Theme of My Creation
Topic: Closely read any one of the following works listed at the bottom of these instructions through a theme of your own creation. Sample themes might include ‘magical play with history,’ ‘images of magicians and magic,’ ‘mythology’s role in contemporary literature,’ ‘power, mastery, and control in literary works about magic,’ etc. Your thesis should analyze the text through a theme raised by the text with regard to images of magic or other fantastic element(s).
Paper should argue a clearly stated claim about the text. You should use specific examples from the text to support your ideas and should analyze the language of the text itself closely, and you will need all the tools of argument about literature for this paper. The body of the paper should also clearly guide your reader through the stages of your argument using strong topic sentences that indicate the main idea to be discussed in each paragraph. Finally, your writing should be grammatically correct and technically precise.
Research Requirement:
-Use what is available from books and/or peer-reviewed professional literary journals, e.g. PMLA, American Literature, Science Fiction Studies, Contemporary Literature, Studies in the Novel, Callaloo et cetera.
-No Internet sources except for full-text articles downloaded from the professional databases (MLA, EBSCOHost, etc.). Download these articles as .pdf files if possible so your citations match the original paginations. Use as many sources as needed—there is no maximum number of sources, but you must at least two as these are major authors.
-Your sources must be drawn from the MLA International Bibliography
Basic Guidelines:
Double space your essay; include your name, the course number and section at the top of the first page
Avoid the use of the second person (‘you’), as it is conversational and too direct. Use the first person to describe your own thoughts, but better to use the third person when discussing the texts.
• Introduce your work and author by full title and his/her full name early in the paper. Thereafter, only use his/her last name.
• Do not focus on the writing process; don’t tell your reader what you are planning on doing—do it.
• Write in the present tense, but do use tenses to show chronology in the works as needed.
• Always use direct quotes to support your claim, and thoroughly explain what each quote means and why it is important to your thesis. A good rule of thumb is one quote per paragraph. There are many good passages to choose from, and I will certainly be happy to talk to each of you in office hours about possible quotes. I look forward to reading your essays.
Choose one of the following books to create a theme around:
Leaf Storm, Gabriel García Márquez
Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
Mumbo Jumbo, Ishmael Reed
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
American Gods, Neil Gaiman
Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern,
