• heading, the title, the works cited page, essay must not exceed 1,500 words

• Paper Format: Essay must have an interesting and original title; must include a works cited page; and must be typed, double-spaced, written in 12-point Times or Times New Roman font, and formatted according to standard MLA style

ENG 203: Hybrid-Online World Literature

ESSAY 3 ASSIGNMENT

Due Date: Sunday, April 22, 2018 by noon (CST)

Overview

Essay 3 is designed to provide you with the opportunity to consider how the form of literary texts contributes to their meaning. Building on the close reading and analytical skills developed in the first two essays, Essay 3 asks you to apply those skills to the matter of literary form. For this assignment, you will select two texts from the list below and make an argument about how specific formal features contribute to the themes and ideas expressed in the texts.

Essay Topic

When we read literature, we often focus exclusively on the content of a text—what a text means, for example—while ignoring how its formal features shape, style, and structure that meaning. Like any artistic medium (painting, music, film, video games), literature creates meaning through both form and content, framing narratives and expressing ideas through a number of different formats, styles, and structures. As such, reading closely and critically involves not just analyzing content (the what) but also matters of form such as style, genre, structure, tone, mood, point of view, and diction (i.e., the how).

This assignment requires you to close read the relationship between form and content in two literary texts. The central question is this: How do specific formal elements help to give shape to the themes, ideas, and concerns of two literary texts? To help organize your essay, you should focus your analysis around 3-4 different formal elements—no more. This will give you the space to think critically about how these elements shape and give form to specific ideas in the two texts.

Choosing a Topic

For this assignment, there are two ways to focus your thinking and organize your essay. You can either:

• Focus on a specific theme or idea shared by two different texts and then make an argument about how each text gives expression to that idea through different formal techniques
• Start with a few formal elements shared by two different texts and then make an argument about how those formal elements give shape to different themes and ideas in literature.

OR

In both cases, the assignment requires that you analyze both the form and the content of a text, making an argument about their relationship. To do this successfully, you will need to think critically about your chosen texts from two different perspectives, focusing your analysis on how different formal elements give shape to specific ideas and content.

To help you brainstorm and get started, here are the possible texts you can write about, followed by a list of formal features and questions to consider.

Possible texts (choose two):

• Ama Ata Aidoo, Anowa
• Meena Alexander, “Grandmother’s Letters”

Possible formal features (focus on 3-4):

• Style and Genre: What is unique about the style or genre of writing? Is the form realistic, fantastical, poetic, dramatic, epic, legendary, magical realist, or a combination thereof? Why do you think the author chose this particular style or genre for presenting the content? What effect does it have?
• Structure: What is unique about how the story is told? Is the structure linear or episodic? Does it follow a chronology or include breaks and jumps in time? Does it utilize flashbacks or foreshadowing, frames and embedded stories, or perhaps even dream sequences? Are there examples of symmetry, repetition, or narrative arc that are unique to the text? When writing about these elements, be sure to cite specific examples and language from the text.
• Tone/Mood/Atmosphere: What is the general character or attitude of the text? How does specific language in the text convey a unique tone or mood, and how does this general atmosphere contribute to its meaning? Is there anything unique about the text’s setting, imagery, or use of figurative language (metaphor, simile, personification, etc.) that contributes to its overall mood?Be sure to anchor your discussion of mood and atmosphere with specific language from the text.
• Point of view: What is unique about the story’s perspective? How does its point of view contribute to its meaning? Why did the author write the story using this perspective?
• Diction: Is there anything unique about the author’s word choice or use of syntax and punctuation? How would you describe the diction of the story? Does the text include ellipses or other forms of punctuation that contribute to its meaning? How does the text’s particular form of writing, speaking, and punctuation contribute to its meaning?

Be sure to watch Dr. Carey’s lectures for suggestions on how to close read and analyze the relationship between form and content. While your argument needs to be your own, feel free to write about formal elements discussed in the lectures. Also, Ms. Stephens’ Writing Workshop on revision, which is scheduled for 04/10, will include helpful advice and suggestions for how to structure an essay that makes an argument focused on two different texts.

Required Essay Components

1) Thesis Statement: Make sure that you have a clear thesis statement that makes an argument about how specific formal elements give shape to the themes, ideas, and concerns of two literary texts.It is not enough to simply state that formal feature A, B, and C give shape to the text; rather, you need to argue how and in what way they contribute to a specific meaning, theme, or idea.

2) Textual Evidence: Make sure to support your argument with evidence from both the text and the text’s formal features. Evidence from the texts will include quotes, as well as descriptions and examples of specific formal features. Remember to describe the formal features with precision and detail, quoting specific language, images, and aspects of the text to flesh out your argument.

3) Analysis: Make sure to close read and analyze your textual and formal evidence. Think critically about the author’s formal decisions in the text—and tie your analysis back to your thesis statement.

Structuring Your Essay

Paragraph 1:

• Your introductory paragraph must introduce the texts, the specific theme(s) that you’ll be considering, and the formal features that you’ll be analyzing. It must lead up to a clear thesis statement in which you make an argument about how specific formal features give shape to the text’s meaning. It must also end with a strong transition to your next paragraph.

Paragraph 2, 3, 4, etc. (body paragraphs—as many as needed)

• Each body paragraph must begin with a clear topic sentence forecasting the content of the paragraph. Each body paragraph should include analysis, close reading, and argument in support of your broader thesis.
• For this specific essay, feel free to organize your paragraphs around different formal features—using one paragraph, for example, to analyze point of view, another to analyze structure, another diction, etc.
• Each paragraph needs to provide textual and formal evidence to support your argument. You must also offer compelling close reading of the evidence that clearly demonstrates how it contributes to your argument.

Conclusion

• Your conclusion must link the various parts of your argument into one cohesive whole. Reassert and restate your argument in new words.