Overview
We began our investigation of the neo-slave narrative by looking at Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage, a postmodern text that challenges the notion of a stable, fixed identity through the story of Rutherford Calhoun. We then analyzed Octavia Butler’s Kindred, studying the ways in which Butler uses the device of time traveling in order to foreground the afterlives of slavery. Specifically, Butler asked us to consider how Dana and Kevin’s relationship is tethered to the legacy of slavery. Currently, we are analyzing Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, analyzing the ways in which the novel destabilizes the freedom/slavery binary through its movement through different states of possibility. Finally, we will end our study of the neo-slave narrative by analyzing perhaps the most acclaimed contemporary novel about slavery, Toni Morrison’s Beloved.
For this paper, choose ONE of our selected neo-slave narratives, and come up with a compelling literary argument supported by textual evidence and analysis of that evidence. You will turn in an essay that provides a specific interpretation of what your passages are about and how the form of the passage contributes to that meaning—linking the “what” to the “how.”
For this paper:
- Similar to essay two, you will formulate your own research question and argument. Yourpaper will have: a clear introduction and conclusion, a clear thesis or main point, enough evidence to support your point, paragraphs that arrange your evidence logically, and clear transitions between paragraphs. Your paper will be well and clearly written.
- Learning Goals: Close reading teaches you to engage actively with a text. For this assignment, you’re not just summarizing, describing, or generalizing about the author, the historical period, or the condition of enslaved people. Neither is the purpose to evaluate the text like a newspaper or magazine reviewer, nor to evaluate it based on your personal opinions or beliefs. We all have intuitive responses to and opinions about what we read, but in order to write a literary analysis, you need to reflect on those intuitive responses and think about what specifically in the text elicits them. Cultivating these critical skills is not only crucial for your academic development; these skills are also invaluable in a wide range of professional and social contexts—from developing a policy brief to evaluating a rental agreement, from responding to political debates to engaging with popular media.
Requirements: Cite from at least 1 of the assigned texts 5-6 pages (Double Spaced) No citation of outside resources