antebellum - open to bidding

Final Papers Length: 8-9 pages Due: Thursday. December 12 by 4 pm (hard copies only; you may drop your papers off in my mailbox in the English Dept. office, 544F O’Dowd Hall) As you know, your primary aim in this assignment is to illuminate some area of antebellum America as a way of enriching our reading the literature of the period. Based on primary historical research, you will identify some discourse happening during the period. Your job is to describe, in a vivid, detailed, and compelling way, assumptions, conventions, language and vocabulary, and tropes that define the discourse you are exploring. If it helps, you can think of what you are doing as a kind of “close reading” of history. Having done that, you will then locate points of intersection between that discourse and the literature we have been reading. You may focus on just one text or you may focus on more than one. But what you want to think about is how and where-- specifically-- the discursive features you have uncovered appear in the literature we have been reading. Or, if they don’t appear, you might consider how taking those features into consideration might add to our understanding of the literature. The trick is to show how history might enrich our reading of literature and/or how literature is inevitably historical. Just remember, you can only do this by being attuned to particulars-- not generalities So just to reiterate: Paper Guidelines 1. Tell me a story—a specific, detailed, vivid one. That is, tell me a story about some little corner of antebellum America. But remember, the story you tell must come from your research into primary sources. Secondary sources are fine, but only as a supplement to your primary research. The real intellectual work of these papers should come from your thinking about your primary sources. 2. Recognize, identify, and show me the discursive features of your corner of antebellum America. In other words, the story that you tell will take its shape from the discourse you recognize happening there. 3. Connect the discourse you have identified to one or more of our readings. As in the examples I have provided you, at some point you will “cross a bridge” from your research to our reading. Or put another way, you will cross a bridge from history to literature, from the non-literary to the literary. The relationship between those two things, how they are interrelated (sometimes in surprising or unexpected ways) is perhaps the main point of the assignment. Then there are the nuts and bolts matters: 1. Give your paper a title. (But no title pages, please—save a tree). 2. Your paper should be double- spaced. Use a common font and font size (say, 12 point Times). 3. Number your pages. 2. Citations should follow MLA conventions. I will be a stickler for this stuff, so be scrupulous. It should always be clear where the information presented is coming from. Be sure to distinguish clearly between your ideas and ideas derived from your sources. If you have consulted and used information from any secondary sources, those must be cited as well. Be sure to include a works cited page. 3. Proofread VERY carefully. Sloppy papers (with typos, misspellings, grammar problems, and the rest) are not good papers. Finally, let me remind you that the habit/skill of close reading will be a valuable aid to your paper. You have to read your source materials with your eyes open, with an ear for language. Discourses take place through language and representation—all of the things we have talked about all semester.