ENGL 499 (Section 001, Schedule #27923)
Virginia Commonwealth University
Fall 2013
TR 3:30-4:45 :: Hibbs 331
Prof. David Golumbia
Office: 324D Hibbs Hall
Fall 2013 Office Hours: Tues 1:00-3:30pm

Vernaculars, Media, and Literature

Short Paper Assignment 1

The assignment is to write one short paper of 4-5 pages (1250 words) in the form of an analytical essay on one of the topics listed below. The paper is due by the beginning of the course period on Tues, Oct 8. You may submit the paper on paper or via email to me at dgolumbia@vcu.edu. The essay is a work of literary interpretation; the primary goal is to provide a well-constructed argument about the meaning of the works you analyze, not necessarily to talk about the vernacular or dialect in the work, although of course you are welcome to talk about this.

Please use your word processor to count the number of words. An English paper should include quotations from the work you are analyzing, and short quotations DO count toward the total word count for the essay. Long quotations (of 50 or more words) should not generally be counted toward the 1250 word total for the assignment.

This is not a research paper, and you are not expected to consult outside sources except for the primary book or piece of media you choose to interpret. Any sources, including that primary source, should be properly cited in your paper, using any acceptable bibliographic citation format. One very simple format is to use a list of Works Cited at the end of the paper, and indicate by author, work and page number in parentheses the exact quotations within the paper itself. Other standard forms of citation (such as footnotes) are also acceptable, but failing to properly indicate sources technically constitutes plagiarism. In most cases, the only work cited will be the primary text you analyze; nevertheless, that work should be clearly cited. In some cases the prompts below invite you to write on two primary texts, or one primary text and one of the critical texts we read at the beginning of the term; regardless, every work you reference that is not your own writing should be clearly and unambiguously sourced via a consistent citation format in your paper.

All work for this assignment and the rest of this course is expected to be your own, and should not include elements from other sources (such as online commentaries on the works you write about), unless you also put them in quotation marks and clearly indicate your sources as described above.

Your essay should address one of the following questions. In general, you should work to develop your own argument, one independent of specific points or analyses raised during class discussion. It's OK and probably unavoidable to reflect some of what we talk about in class, but in general you should do your best to develop an independent topic that shows of your own reasoning.

For all of these papers, you are welcome to write on any aspect of any book or film on the course syllabus from an analytical perspective--you are welcome to use material that we have not studied yet as well as the material we have already covered in class. You should also feel free to use one of the auxiliary texts on which students have done (or will be doing) oral presentations. You may choose texts not on the syllabus at all, but please check with me via email before making your selection.

Prompts

  1. Open topic. You may write on any topic relating to a book or media work on the course syllabus, or a related work chosen in consultation with the instructor.
  2. In "The Logic of Nonstandard English," William Labov identifies a "verbal deprivation thesis" that is often mistakenly applied to speakers of minority or vernacular languages. Describe this thesis and illustrate a way that something like it can be found in one of the work of poetry or fiction we have read this term.
  3. Use one work of poetry that is also available read by its author on YouTube. Explore how the meaning of the poem differs when read on the page vs. when listened to as an audio performance.
  4. Discuss ways in which social class and language prejudice are associated in two stories.
  5. Look carefully at the variations in the language used in narration versus the language used in reported speech or dialogue in two stories. What meanings are conveyed by the different strategies of narrative and speech representation?
  6. In many of the works we've read, familiar forms of language use that typically use standard language are reconfigured into one or another nonstandard language. What meanings are conveyed through these adaptations of linguistic form?
  7. How are labor, race, and language related in one or two of the works we've read and/or listened to?

Last updated October 1, 2013.