Here is your Final Reflective Essay for The Woman Writer: Due June 5--No Exceptions

ENG 247.18014

The Woman Writer

Spring 2013

Dr. Van Slyck

Final Reflective Essay

On page 3 of your coursepak I have listed some of the major themes we have discussed in this course on The Woman Writer.  We will review these themes again in the next two weeks and you will choose one theme and two texts to compare and contrast in the way they explore, illuminate that theme.  You must choose texts you have not already written about!

Possible themes and suggested directions:

1.     women’s ways of knowing; women’s strategies for self-expression, self-knowledge: hidden insights, hidden powers, tearing down the wallpaper

2.     women and the use of material culture: from quilts to dolls to ironing

3.     gender ideology: how it is developed and maintained; how women collaborate; how they resist: setting horses free, setting selves free

4.     how women speak back to patriarchy: from murder to seizing the vibrator

5.     women and magical powers: crying madonnas, flying women in flames, dolls that express women’s oppression

6.     language and women’s voices: race and culture—claiming voice, redefining voice, embracing hybridity

Your essay should be 600 to 800 words.  It should be typed, double-spaced, using 12pt font, Times New Roman.  It should have a title of your own that reflects your argument.  You should quote from each poem 2-3 times.  Be sure to integrate the quotations carefully, comment fully on each and use line numbers in parentheses.  Do not use overly long quotations.  Use an ellipsis (. . .) if you are leaving out some of the words and be sure to mark line breaks and capitals for the beginnings of each line: “You may write me down in history/With your bitter, twisted lies. . .”

Please remember to put a heading in the upper left corner of your essay with the course, section number and your name as well as mine!  This is the only essay you may not revise and it must be returned to me.  Due Date: June 5.   You may review this essay at our final class meeting and celebration on Tuesday, June 11.

Writer, Theme, Texts for Essay #2--Post your ideas here--try to post tonight--Wednesday May 15

Hi Everyone--on this blog I have already posted guidelines for Essay #2.  What you need to do here is tell your classmates and your professor what writer or writers you have chosen and answer the following questions:
 1.  why did you choose this writer or writers?

 2.  what do the texts or writers have in common?

 3.  how do the texts differ in the treatment of theme?

 4.  what kind of research would be helpful?

We will brainstorm in class to help you refine your thesis based on the blogs you write.

Essay Planning: Essay #2 Comparison Guidelines

The Woman Writer

Guidelines for Essay #2

A Comparison/Contrast of Two Works

Deadlines: Blog for May 16; Essay due May 23 (draft in class discussion May 21.)

Choices:

1.     You may compare a technique in two writers, for example, magical realism in Ferre and Danticat.

2.     You may compare two poems or stories by the same writer, for example the poems we have read by Alvarez or Angelou—you will need a theme.

3.     You may compare a theme in two different writers, for example, identity or language in Anzaldua and Alvarez.

4.     Women’s oppression; women’s self-affirmation has been a thread throughout the course and we will return to that in new ways in the last two readings: “The Yellow Wallpaper” and In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play. Both these texts are based on real events, so another angle is to examine how real events are used fruitfully, productively to create fiction. (This also works for “The Youngest Doll,” “1937”and Trifles.)  You may choose any two texts you have not already written about to explore a feminist-type theme.

As with the previous essay, I am asking you to research your authors, and, in some cases, the historical or social issue surrounding the story or play or poem.

I will post a blog after our class May 14, so that you can begin to share ideas about your comparison contrast essay.

Simple structural advice:

·      First establish what the two texts have in common; then clearly define how each text approaches the theme differently;

·      The opening of your essay should create a structural frame for the comparison, so that you and your reader know exactly what is coming next

·      Each body paragraph should be devoted to one aspect of the theme, should have textual support that is clearly introduced, related to the theme and commented on in depth.

·      Your conclusion should make some kind of social, psychological or philosophical observation, comment on the importance of the theme and the specific way the writer chose to advance our understanding.

Example of the comparison contrast thesis:

Gloria Anzaldua and Julia Alvarez both struggle to describe the relationship between language and identity.  Both use Spanish and English in the same text and both express complex emotions about living in two languages.  However, Anzaldua writes in prose, Anzaldua in poetry.  Anzaldua wants her reader to think about how Latina women can make their voices heard in the world, while Alvarez gives us a more intimate, private analysis of an individual’s identity—between worlds.