Essay Proposal
To be turned in via the comment section, below:
- Describe your central text briefly, providing an unfamiliar reader with a basic grasp of the story—not so much the plot as the type of story.
- What sort of things happen in this text?
- What is this film or novel about?
- You may want to call attention to a key puzzle which your essay proposes to resolve.
- Present an interpretative starting point
- You may want to call attention to the text’s apparent meaning when read without regard to its historical context.
- Present a secondary source interpretation that your argument responds to (builds on, qualifies, challenges, etc.)
- Describe the particular slice of contemporary history in terms of which you propose to re-examine the central text.
- You can start general, but by the end of this paragraph you should focus your reader’s attention on the particular details which you feel have the greatest impact on our understanding of the central text.
- Identify two or three scenes or passages your essay will discuss.
- Briefly analyze (or begin to analyze) one of these scenes or passages to illustrate how you will interpret the text with reference to the historical context
- Briefly describe your proposed essay’s “payoff”
- How will your analysis of these scenes or passages coupled with consideration of this historical context change your readers’ understanding of the meaning or significance of your central text?
Alternatively
You can choose to run your “text in context” analysis in reverse, seeking to discover some key insight about the culture of the period through a close analysis of your central text. If this is what you propose to do, follow the instructions given above, but emphasize how your analysis of the central text functions to challenge or complicate prior scholarship on 1950s American culture and society.