Essay 2 - Cultural / Historical Reading

For this assignment, you will be close reading text from our second unit in order to argue for an interpretation of it, though this time you will be doing so through a specific cultural or historical lens, which will inform your reading. Your essay should be 5-7 pages in length, and must be in MLA format. All possible papers for this assignment will require a Works Cited page.

Due Date

On Wednesday, Week 10, bring to class your word processing device of choice and the most recent draft of your paper — we will be working on them in-class that day. Failure to bring something to work on will result in an absence.

Essay 2 will be due in electronic form at 11:59PM on Friday, Week 10.

Your second draft will be due at the end of the semester in your portfolio. You will receive further instructions on second drafts later in the semester.

Detailed Description

In this unit we will discuss the importance of considering the cultural and historical situations that texts occur in, as well as how the meanings of the texts morph and change when we examine them outside of their original historical and cultural moments.

In this essay, you will perform a close reading of a text (alphabetic, visual, or auditory [podcast])—either from this unit or one you have found on your own and has been approved by me—in order to argue for an interpretation of it that is informed by and engages its original historical/cultural moment. You are still doing the same work of Essay One; however, this time, that work will include historical and cultural analysis as well.

This assignment will involve a bit of outside research; you must find, incorporate, and cite TWO outside sources into your argument. These sources should support your argument, providing context for why your claims are valid. At least one, but preferably both sources should come either from a peer-reviewed journal (available via databases like Project Muse or JSTOR) or from a scholarly book (also available in e-book versions via the PASCAL ebrary). These sources need not specifically reference your chosen primary text: for example, you might find an article discussing the days leading up to the Civil War in order to give context to your reading of “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July” by Frederick Douglass.

As you begin to form an argument and begin outlining, you may want to consider questions such as:

• When and where was this text originally written?
• When and where is it set?
• What argument could the text itself be making?
• Who is the original intended audience? What differentiates them from you?
• How have attitudes and assumptions changed since the text’s original publication? Have they changed much at all?