slave narrative paper

FINAL PAPER/CREATIVE PROJECT ASSIGNMENT ENGL 447

Spring 2015 Select one of the three options below for your final essay or creative project. Do not write on the same text as you did for your midterm essay. You are encouraged to work with your peers, make use of the Writing Center, and/or consult with me at various stages of your project. Due Thursday April 30, at the start of class. OPTION 1: TRADITIONAL LITERARY ANALYSIS Write a 7-10 page essay that examines ONE literary text from our syllabus. You may choose one of the essay prompts below, or you may devise your own essay question(s).

1. How does your text define or engage notions of freedom, and how does the text engage the quest for liberty? What enables or obstructs access to freedom in this text, and why is this significant for the text as a whole?

2. What is the relationship of your chosen text’s conceptions of freedom to writing, literacy, and/or creative expression? How does the text tie literature or group culture to particular aspects of freedom struggle?

3. The proliferation of the neo-slave narrative genre suggests a widespread desire among writers, filmmakers, and artists to recover the history of slavery in the West, and to explore various legacies of slavery or slave culture in a more modern moment. How does your chosen text attempt to deal with one or both of these recuperation efforts? What, exactly, does the author seek to recover or reconsider, and why is this important?

4. What kind(s) of conflicts between public and private, or between individual and group, arise in your chosen text? What factors or forces produce these conflicts, and how does the text seek to navigate them?

OPTION 2: RESEARCH PAPER Write a 7-10 page essay that explores a research question(s) tied to ONE of our course texts. The goal is to research some subject of interest to you that is directly related to one of the narratives we have read, and the paper should discuss your research findings in conjunction with the literary text that prompted your investigation. Possible research examples include, but are not limited to: slave music (using Douglass, Bontemps, or Baker); the sexual economy of slavery (with Douglass, Jacobs, Craft, or Randall); slave rebellion(s) (with Jacobs, Bontemps, or Baker); slave religion (Christianity, Voodoo); interracial families or miscegenation law (with Craft, Jacobs, Randall, or Butler); the Tragic Mulatto tradition (with Jacobs, Craft, Randall); the Mammy and/or Uncle stereotype (Randall, Reed).

Like any good essay, a research paper is focused on one or more critical questions. You should not have more than four or five sources beyond your literary text, as you will simply have too much on your plate to handle deftly or thoroughly. You may use any materials distributed in this class (handouts, articles, critical essays, etc.) as your historical or scholarly sources, but I encourage you to do your own research also. Appropriate sources may include historical newspaper articles, films, advertisements, interviews, scholarly histories of slavery, sociological studies, and/or literary criticism. You must be analytical about the language, ideas, and/or images used to discuss slavery and relevant issues in your sources. This option is not only about being a good close reader of literature, but of other cultural and academic materials, of using your skills to generate a better understanding of society and human experience, and figuring out how to investigate what you want to know effectively and responsibly. It is important that you not allow your research findings and the voices of other scholars take over your essay. Feel free to consult with me about how to best find and use your sources, and how to tie your discussion of your research findings to your chosen literary text. OPTION 3: CREATIVE PROJECT WITH COMPANION ESSAY

You may opt to undertake a creative project that responds somehow to one or more aspects or texts from this class. Possibilities include, but are not limited to, short fiction, autobiographical writing, poetry, painting, musical composition or mixing, mini- documentary (or mini-mockumentary), collage, sculpture, or photo essay. Your project should be accompanied by an explanatory essay, which discusses the ways in which your work engages course materials and/or critical ideas. In this piece, you should explain your creative intentions or impulses, as well as provide a kind of close reading of your own work. Because of the varied nature of such creative work, the length and content of your accompanying essay will depend in part on the creative project—be sure to consult with me so that we can decide together how you should proceed.