research essay of this play

Prompt

Jackie Sibblies Drury’s play, “We Are Proud to Present a Presentation about the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, between the Years 1884-1915”, covers a lot of difficult, turbulent ground. At once a work of metatheatre and a postdramatic lesson on the complexities of unfolding genocides – complexities felt by both victims and perpetrators of such genocides – Drury’s play encourages the audience to reflect on issues of genocide, memory, and human complicity in atrocities, while also disclosing a little-known history. By reading and viewing Drury’s play, and by researching themes related to the play, you are able to make unique connections for your reader, showing them how scholars have thought about the issues raised in this play, and how the play itself communicates such information in an artistic format.

Instructions:

For your final two major writing assignments for the course, you have composed an annotated bibliography, and will now write a research essay. These two assignments are connected: the resources you explored in your annotated bibliography will likely become the sources you use to support your thesis and claims in the research essay. Building on the research you have done in your annotated bibliography, bring your sources into conversation with one another, to present your reader with a researched essay that enables them to see the connections between your research and the play itself.

Like an argument essay, a research project provides a thesis and supports that thesis through research, observation, and analysis/claims. A research essay in this context will bring together multiple sources that address a common theme (or set of themes) relevant to the play and the thesis you want to support, based in the research you have done for your annotated bibliography. The thesis will draw on this research, demonstrating how it has shaped your understanding of “We Are Proud to Present…” and the kinds of issues it raises. What do you want readers to understand about this play, this history, these patterns, and what scholars have had to say about these? What kind of thesis – about the play, and/or about the issues raised in the play – can you build, based on the scholarship you have reviewed for your annotated bibliography?

Notes:

As well, you have some decisions on how you approach this assignment. Usually, in ACMB01, this final theatrical performance is the core object of engagement in the research essay. This may not be possible in the same ways this term. You can certainly make the play (performance and/or script) the centerpiece of the essay, to which you apply insights collected from your scholarly research in the annotated bibliography. If you would prefer to focus on developing the issues you discovered in the annotated bibliography more deeply, the play can act more as one point of reference among others. The play remains a required resource, but you may use it as an object to which you apply analysis, or you may use it as an example of a media text that represents issues found in your research.

Assignment Details

Length: 1300-1750 words, including a separate Works Cited page. Do not include a title page.

Sources: Your research essay should bring together no fewer than 7 academic sources, in addition to the play itself (text, performance, or both), for a total of 8 minimum sources (9 sources, if you use both the text and performance of the play). Many or all of these sources should carry over from your annotated bibliography. Note that there are fewer sources “required” for the essay. As you get into the process of writing, you may find that a few resources are not as useful as you initially thought they would be, as you refine your thesis and argumentation. This is simply part of the process of writing – sometimes, you get rid of a few sources; sometimes, you add a few sources. You simply need to see where the essay takes you, and what you need to support your ideas. Just note that cramming in a source simply because it was in the annotated bibliography is not required; just as every paragraph, sentence, and word in your essay should serve a particular purpose, so should every resource.