Existentailism assingment

Purpose:

The purpose of this assignment is to make connections either among the ideas, characters, narratives and images you’ve learned in this course. Notice that I need to see that you’ve absorbed a good amount of material from this course. If your essay could have been written, more or less, by someone who has never taken this course, then you will not do well!

Instructions:

1) Link any two or three readings or other materials from within this course. Some possibilities include:

a) An in-depth analysis of a literary or filmic narrative based on

a theory (i.e., Camus, de Beauvoir, Sartre, Kierkegaard).

b) A contrastive comparison between two theorists on a certain point, for example,

Sartre and Kierkegaard on the notion of faith.

c) A critique of two writers on the same grounds. For example, you might argue

against the transcendence of the ethical domain in both Camus and Kierkegaard. Or

you might argue that the conception of freedom in de Beauvoir and Sartre only really

makes sense in a context of political upheaval.

d) Insert your ideas here! That is what I am most interested in having you write

about – so long as they are closely focussed on course material.

I have designed this course with these links in mind, starting right from our first film. I could imagine every possible combination of materials we’ve used yielding interesting essay topics. I’ll let you be creative.

2) Run your topic by me if you’re not sure about it.

3) Organize your essay however you see fit. Just try to keep each paragraph focussed on a single point if possible, and organize the paragraphs logically in order to develop your thesis (i.e, explain it point by point). Just be sure include a clear thesis statement in the introductory paragraph, and do include a brief conclusion where you state what you think you have accomplished in your essay.

4) You may draw on ideas from your written responses. I don’t advise copying-and-pasting, though, as it will most likely be awkward. Simply putting a few of your responses back to back with some rewording will end up being a bad essay. I am looking for an in-depth sense of similarity, difference, illustration, etc. If you are concerned that your connection might be too superficial, again, contact me about it.

5) Use the word ‘I’ whenever you see fit (if you want to).

6) Make sure that you are using quotations from the assigned text(s) fairly regularly. I want you to be staying close to the texts. NOTE: avoiding the text and relying on Wikipedia or Sparknotes or something like that will likely be very evident to me and won’t go over well!

7) Given point 6), you should still try to make the essay sound like your own written voice, as opposed to slight rewording of the texts you’re dealing with. Those usually don’t end up making much sense, by the way.

8) Include either footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography. Use MLA or APA—just be consistent please.

Note very well: if you use any sources other than the texts we’ve been using, be sure to cite them. This includes all internet sources you use—even if you don’t take quotations from them. Failure to do so will result in a ZERO for plagiarism. By the time you find out that this has happened, final grades will already be in the system.

Please also note: Since this is worth 30%, I will be looking closely for plagiarism.

DO NOT USE ANY SOURCES WITHOUT CITING THEM, EVEN IF YOU DON’T QUOTE THEM DIRECTLY!!!

Also note: no secondary sources are needed—or even recommended, to be honest.