historical fiction, etc.

There are two different types of topics for this paper; select one and write a paper that is 4-5 full pages on that topic:

  1. Write about a contemporary work of historical fiction; I'd like the work to have been written within the last thirty years or so, and please do not select something that is already on the course reading list. Here is a you might go to to start your search at the following site; The Scott O'Dell (Island of the Blue Dolphins author) award winners demonstrate excellence in this genre 1980s to the present:

    You are certainly not limited to the books on these lists (for example, I'm especially fond of the Karen Cushman and Christopher Paul Curtis books in this genre), but your selection should not have been written before the 1980's.

    Your paper should be in two parts:

    • first, you need a 3-4 page literary analysis (the same sort of analysis you'd do for any work of literature); your thesis should focus on one idea, theme, issue, character development, or technique

    • second, start a new section on a separate page and title it Historical Evaluation; this section should be a brief (about 2 pages) and should evalute the book's value as a work of history. How does it succeed (or not) in conveying the history beyond the fictional story? Does it have a lot of historical details, and do these seem fairly accurate? Does it give a sense of what life for individuals might have been like in that time and place and serve more as a human interest piece than a detailed history? Does it have a bit of both? Does it seem fairly objecteve, or is there some obvious bias? Be sure to cite some examples to support your evaluation.

    Be sure that you support all of your observations and claims (in both the analysis and Historical Evaluation sections) with documented quotations from the book.

  2. Topic two is ... different.

    First read Vickie Nam's Yell-Oh Girls!

    The anthology is about identity; it's an attempt to get at the heart of some of the issues that Asian-American girls may have trying to balance between or reconcile two cultures. For example, in the early section, Orientation most of the writers describe how they feel like foreigners in their home country (the United States) and in their root countries (Korea, China, etc.).

    Other sections focus on cultural family characteristics, dealing with sterotypes, and so on.

    If you can identify with this anthology (perhaps you are balancing a Honduran or Swedish heritage and your life in the United States; maybe you are here from Kenya or Japan on a student visa and have experienced marked cultural differences that you need to deal with; you may, instead, be trying to reconcile bridging the worlds of being a student and a parent at the same time--there are lots of ways to approach this assignment), then this might be the topic for you.

    Your paper should be in two parts:

    • first, pick a selection from Yell-Oh Girls! that you can relate to (in some way); obviously, if you are not Korean, the details of returning to Korea will not be the same as your experience, but it may remind you of a similar kind of experience; write a short analysis (about 2 pages) of that story, poem, essay; your analysis should explore the chief conflict/idea of the work, and you will use documented quotations for support and illustration

    • second, starting on a new page, you will write a narrative essay (3-4 pages) that focuses on one key area, one key incident, your own personal experience that somehow parallels the conflict the character in the selection you've chosen went through; be sure to set up the conflict, use loads of descriptive detail, concentrate on a concrete experience in your essay

    You may, optionally (if you like that sort of thing), add a poem between parts 1 and 2 of your paper; the poem should be on the same general theme/subject as your narrative essay.