a very specific argument about the differing ways in which two of our texts depict some aspect of changing, modernizing American culture. This argument must, as always, be supported by very careful textual analysis.
The goal of this paper, as opposed to the first paper you wrote, is to examine the two texts you select as representations of modern American culture. This paper should not isolate the text from its cultural and historical background, but should in fact engage that background. This may require some research on your part. Use your discretion.
Thus, the assignment takes the following as its assumptions:
1. You must make a very specific argument about the relationships of the two texts you select.
2. This argument must be cultural or historical in nature, rather than strictly textual. If you don't get the distinction I'm making here, re-read the excerpt from M. H. Abrams's Glossary of Literary Terms that I gave you on the first day of class.
3. Your argument must be supported by a careful close reading of the texts you select.
If you need examples of this kind of critical work, check the MLA Bibliography (available over Honnold's web server) for recent articles published on topics that seem similar to yours. Read these articles carefully, not just for their content, but also for their form. And remember Ñ if you borrow anything from an article you read, you must cite it.
Final notes: Your paper must be typed or word-processed, must be handed in in hard copy, titled, double-spaced. It must use MLA format. And please proofread it carefully before handing it in.
I will happily look at early drafts as soon as they're ready, but will not comment on any drafts received after 5 p.m., Monday, October 16. Drafts handed in after 1 p.m., Friday, October 13 must be sent to me by e-mail.