Essay 2

Narrative Criticism (reading a text through the lens of personal experience)

Write a 6-8 page narrative that explains how a particular aspect of your personal life informs your understanding of some aspect of 1 text [Fun Home, We the Animals, Giovanni’s Room, or Sula]. This will be a first-person narrative that draws us into your own story/experience even as it sheds light on some theme, character, or moment in the text.

Your paper may begin with your personal story and work its way toward the text, or it may begin with a moment in the text that you discuss in the first person as a reader and that leads you to your own story. The point here is to explore the relationship between some aspect of who you are and what you know or have experienced (or not) and something in the text. If you do not find much to connect with personally in the text you wish to write about, you should scrutinize the differences between your experience and the experiences/issues raised in the text. Differences are just as important as connections, perhaps more so, and regardless of what you write or how you connect with the text, you should address differences in context.

In your narrative you should examine a bare minimum of 4-5 quotes from the text in some detail, perhaps returning to them like a refrain, a meditation on them. Or you might weave in many textual references/quotes, observing a theme as it plays out through the narrative.

My primary concerns in this paper are twofold:

1) Creativity/Craft: The strength of your own writing in the telling of your own story—use vivid details, strong verbs, figurative language. Think about your pacing; what do you need to share, what is extraneous? Take us into whatever aspect of your own experience you choose to share. Let us hear, taste, touch, smell, and see your experience. Don’t forget to have some critical distance from yourself (show, don’t tell) and don’t assume that readers know your age, where you live, how you identify, etc. (some things you can “tell,” not “show” in creative non-fiction). You are not just writing for me and/or the class; imagine a wider audience. For example, don’t assume readers know what “Middlebury” or “Proctor” refers to.That said, I don’t assume that your stories will be set in Middlebury.

2) Critical Perspective: Your insights into the text, their clarity and precision, your close reading of your selected quotes. It will be important not to try and take on too much text to discuss. However, you will need to discuss what text you do include in the context of the larger story. Don’t force the connection between your own story and the text—I am not evaluating how intense or big your connection to the textis—I am evaluating how carefully you observe and think through the connection(s)/difference(s) that you choose to discuss. A dramatic connection/difference or a subtle one can be equally well-handled.

— due 4/25

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Draft 1 Brainstorm/Freewrite

–> Some required pre-writing — due 4/21:

  1. Select 1 text.
  2. Brainstorm at least four possible aspects of your life/experience by/through which to discuss your understanding of the text. You can use brief bullet points for this.
  3. Identify a few possible quotes/passages that you might want to discuss, whether or not they line up with the bullet points above (moments in the text that intrigue you). Write these down.
  4. Choose 2-3 of the bullet points from step #1 and write a short freewrite (about 10 min.) on each of them. In other words, these are very rough possible starts of narrative drafts to choose from.
  5. Look over your quotes (from step #2), your freewrites, back at your bullet points, perhaps return to the text, and see what draws you, what begins to form as a possible paper topic. Write down what you are seeing and thinking at this stage. Is there a question at the center of all this? Write it down. What are your dilemmas, uncertainties, areas of excitement/ambition as you contemplate this assignment?
  6. Post this with the above parts listed in numerical order. This does not need to look fancy or be perfect or revised—it is process work.

–> Readings to help you with your paper:

  1. The Art of Personal Narrative, by Vivian Gornick
  2. Sample peer essays
  3. Optional: “Unspeakable Things Unspoken,” an essay by Toni Morrison

(Adapted from Catharine Wright)

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Draft 2 Research & Annotated Bibliography — due 5/3

  1. Making use of Summon, MLA bibliography, and the subject and title indices on MIDCAT, find a pool of approximately 5 primary and approximately 10 secondary sources relevant to your text. (Sometimes mining the bibliographies/footnotes of sources leads you to additional sources.). Check out periodicals such as Project Muse/J-Stor. At the library and/or online, have a quick look at the materials in your pool–i.e. quickly skim them to make certain they are relevant. Then finalize your list. All sources should be cited according to MLA bibliographical format. DO NOT INCLUDE secondary sources from the web, unless these are peer-reviewed, or unless they appear in Project Muse or J-Stor. Some non-scholarly or non-peer-reviewed web materials (e.g. popular reviews, interviews, or other discussions) might count as primary sources, insofar as they establish cultural context; but be cautious about citing such sources as authoritative secondary source, about lending them critical authority to your analysis, or about taking their claims at face value. Your sources should include books and articles.
  2. Out of the pool of sources you developed, pick at least 2 primary sources and 4 secondary sources that are important to you as you think about the next draft of your essay–those that are most likely to be helpful in allowing you to make a contribution to a critical conversation. Carefully read the most relevant portions of these sources. Cite each source according to MLA bibliographical format, and, below each of them, write one focused paragraph that (1) articulates the pertinent argument(s) of that source, together with the motive or agenda implicit in the argument(s); (2) summarizes the information included in the source that might be useful to you; and (3) briefly explains how the source will be useful to you. Your secondary sources may include articles and specific book chapters. Your primary sources may include any material contemporary with or older than the main object of your analysis, as well as the object of analysis itself. This is your annotated selection of sources.

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Draft 2 — due 5/6

Now that you have studied a part of a critical conversation about your text and come to know a bit more about its context, review your first draft. Integrate all the work you’ve done to find a balance in your essay between personal narrative, critical analysis, scholarly research, and reflection. (8-10 pages)

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Draft 3 — due 5/16

            Revision