For this assignment, you should apply all the skills you\u2019ve learned this semester about reading literary texts and writing literary analyses. Additionally, for this paper, you will incorporate cultural context materials into your analysis. You will need to locate two to three good contextual sources (no more than three). You can also incorporate one to two sources of literary criticism, if you find good essays. Since the novel is relatively new, you may not find much literary criticism. C\u00e1sares has other writings, and any critical articles on these might be useful (https:\/\/www.oscarcasares.com). Avoid SparkNotes and other similar website sources. Book reviews generally are not good sources for this kind of paper, and other students\u2019 papers are certainly not acceptable critical sources.
Your paper should be approximately 4 to 5 pages long (about 1000 to 1250 words). See your syllabus for due dates. You may want to review the CRIT video on cultural context. Here are some points to remember as you begin using contextual materials in a literary analysis.
Context is used most effectively when it:
\u2022 Supports a surface\/depth argument
\u2022 Contains only as much information as is needed to support this argument
\u2022 Correctly cites information that is not common knowledge
\u2022 Illustrates the complexity of the text
Common types of contextual information include the following:
\u2022 The historical period or culture in which the text was written
\u2022 Cultural references within a text
\u2022 Historical meaning of particular words used in a text
\u2022 Other texts mentioned or alluded to in the work
\u2022 Other writings by the same author or his\/her contemporaries\u2014including other literary works, philosophical writings, and or personal correspondence
You may locate a source that helps you understand the social, historical, cultural, literary, or political context of the text but which may not have any other direct connection to the text (a source that doesn\u2019t reference C\u00e1sares or the novel, for instance). That\u2019s okay. Or you might locate a source that does have a direct connection and illuminates the writer\u2019s biography or expressed intentions. That\u2019s okay, too. Any contextual sources should help you meet the five criteria of a literary analysis. The goal of your essay remains the same: to assert plausible, debatable, interpretive claims that are backed by evidence from the text, and that come together in support of a single interpretive thesis, one that grapples with the complexity of the text.
See your syllabus for format guidelines and due dates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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