Authors’ perspective on writing as work

Authors’ perspective on writing as work

For this 3-4-page paper, you will utilize the close reading and research skills we’ve practiced thus far to present your interpretation of one of the texts we’ve read in weeks 7-13.

You will utilize the close reading and research skills we’ve practiced thus far

For this 3-4-page paper, you will utilize the close reading and research skills we’ve practiced thus far to present your interpretation of one of the texts we’ve read in weeks 7-13. These include:

Sherwood Anderson, “The Egg”
F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz”
Ernest Hemingway, “Soldier’s Home”
Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own”
Bertrand Russell, “In Praise of Idleness”
William Sansom, “The Long Sheet”
Jack Kerouac, excerpt from Dharma Bums
Joyce Johnson, excerpt from Minor Characters
Joseph Mitchell, “Joe Gould’s Secret”
Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”

This essay should be a research-based paper that uses outside sources to argue for a specific interpretation of your chosen text. The paper must include an argumentative and interpretative thesis that is supported by quotations from the text. You are welcome to choose any facet of a text that interests you, but you may also work from one of the prompts I have listed below. Your essay should not be a summary of the text. Assume that your reader is familiar with the story and refrain from merely telling me what the story is about. This paper is also not an opinion piece. Refrain from evaluating the story (telling me whether it is good or bad). Instead, focus on describing and analyzing why and how the story works. You are encouraged to email me or set up a Zoom meeting to discuss your thesis.

PROMPTS You may take as the subject of your paper any of the prompts listed on this sheet.

Please do not write an essay that simply regurgitates exact conversations we’ve had in class on the discussion board. Note that each of these prompts introduces a topic in bold followed by example questions that you might explore in several texts. You are meant to choose one text to write about (don’t try to answer all the questions listed). You can also use the example questions as a model to adapt the topic to a different text.

1.      Explore the theme of economic class in one of the texts listed.

How does Fitzgerald use the concept of unlimited wealth to critique class and/or race relations? What role does class play in Joan Didion’s portrayal of the counterculture of the 1960s in “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”? What are the benefits and/or limitations of Bertrand Russell’s plan for a 4-hour workday, and how might those benefits/limitations look different for lower vs. upper classes?

2.      Consider the role of gender in writing and work. How does Virginia Woolf critique the obstacles that aspiring women writers face? How do Joyce Johnson or Joan Didion use their position as outsiders to critique the male-dominated counterculture?

3.      What role do narcotics and drugs play in our conception of “slackers” or “loafers”—those who refused to work? How does Joan Didion criticize the drug culture of the 1960s in “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” and how does this criticism relate to hippie politics and art? Were the Beats, like Johnson and Kerouac, pro- or anti-drug, and why? How did altered states of consciousness affect their creative output?

4.      What can we tell about each authors’ perspective on writing as work?

What is the relationship between Joe Gould’s homelessness and his massive writing project? How did Jack Kerouac survive as a wanderer/hobo while he was writing his novels, and how is this related to race and gender privilege?

SUBMISSION AND GRADING
ü  You must turn upload your essay to the ICON dropbox on Friday, Dec. 4 before midnight.
ü  Essay #2 is worth 200 points, which is 20% of your final grade.
ü  I will use the rubric that is included with the Essay Planning Sheet Instructions posted on ICON when I grade your essay.