TBA

Select 1 prompt below for your essay on Sula, or take a different approach.

• SACRIFICE—What is the role of bodily self-sacrifice (the sacrifice of one’s own body or of the sacrifice of the body of another) in the development of character, narrative structure, theme, or resolution?
• FREEDOM—Discuss how freedom is defined with as specific a lens as possible on the body; perhaps through a single image, motif, or metaphor if needed. Do not write about something obvious here. Consider, if relevant, the relationship between freedom and responsibility.
• SILENCE—How does Morrison write silence into the narrative and what do the silences suggest about the bodies, voices, and stories that are omitted vs. privileged, acknowledged vs. dismissed, translatable vs. incoherent, or audible vs. unheard? As readers, how do we navigate the voids? Consider who is silenced / what is silenced / who does the silencing, etc. Consider the function of ambiguity in the novel. Consider the silence in contrast to the noise (for example, the scream/howl). How does Morrison fill certain historical or cultural silences?
• SPATIALITY—How does Morrison portray or interrogate the idea of a center, particularly in relation to the body?
• PLACE—What is the role of place in shaping identity, especially as it relates to the body? How does bodily belonging or displacement relate to definitions of self? How does geographic dislocation relate to social or psychological alienation? How do patterns of bodily movement (or stasis) mirror internal patterns of thought/memory/emotion?
• IDENTITY—How does Morrison challenge ideas of gender (as a stable category of identity) through the character of Sula, and how does the rewriting of black female sexuality through the bodily experience of Sula offer a new narrative and/or new possibility for black female subjectivity? In one interview, Morrison describes Sula as a masculine character; are we satisfied with this alignment, or how might we instead read Sula as an example of Morrison’s redefinition of the potential of the feminine?
• TIME—The novel takes place over 45 years. Discuss the function and dynamics of temporality in the novel: how does Morrison’s apparent chronology of linear time exist in tension with the role of memory in the narrative? How does she mess with time? What does this time span enable the narrative to do? How does the novel’s structure/form hold the story together?
• METAMORPHOSIS—Discuss how 1 character undergoes metamorphosis, transformation, or epiphany. If it is a moment of physical metamorphosis, how does it illuminate, destabilize, or align with the psychology of the character? If it is a moment of internal transition, what does it open up or reconcile with the exterior (body or world)? What are the effects of this shift? How does narrative arc (if at all) reflect the change? What is the textual commentary inherent in the development of a character in this way? Who is the novel’s real protagonist?
• How does Morrison handle the relationship between physical/material presence (the bodily, the earthly) and the supernatural or magical, and why might she need to incorporate these contrasting elements in order to tell this particular story? Here, you may also choose to focus on how death frames the novel; why, and how is it narrativized?
• If we consider Morrison’s authorial role as a social critic, what is the central social critique embedded in Sula? How does portraying the experiences of black bodies specifically enable her to make this critique?
• Discuss the emphasis on watching (as different from seeing) in the novel. What does it mean to watch, to bear witness? How does watching make a character complicit, a participant in the scene? And how can we consider the way Morrison’s novel, as a type of spectacle, invites the reader, particularly the white reader, to watch from the outside; what are the racial implications of how we read specific scenes, and/or what is the larger commentary Morrison may imply about the othering that occurs in the act of watching?

NOTE: You are NOT required to answer all questions within a prompt; these are instead meant to help generate some possible lines of inquiry, to enable your brainstorming, or to lead you in completely alternate directions. Please do not be restricted by the questions as you formulate your own original question. Your question should be rooted in a problem or mystery within the novel which you feel compelled to pursue. Make sure you know your agenda.

Reminder: Once you select a prompt, construct a question that you will convert into an argument, and consider thematic approaches as you also ask how the text (structurally, formally, temporally, poetically, etc.) embodies/reinforces the central ideas of the author – the relationship between content and form is important. Also, consider the broader commentary the text is making (the underlying social, political, ethical significance, if any), and the role of literature in opening these ideas (the relationship between aesthetics and cultural ideas). Do not treat characters as real people; address them as representations/constructs of the author—please understand this distinction.

Guidelines: 6-8 pages, double-spaced. You MUST include a brief 1-paragraph letter to me at the end, on an additional piece of paper, specifying (1) what you are trying to accomplish in the essay; (2) what you think works well in the draft; (3) elements that, you believe, need work. This can only help us as we work out, in conference, what you need to do next. Please also review general paper guidelines under 103; incomplete papers will not be accepted.

Conference: You must schedule a conference with Jack at some point in your writing process, preferably once you have a first draft.