As we discussed on Wednesday, please post your final paper topic idea for your last blog write-up: what texts will you use, what angle will you take? What do you imagine your "so what?" to be? If you are still deciding, what possibilities are you considering?
I will be doing my my paper on Silko, her use of Native American culture, myths, folk lore and mythology, along with the significance of the heavy use of symbols and importance of geographical area.
ReplyDeleteFor the final paper, I plan on examining Sherman Alexie’s "Captivity" and Kurt Vonnegut’s "Breakfast of Champions." The main issue I will focus on is the way each piece attempts to rewrite history. They are equally critical of American culture, but their personal histories (one being European and one Native American) causes them to take different approaches in the telling of their stories. The essay will focus on both specific historical examples and literary styles.
ReplyDeleteAs for scholarly sources, I have not done much research yet, so I am not sure which pieces I might be using. In all likelihood, however, at least one or two of them will come from the theory pieces at the back of Postmodern American Fiction.
I'm not quite sure what I want to do for my final paper. I was sort of kicking around the idea of exploring Sherman Alexie's work. One thing that I noticed within “Captivity” and “Smoke Signals” is the issue of identity among Native Americans. There are these deep-rooted feelings and emotions that come out in things like one's actions and verbal stereotypes pertaining to who they are and how they're supposed to act or respond to, not only American culture, but their own as well.
ReplyDeleteI am interested in looking at the tradition of "passing" as represented in American literature. American literature has been written about Blacks passing as Whites, homosexuals passing as "straight," and even Whites passing as Native Americans. For the purposes of my paper, I would like to focus on Blacks passing as Whites. This practice was/is caused by the extreme racism that exists in the US. I am intrigued by the identity struggles and self-hatred which must be experienced by those who pass. Most likely, I will examine "Desiree's Baby" by Kate Chopin and pieces from the Harlem Renaissance. In THE WAYS OF WHITE FOLKS, Langston Hughes presents multiple characters who pass. I may also look at the short novel PASSING by Nella Larson, also of the Harlem Renaissance. I have gathered a good deal of research, but am not yet exactly sure what to hone my thesis down to.
ReplyDeleteFor my final analysis I would like to utilize The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway and Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald to discuss the theme of masculinity in American society. In this analysis I plan to discuss topics such as how men are portrayed in America, how women are viewed, and the issues that influence socially acceptable male dominance. Using these literary pieces and other sources, I will show how American culture and its history perpetuate the ideology of masculinity and how it is manifest in literature.
ReplyDeleteFor my paper I plan to examine the usage of metafiction in postmodern literature, and pose the question, "If modernism's aim was to kill the author, is postmodern's metafiction a rebirth of the author?" For the essay, I am planning on comparing Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions," with Paul Auster's "City of Glass," because not only do both utilize the technique of metafiction prominently, both also have the authors themselves figuring in as characters in the stories. I also wish to address the question of whether a book can be considered metafictional and realistic at the same time, or, more to the point, if metafiction is perhaps another form of realism.
ReplyDeleteI am looking at the Silko and O'Brien pieces. I'm focusing on war's effects to human nature. I look to discuss how war is portrayed in society and how it has changed in the last 50-60 years. The additional scholarly sources include war autobiographies, in addition to a source on the societal effects of war.
ReplyDeleteI believe I will be doing my final paper comparing Butler's piece to Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto. I am very intrigued by the amount of pomo style and argument that can be put into a sci-fi piece. I grew up watching star wars and many other sci-fi greats and never thinking of them as anything more than entertainment with spaceships and lasers. This new, fresh outlook on the topic is what is really interesting me.
ReplyDeleteTo Shayne:
ReplyDeleteAnother element that you could add to your paper that may be interesting is along the lines of where you were heading. Maybe reflecting where war was and how it changed to this point and then expanding to where war may be heading. Also, you could look at it from the perspective of the soldiers and their psychological adjustment to tramatic experiences.
To Jeff:
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a great idea. Another aspect that you may be able to fit in is the why their deep roots as an Indian do not jive with modern society. In what ways are the Indians changing to become more Americanized, assimilitaing to American culture?