Comprehensive
Choose a movie for this paper
Prompt: In a six- to eight-page essay, you will use a piece of culture to analyze the seminar’s focus on narrative. Your analysis will not only describe and explain the piece of culture you have chosen but it will also engage with the various themes of narrative you have discussed and written about throughout this semester.
Your piece of culture can come from the realm of what is considered “popular culture.” It can be a movie, TV show, an episode of a particular TV show, an album, a particular song on an album, a comic book, or a sporting event. It can be outside the realm of popular or mass culture, too. You can choose a work of literature, a piece of art, a composition of classical music, or just about anything that involves human creativity and narrative. The possibilities are virtually endless, just as long as you don’t choose anything we’ve already covered in class.
The goal of this paper is to offer answers to at least one of the questions posed in the course syllabus: “What purposes do stories serve? Who gets to tell their stories? How do they get to tell them? What can these stories reveal about myriad times, places, and identities? What is the relationship between storyteller and audience? Who has the power to shape the meaning of these stories? Whose stories are considered legitimate and why? Who gets to make these decisions? Why are some stories considered less important and, perhaps, illegitimate? To borrow from Toni Morrison, what makes a narrative ‘radical?’ What do stories say about our humanity?”
As always, think deeply before you write. Which of the above question(s) can be answered best by the piece of culture you have selected? Then, proceed to analyze the question(s) through the lens of your piece of culture, develop your ideas, and communicate them in this essay.
Guidelines
You need at least three written sources related to your piece of culture. Then, you can use as many multimedia sources as you wish.
The paper must be submitted through the Turnitin tool, which is enabled here. I will be looking closely at AI usage. The paper is to consist of your words, thoughts, and analysis not those of others.
Your essay must have in-text citations based on your preferred style (MLA, APA, Chicago). See this resource for details and examples of in-text citations:
Links to an external site.
Do not provide a title page or works cited page at the end of your essay. When I speak of MLA, APA, and Chicago styles, I am referring primarily to the use of citations within the paper.
Do not use first person. Write only in the third person.
Work diligently to stay in the active voice rather than devolving into excessive use of passive voice. To stay in the active voice as much as possible, use strong action verbs and make sparing use of forms of “to be” (was, were).
Use italics for titles of works such as All in the Family, South Park, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, etc.
