FINAL PAPER

DESCRIPTION: Having examined works that attempt to confront violence in American history and violence in the American psyche, what are some of the continuing legacies of this violence into the present day? As contemporary readers and citizens who inherent these violent legacies, what are some of the critical questions and concerns regarding violence and the American psyche that we must attempt to confront and form responses to?

The final essay requires you to respond to some of the vexing questions related to violence—in all its various forms—that have been raised by each of the authors that we have read this semester. By treating some aspect of an entire work, or comparing some aspect of several works, you will address what you consider to be an important and specific problem or issue relating to violence and the American psyche. The problem or issue you choose to address will remain up to you and will be generated from your own interpretation of the literary work(s).

Although the following is by no means an exhaustive list, you might consider some of these general topics as you begin formulating and focusing your paper around a central problem or issue:

• Impact of institutional forms of religion on traditional cultural values and beliefs
• Effects of poverty and poor living conditions
• Role of story telling
• Conflict between oral tradition and writing
• Literary treatment of history
• The nature of mob violence
• Representations of outcasts and outsider figures
• Concepts of law and justice
• Westward expansion and the frontier
• Sources and results of communal violence
• Importance of place
• Memory and amnesia
• Literary representations of violence
• Masculinity and violence
  

Finally, as you begin: Think of a question that demands a response in and for our contemporary world, even if, or because, it interrogates the past. Think of a question that seeks a better understanding of the sources and causes of violence, and hence, one that moves us toward the possibility of healing the wounds inflected by violence and redressing some of the principles that violence violates.

A NOTE ON THE DEADLINES: A paper proposal will be due in section this Wednesday, April 5. Your proposal should be at least one paragraph long, contain an important question or concern that will guide your inquiry, identify the main texts (including passages, scenes, characters, etc.) that your paper will investigate, and offer a tentative description of how you plan on approaching your selected topic. I want to stress here that I am not looking for an argument or thesis at this stage, but rather, I want to see you articulate a problem or question generated from our readings and how you begin formulating ways of addressing that problem in and through the texts you aim to interpret.

After submitting your paper proposal to me, the first draft of your paper will be due in section the following week on Wednesday, April 12. The first draft should be a complete and careful draft. The more polished this version, the more you will benefit from peer review. Please bring 2 copies of your first draft to exchange with your colleagues.

As for peer review, please note that I am changing the time frame of the process for the final paper. Instead of reading and evaluating the papers in class as we did for your first paper, we will exchange papers on Wednesday, April 12 and hold our peer review workshop during our next section meeting on Friday, April 14. This means that you are responsible for reading and providing comments before we meet in discussion on Friday. This change should give you more time to provide thoughtful reflection and comments and hopefully facilitate the revision process for the final version of your paper.

The final version of your paper then is due in section on Friday, April 21. When you hand in your final paper, you must also submit at least one copy of your first draft with comments from one of your peer reviewers and submit all of your peer review forms.

FORMATTING: Your essay must be typed, double-spaced, left-justified with 1 inch margin, and in Times New Roman 12 pt. Include your name, course and section number, my name, and the date in the upper left hand corner.

Your paper must contain a title that includes the name of the author(s) and/or title(s) of the work(s) treated in your paper as well a suggestion of the main concerns and themes taken up by your paper. In short, the title should give your reader a hint of the kind of content they will find in your paper.