Assignment Description
Fall 2001
The English Language
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As outlined in the syllabus, this will be a 7-10 page discussion of a key theoretical issue raised by a critical text; you will frame a thesis and make an argument about how the concept applies to, supports, or is refuted by a literary example (Anzaldúa or Achebe) or found text. As the culminating assignment for the semester, your essay should demonstrate knowledge of at least an additional two related critical readings (from within the same section of the Routledge). This is not an occasion for you to simply reiterate what you have learned in class about a particular text; you should brainstorm and develop a unique and persuasive essay reflecting your personal insights into the text(s). Regurgitated class notes and content summaries make equally unrewarding reading for the professor who must grade them.
Grading, Revision Expectations, etc.
Essays must be submitted on time, at the start of class; late essays will be accepted but with a 1/3 letter-grade penalty per day. Students who have completed the assignment but cannot submit it in person should send it through a 'trustworthy emissary' or email it (and then also bring a hard copy to the next class). I will not accept an essay without both a rough draft and at least one revision. You must revise! We will spend some class-time doing peer revision. I encourage you to seek me out during office hours, solicit a classmate's feedback, and make an appointment at the Writing Center. You must labor to produce improvements in your first draft, even if you believe it is nearly perfect. The four-part grading rubric means that Content, Organization, Mechanics, and Revision are each worth 25%—so a brilliant, well-organized, mechanically perfect essay with no revision earns a C.
Development of a Sample Topic (No you can't copy it!)
Let's say I am interested in the broad area of Language and Gender. I reread the essays in the relevant section of the Routledge. I am particularly interested in Lakoff's idea that certain kinds of language use are impermissible to women (assertive language) but other more passive uses (tag questions) are welcomed; and that these unwritten rules for 'feminine' language use have consequences for women's freedom to achieve in the world.
I then look at Anzaldúa to see whether she analyzes or communicates experiences of facing gendered language rules. I choose to focus on the passage (76-77) where Anzaldúa explains about first hearing the word nosotras (feminine "we", we-women), a word which she had not known existed. I realize I can use Whorf to discuss the significance of her lacking such a word and that Irigary's idea about the necessity for women to write as women will also be relevant.
Working Introduction
For Gloria Anzaldúa, the 'borderlands' of southern Texas composes a geographical, cultural, and psychological zone of conflict. Her decision to write Borderlands/La Frontera purely in English has been interpreted as a powerful assertion of her Mexican heritage. Yet as Robin Lakoff has shown, issues of language use and power involve more than the cultural conflict but also the voice which is allowed a women, a Chicana. Anzaldúa's use of code-switching not only validates her cultural identity but also liberates her from the constraint of talking (or remaining silent) like a lady.