Nat Turner Confessions

ENG 283: Close Reading Assignment (Draft One)

Taylor 2

Directions:

1) Focus on one text from the list below:

Silko, “Pueblo Ecology”

Creation/Trickster Narrative(s)

de Vaca, “The Relation of Cabeza de Vaca”

Rowlandson, “Captivity and Restoration”

Bradford, “Of Plymouth Plantation”

Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

2) Perform a close reading on a section or group of sections from a text. To do so:

i. Identify a pattern by focusing on one literary device. This should show up often and it should seem significant to you.

1. What is the device? _____________________

ii. Further identify. List at least three examples of this device.

1.

2.

3.

iii. Notice. Say something related yet distinct about each example of your device. Where does it occur? When? What’s happening in the same moment? What does the device suggest or “do” in that distinct moment.

1.

2.

3.

iv. Ask. Ask a question about the significance of your pattern of devices. For example, “ how does the tone convey feeling? Or how does the tone reflect the narrator’s perspective?

*Ultimately, your close reading will help you answer your question. If you can’t think of a question, use one of the prompts below to explore a new idea. These questions are intentionally broad; be specific in your essay by offering your own unique interpretation of the literary devices in a text. Be sure to define your terms and devices.

Based on your close reading of a text:

1. What is at the heart of American confessions?

2. What is the confessional tradition “about”?

3. What does the early-American literary tradition suggest about the power of place and/or space?

4. What is the American origin story? What has a work of early-American literature suggested about American beginnings?

5. Based on your reading, what is the pursuit? What has a work of early-American literature suggested about the pursuit? How is it defined?

6. Based on your reading, how were aspects of early-American identity created and remade? Challenged? What does a work of early-American literature suggest about the making, limits, and possibilities of identity?

7. What does the early-American literary tradition suggest about rebellion and/or resistance?

8. What does a work of early-American literature suggest about the power of belief?

9. What is the role of voice, authorship or authority in a work of early-American literature? (May include the power of orality/the power of speech.)

10. Based on your reading, what do you see as a key conflict or tension during the early-American period?

11. What is a recurrent theme in early-American literature?

12. How do early-American authors negotiate audience (the reader) and to what end?

13. What is the role of food, nature/environment, clothing, or another related aspect in early-American literature (can relate to one of the above)?

14. A student-generated question (from discussion or group work).

15. Another topic of your choice.

Structure

Opening Paragraph** (will eventually become a formal introduction):

a. One sentence that states your text and the literary device, textual element, pattern, term, theme, or preoccupation that you will examine.

b. One sentence that explains what you think the pattern means, or how you look at the specific literary device or textual element. This statement of what you think the pattern means, or how you look at the pattern should teach your reader how he or she may look at the text as a whole. You may need to write this LAST.

** Eventually, you will develop this sentence into a full introduction w/thesis statement.

Body Paragraphs:

Each body paragraph should discuss your device or pattern of devices. Each paragraph should focus on one example that is part of your set :

i. Begin with a topic sentence (state the focus and main point of the paragraph).

ii. Include a quote that demonstrates the main point in your paragraph (primary source evidence).

iii. Analyze and discuss this quote (primary source evidence); explain how the quote relates to the main point in the paragraph and the paper as a whole.

iv. Transition to the next body paragraph.

A Brief Conclusion:

2 paragraphs

Reflect. Explain why you think the literary device or textual element you examine is important. What do we learn by reading the text this way? Ultimately this reflection will help you form your full thesis statement at a later time.

Discuss what you would research to support your paper topic (secondary source evidence). What would you research (history, culture, devices, literary terms, definitions)?

Formatting reminders:

1” margins

2

Double-spaced

Name, Class, Assignment & Date, top left corner

Last name and consecutive page numbers as a right header

*This paper is not a traditional or “full” essay. The assignment asks you to focus on the early steps of thinking and writing critically about a literary work before attempting to write a full paper with a thesis statement and statement of exigency.