Research Essay Topic 1102

The Task:

Compose in MLA format a research essay of 1000 words, using a minimum of three secondary sources. (The OED is a primary, not a secondary, source, but you are encouraged to use it.) Source material must be drawn from books and articles located in Galileo databases or the GSU library. Use secondary critical resources to support and complexify your arguments and points. The task is textual analysis, that and that alone. The supplemental lectures I have been posting are pretty good examples of what I am looking for. This is a research project, but I am most interested in seeing you display your own skill at critical thinking and analysis. Sources not found in Galileo or the GSU library will not count toward the research requirement, and you are discouraged from using them. Do not summarize plots or provide biographies of the author. This essay is not to be about the author; it is to be about the text.
 

The Caveats:

You are by now obliged to have familiarized yourself with proper MLA formatting and citation. This information is found in my Course Content, online at OWL, on YouTube, or simply by Googling “MLA citation.” By now I expect professionally clean and error-free copy, with no typos or mechanical errors. Papers not following these guidelines will be penalized accordingly. Failure to format the body of your essay in MLA results in a penalty of up to twenty points, depending on severity. Failure to provide sufficient, relevant source material results in a fifteen-point penalty per missing source. Failure to properly acknowledge the use of secondary material constitutes plagiarism, whether intentional or not. Make sure you quote and cite, both internally and in your works cited page. Essays submitted without source acknowledgement and citation cannot be graded and can therefore receive no credit.

The Stories:

Flannery O’Connot was the master of dark comedy but was at the same time a deeply devout Roman Catholic whose work is informed by her beliefs and her studies in philosophy. Discuss “Good Country People” as a story of spiritual “epiphany.” Do not neglect to discuss the many uses of irony (in its many forms) in the text.

https://literaryfictions.com/fiction-1/good-country-people/

We have discussed the sometimes-conflicting philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois and the dialogue between them. Compare and contrast this dialogue, and discuss how Ralph Ellison thematizes, ironizes, and satirizes the positions of Washington within “Battle Royal.” You may wish to consider a psychoanalytic approach, since the story is riddled with Freudian symbols and metaphors, but this is not required.

Optional topic: Toward the end of the story, Ellison alludes to Hamlet’s soliloquy: “A rope of bloody saliva forming a shape like an undiscovered continent drooled upon the leather and I wiped it quickly away. I felt an importance that I had never dreamed.” Discuss the significance of this allusion to the story.

https://dn720003.ca.archive.org/0/items/battle-royal/Battle%20royal_text.pdf