Critical Essay Assignment
This assignment asks that you conduct an in-depth study of one creative writer. I would like you to uncover an important theme or principle that motivates the writer’s work, and then show how the writer expresses that theme/principle through selected details in primary texts. Secondary research should also be used to reinforce, frame or contrast your ideas. You should articulate the artist’s theme/principle, which will be your thesis, in specific terms in your introduction.
For example, say that in my readings I had drawn out Claude McKay’s theme of the “access to exclusion” from the full benefits of democracy. For my thesis, I would want to generate a rich description of my chosen theme/principle in McKay’s work. My introduction could go like this:
Many speakers in Claude McKay’s early lyrics feel shut out from American life precisely when that life seems most accessible. When material plenty seems offered, in fact African-Americans are deprived. When social progress seems possible, in fact liberals are just posturing. And when recourse to political authority seems available, in fact the door to democratic action is closed. American society taunts McKay’s proud, self-aware speakers with a false promise of equality, which is always already reserved for others.
I would then want to provide readings of a series of McKay’s poems that explored this idea of bait-and-switch equality (an alternative catch-phrase for my thesis—you should develop a few). In addition to supporting my thesis, I may also want to show some development in the exclusion theme across the poems I’ve chosen.
Be sure to include substantial transitions in the body whenever you move from one work to another or one subtopic to another. These transitions should not only more the essay forward, but should remind us of the thesis statement.
Do not be content to interpret the writings separately, but explain how each one exemplifies or modifies the theme/principle under discussion. Depending on the genre you choose and the length of your sources, you should involve two to three primary sources (for example, one play and one poem, or two short stories, or three lyric poems…). One of your primary sources may be from our textbook, but you’re not limited to sources from there.
This essay is not meant to be a biography, a survey, or an appreciation piece, but a work of literary criticism. You should familiarize yourself with the writer’s biography, position in history and art theories, but only so that you can relate such matters to your thesis. Please do not depart from your argument to have a lengthy biography or history section. Instead, integrate contextual materials into the main argument.
In addition to the literary works under discussion, please cite at least three secondary sources of scholarly quality in your paper. Citations should adhere to MLA format, which requires that a works cited page come at the end. Do not include the works cited page in the essay’s word count.
Papers should be about 2100 words long (about 6 double-spaced pages). A full-length draft is due on Monday, May 15th. The essay itself is due at the final exam meeting on Monday, May 22nd.
Henrik Ibsen Critical Assessment
Introduction
In the readings, I have drawn out the theme of the position of women in the society in Henrik Ibsen’s works. For the thesis, I wish to create an informative description of the selected works. In the literal works, Ibsen appreciates the women and views them to be important and vital anchors in the society as compared to other men who treat them as sex objects and the inferior gender. In the paper, it is my intention to exhaustively analyze the theme and create the coherence that it brings despite being depicted in different works of art.
A majority of people in the modern world have the perception that the Victorian age was a time characterized by a mutually admissible value system. In the understanding, a majority of the women led inactive lives with leisure; both husbands and wives stuck peacefully together each fulfilling their respective roles in a bid to make life meaningful and pleasing. However, it is only an illusion, but the reality is that the 1800’s were years of change where there was a struggle for democratic human rights (Bradford 7)……………………………………To access the rest of the solution for $10, please click on the purchase button.
