ENGL 3306 Research Essay
Draft - 11/12, Visit to Writing Center, Revision - 12/3
This 10-page analytical essay will address an issue relevant to the course topic, displaying knowledge of significant issues and a mastery of texts. It may include an analysis of textual variants, comparison of treatment of a theme in more than one text, or even an analysis of original fieldwork. A list of potential topics follows. Students are free to propose an alternate topic but should present a 1-page typed description to the Professor before embarking on a draft. Each essay should be organized around a debatable thesis, include detailed analysis of one or more texts, and make appropriate use of supporting information from other sources. A bibliography of at least five sources is expected.
A. Variants - Myths, folktales, and traditional stories often reflect similarities (in characters, plot, theme). When these relationships are close, they can be described as variants of the same story (eg. Gregorio Cortez). In other cases, two myths may manifest deep similarities but be too different to be seen as variants; some mythographers would then try to identify a general archetype at work. Options for working with two or more variants/archetypes include:
1) comparison and contrast essay, in which you determine and then analyze the points of correspondence; the analysis might venture an argument about the significance of the differences or hypothesize as to the cause of the similarity.
2) analysis of variation: collecting multiple (3 or more) variants of a text, you might analyze the way that context effects a text in oral tradition, or the way that a single text can be made to mean differently.
3) consult one of the many volumes of the Florentine Codex in our library; find a myth, historical incident, or character of relevance to contemporary ethnic identity; write about what features are preserved and what modified in contemporary imaginations of the same.
B. Fieldwork - record and transcribe a telling/singing of a traditional text; then analyze it, exploring the relation to its cultural context (including perhaps where the performer learned it, when it is typically performed, what meaning the performer attributes to it).
C. Literary Analysis - take up one of the primary texts read in class (eg. Popol Vuh, Quetzalcoatl, Bless Me Ultimate, Ceremony) and discuss its relation to ethnic culture. How is it meaningful to read it in this context rather than as a good story or simply as a piece of literature (i.e. no one reads Shakespeare as an 'ethnic' text)?
D. Orality - drawing on your reading of Walter Ong, consider a text assigned for class (or another appropriate text with my approval) and look at how oral composition/transmission effect it. What elements of oral thought are reflected in the work? Does Ong's terminology do justice to the text you have found? (The Sabina and Calderon texts we studied in class are off limits, though you might choose other texts by one of these authors.)
E. Ethnicity - consider the proposition that cultural identity (as distinct from 'race') is both inherited and chosen. The habits, speech, songs, stories, and traditions of one's environment constitute the common vocabularly of a group; but in contrast to a biological conception of race, ethnicity also allows for individuals to at least partially choose their position toward this culture.
1) consider how the view of ethnicity represented in one of the key texts we have read, discussing how ethnicity is imagined. Is it chosen or inherited? Is it a gift or burden?
2) analyze a traditional text that conflicts in some way with contemporary values; how have writers/performers attempted to revise it? How does revision alter the text's function in a community? (eg. Cisneros' "Guadalupe").
3) explore alternative notions of ethnic identity that do not depend upon the maintainence of a shared tradition; your essay should offer an alternative definition of identity and use at least one studied text as an exemplary instance.
4) social groups are often discussed in terms of borders, those which separate an "us" from a "them"; approach the issue of ethnic identity by writing about how a chosen text understands and depicts the "other." What does its view of the "other" imply about the identity of the "us" (i.e. in-group, out-group).
5) ethnic identities, like all social formations, are not static; Gloria Anzaldúa, for instance, argues that the emergence of the term "chicana" in the 1960s made possible a category for ethnic identification that hadn't previously existed. Analyze a text that you think shows an identity category emerging, metamorphosing, or fading.
F. The corrido - Write about a traditional form, such as the corrido; analyze a text besides the "Ballad of Gregorio Cortez," but do so following one of Americo Paredes' strategies: i.e. relation to historical context; comparison of variants; formal analysis.
G. Popol Vuh - Choose a portion of this text for close analysis; incorporate information from the introduction and notes; do further research on Mayan culture, language, or writing.
H. Quetzalcoatl - Choose a select portion of the text that has the Florentine Codex as its source. Working with a Nahuatl dictionary, venture a new translation that emphasizes the performative/oral nature of the original; or, compare and contrast the differences between Bierhorst's English and the prose English version.