Academic Paper Homework Help
Question description
These are two different stories and one poem.
Hands by Sherwood Anderson is on page 265, The man who was almost a man by Richard Wright on page 899 and the poem., the fingers make early flowers of is by E. E Cummings on page 638.
PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTION CAREFULLY.
MIDTERM ESSAY EXAM
ENGLISH 2328
DAIGLE
PLEASE ATTACH YOUR ESSAY TO THE ASSIGNMENT DROPBOX ON THE HOME PAGE. PLEASE ATTACH AS A WORD FILE (OR .RTF).
General Instructions: Write an essay of at least 750 words (including quotations from the poems and short stories that you use as support) on ONE of the numbered topics below. If you use sources in your response (even those I have provided for you), be sure to cite them, using MLA format. Quotations from the textbook require only a page number. You should choose different poems or short stories than those you used in your reading responses for Volume D. The three examples should be by different authors.
All stories and poems must come from Volume D of the textbook.
To prepare for the midterm, you will need to read the introduction to Volume D, American Literature Between the Wars: 1914-1945, especially the following sections: American Versions of Modernism (D: 13-16) and Modernism Abroad and On Native Grounds (D: 16-18).
The midterm will require you to apply ideas from the introduction to specific short stories (fiction) or poems written during this time period (1914-1945). This does not include essays (non-fiction prose).
· You may choose short stories or poems by the writers that I assigned for the reading responses, as long as you choose different poems or short stories (fiction) than you chose for your reading responses.
· Here are a few of the writers (from Volume D) I would have included in the course if there had been more time: Amy Lowell (imagist poet), Wallace Stevens (poet), T. S. Eliot (poet), E. E. Cummings (poet), John Dos Passos (fiction writer), Ernest Hemingway (fiction writer), Thomas Wolfe (fiction writer), John Steinbeck (fiction writer).
· To help you choose, you may find it useful to read the biographical introductions to the writers since most of these introductions discuss the authors work in a general way.
· Although you may use authors that you have already responded to, reading other authors is a good way to expand your knowledge and create original responses. If you use some of the same authors, be sure to choose different poems or stories.
·All reading selections must come from Volume D. If you do not have the textbook, please check the table of contents provided on the syllabus.
The paper should be in essay form with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion (not a collection of reading responsesno sub-headings).
You should use quotations from the reading selections as support for your general ideas. Your examples must show that you have read the literature that you are discussing, not just the authors biography.
Do not use long poems or novels as examples, since I want you to discuss the reading selections specifically, not just a short part of a longer work. Do not use The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot.
A brief overview isnt adequate. Again, you must show that you read the selection (poem or story) carefully.
WRITE ABOUT ONLY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS.
1. In the section called Modernism Abroad and On Native Grounds, the editors say that [m]any writers chose to identify themselves with the American scene and to root their work in specific regions of the country (D: 17) (1188). Discuss at least three poems or short stories (fiction) by three different authors that chose to focus on a particular part of the United States. In your paper, you should show how these writers combine modernism and regionalism. You may wish to use quotations from this introductory material, but you should also use quotations from the literature (poems or stories) themselves. (Note: Usually the phrase specific regions means parts of the U. S. away from urban literary centersthe West, Midwest, South, New England, etc.) This section includes many examples, so you may want to choose three of them (see D: 17).
The section called American Versions of Modernism (D: 13-16) will help you choose writers to include.
2. During the 1920s African American writers began to make significant contributions to American literature, especially during the Harlem Renaissance. Choose at least three poems or fiction from this literary movement to discuss, perhaps applying the ideas in Langston Hughes essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (D: 348-50) or from the discussion in the textbook introduction. Many of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance are also modernists, so you may wish to quote from one or more of the modernist manifestos as well. (Note: How It Feels to Be Colored Me is an essay, not a short story, so it doesnt count as fiction, though you may use it to illustrate an idea that does appear in fiction or poetry.)
Useful quotation from the introduction to Volume D:
The Harlem Renaissance sparked arguments between those who wanted to claim membership in the culture at large and those who wanted to stake out a separate artistic domain; between those who wanted to celebrate rural African American lifeways and those committed to urban intellectuality; between those who wanted to join the American mainstream and those who, disgusted by American race prejudice, aligned themselves with worldwide revolutionary movements; between those who celebrated a primitive African heritage and those who rejected the idea as a degrading stereotype. (D: 8)
See D: 7-8 for a discussion of changes for African Americans during this time period (the Great Migration out of the South, the gathering of artists, musicians, and writers in Harlem in the 1920s, the publication of two major journals of opinion, The Crisis and Opportunity).
3. Define modernism, using quotations from the introduction to Volume D of The Norton Anthology of American Literature or from one of the Modernist Manifestos (D: 335-350). Then, apply your definition to at least three reading selections (poetry or fiction), using quotations from the reading selections that reveal the works (poem or story) modernist attributes. Each reading selection should be by a different writer. Please note that the manifestos do not qualify as poetry or fiction, though its fine to use them as part of your discussion of modernism. You must still have three examples that are fiction or poetry (not non-fiction prose).
Some writers rejoiced while others lamented; some anticipated future utopias while others believed that civilization had collapsed; but the periods most influential voices believed that old forms would not work for new times, and were inspired by the possibility of creating something entirely new (D: 6). (Everything following this quotation will help you write your essay.)
This quotation seems important: At the heart of high modernist aesthetic lay the conviction that the previously sustaining structures of human life, whether social, political, religious, or artistic, had been destroyed or shown up as falsehoods, or, at best, arbitrary and fragile human constructions (D: 14).
4. Women writers also became more prominent during this time, despite the fact that to some extent, male modernists tried to define their movement by defining women out of it (1082, 6th edition). In the 7th edition, the editors assert that the increasing prominence[of women writers]. . . generated a backlash from some male modernists, who asserted their own artistic seriousness by identifying women writers with the didactic, popular writing against which they [male writers] rebelled (1189). Discuss at least three poems or short stories by three different women writers, showing how their work fits into the literary trends of the era. You may use Mina Loys Feminist Manifesto as background material if you wish, but it isnt a poem or short story, so it doesnt count as one of the three.
See D: 7 for a discussion of changes for women.
Note: In previous semesters, several students have had to rewrite their essays because they didnt follow instructions regarding their choices of poetry and fiction (short stories). I hope that you will ask questions about the assigned topics so that I can help you before you write your essay.
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