Unit 2 Project

There are 4 questions on this test but you only have to complete 3. It’s up to you which 3 you choose to complete. There’s no extra credit for completing 4—just do your best on the 3 you do.

There is no word minimum or maximum for each answer: each answer should simply be as long as they need to be in order for you to feel like you’ve fully answered the question.

This test is untimed but is designed to take no more than 3 hours. It may take longer if you haven’t already completed the work in this class and/or attended the class discussions and taken good notes.

This test is open book. That means you can consult your course reader, class notes, and any of the course materials posted to Blackboard. I would strongly encourage you not to search the web for help answering these questions; the best source for help answering these questions is the course material. Please review the course policy on plagiarism in the syllabus.

If you’d like to discuss your thoughts on these questions with a peer in the class, you’re welcome to do that. We only require that you do not copy each other’s work. Your answers must be in your own words. Note that this may mean that you and your friend receive different grades on an answer you both discussed: how well you articulate your thoughts and analyze your evidence is an important factor in your grade. Two students with the same basic answer may nonetheless execute those answers very differently.

Finally, a note on how to do well:

Once again, this test is designed to test your critical thinking skills—in particular, this time, your growing ability to close read and interpret literary texts.

Because we’re looking for demonstrations of your ability to produce critical analyses of literary texts, stronger answers on this test will be those that are:

1) Organized by a clearly-stated and nuanced thesis

2) Well-supported by quotation and analysis of textual details.

So beware overly general answers and summarizing—broad claims not backed up by quotations and analysis and not organized towards the defense or development of your central thesis may not net you a passing grade. Show us your close reading and analytical writing skills!

QUESTION 1: cummings on the convention of cowboy masculinity

“Buffalo Bill” Cody was famous for creating and performing in “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” show, a popular touring show in the late 19th to early 20th century which helped to crystallize the image of the American “cowboy” as a swaggering, straight-shooting killer of buffalo and “Injuns” (aka Native Americans).

e e cummings’s poem, “Buffalo Bill’s,” can be read as a poem that’s challenging a story about what defines American masculinity that, for cummings, was epitomized in the figure of Buffalo Bill Cody (who died in 1917, shortly before this poem was published). Please write an analysis of cummings’ poem “Buffalo Bill’s” which supports and develops the thesis that this Modernist poem is critical of the “American cowboy” image of masculinity that Buffalo Bill embodied. Please conclude your analysis with a reflection on how the poem’s experimental or anti-Realist style is related to its anti-gender-convention message.

Important tips:

1) Be sure that your answer begins with a statement of your thesis (you can copy or paraphrase the one provided)

2) Be sure that your answer supports its thesis by close reading the poem including, for instance (although you don’t have to talk about ALL of these): its language and imagery, punctuation, line breaks, use of spacing, shape on the page, etc.

3) Ends with that reflection on the relation of the poem’s experimental style to its content.

Other tips:

1) Look up “defunct”

2) “pigeons” in line 6 refers to clay pigeons (that’s why they “break”)

3) For the purposes of this reading assume that “Jesus” in line 7 is solely meant as an exclamation

QUESTION 2: McKay on violence and restraint

This past summer there was much discussion in the media about the ethics of violent protest. Violence and restraint are key themes in the Harlem Renaissance-era sonnets by Claude McKay that you read for this class. Focusing specifically on the poems “If We Must Die” and “The White House,” please write an essay answering the following question: based on what Claude McKay says about violence and restraint in these two poems, would Claude McKay defend violent protest or would he insist upon nonviolent protest?

Important tips:

1) Please bear in mind that this is not a question that asks you for your opinion about the ethics of violent protest. This question is only asking you to make an informed judgment about what you think Claude McKay’s opinion would be, based upon your close reading of these two poems. This means that you may find yourself describing a position on this question that you yourself don’t hold—that’s fine, the only thing of interest to us is that you do a compelling job of representing what you take to be McKay’s opinion, and explaining why you think the poems support your conclusion.

2) There is no correct answer to this question. The two poems offer potential evidence for either position (that McKay would defend violent protest or that he wouldn’t). So it will be entirely possible to write a great answer taking either position. What matters is execution: how carefully and insightfully do you analyze McKay’s language in these two poems, and how well do you use that evidence to develop a nuanced description of McKay’s thoughts on this question? Show us your close reading and critical thinking skills here!

3) Please be sure your answer begins with a thesis statement and proceeds to support and develop that thesis with close readings of the poems (quote them directly, and analyze the language you quote)!

QUESTION 3: Tracing constructions of gender across Modernist works

William Faulkner’s short story, “Dry September,” and Langston Hughes’s poem, “Silhouette,” both explore how lynching was a phenomenon that was often not only about enforcing the lynchers’ ideas about race but about enforcing their ideas about gender.

Please write an essay that explains what these two texts about lynching tell us about the inherited social conventions governing Southern white femininity in this period: according to these texts, what message does lynching send Southern white women about their sexuality and about what gives them value in the eyes of their society? According to these texts, how is the Southern white woman’s freedom restricted by these conventions? Finally, please conclude your essay with a reflection on how Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem, “I being born a woman and distressed,” offers a contrasting, Modernist depiction of female sexuality that departs from the conventions that Faulkner’s and Hughes’s works describe.

Important tips:

1) Your essay should with a thesis statement that makes a claim about Southern white femininity in “Dry September” and “Silhouette.”

2) Your essay should support and develop that thesis with close readings of quotations from the texts (including Millay’s in the final reflection).

3) Remember that what we’re interested in here is not your own thoughts/opinions on constructions of Southern white femininity, nor are we interested in generalized statements about constructions of Southern white femininity. We are interested in your ability to derive insights about Southern white femininity from the language of these texts. What do the texts themselves say about this topic, where do they say it, and how do the specific words and images they choose matter? Please be careful not to simply summarize or generalize: ground your claims in quotations from the text that you analyze in detail.

QUESTION 4: Reflecting on the Great Migration in Cane

In two poems from Cane that we read but did not discuss, “Face” and “Her Lips Are Copper Wire,” Jean Toomer constructs portraits of two different women. The woman depicted in “Face” belongs to the landscape of the “Old Negro,” and the woman depicted in “Her Lips Are Copper Wire” belongs to the landscape of the “New Negro.” Please write an essay that uses these two poems to develop a thesis about how Toomer feels about the Great Migration, about what is gained and what is lost in it. Your essay should concentrate on analyzing the imagery that Toomer uses to describe these two women—with what kinds of objects, locations, and histories does his imagery associate each woman? And what and how do those images tell us about Toomer’s feelings towards each woman?

Important tips:

1) Your essay should with a thesis statement that makes a claim about what these poems tell us about Toomer’s feelings about the Great Migration.

2) Your essay should support and develop that thesis with close readings of the language and imagery of “Faces” and “Her Lips Are Copper Wire.” Be sure to quote and to analyze the connotations and emotional tones of the words/images you’re quoting.

3) You may draw on supporting information from lectures if you wish. But remember that the heart of this essay should be your close reading of these two poems.