Available until Dec 8 at 11:59pm
This assignment was locked Dec 4 at 11:59pm.
Topic: Toni Morrison’s
Sula
For this project, you will choose a course reading and engage with it through a creative addition or revision. (You can choose any course reading other than the readings you used for your Lesson Plan Project and Critical Analysis Paper.) To do this, you will need to closely examine the content, writing style, and genre of the piece. If you are trying to successfully add to or rework a piece of literature, you will need to know and understand the text from the inside out. As soon as you have an idea about which text you will use, I recommend rereading it and taking detailed notes about it. For the creative project, you will choose to engage with the text in one of the following ways:
· Genre Swap: change the genre of the work (examples: adapt an escape narrative into a graphic novel, adapt a novel into a poem, adapt a poem into a short story, etc.)
· Next Chapter: write a new chapter that explores what happened after the original text ended
· Perspective Flip: tell the story from another character’s perspective
· Time Period Shift: rewrite the text as if it were written and/or taking place today
· What If?: rewrite a text with a key element changed and explore how the story would be altered
As you decide which path you will take to engage with your chosen text, you will need to consider which option allows you to do the original text justice. Keep in mind that choosing to work with a poem might
seem easier since poems are normally shorter works; however, there are more requirements that a good poem must consider and balance, such as rhyme scheme, meter, imagery, and content. The project itself will consist of
two parts, to be submitted as a single document.
Part 1: Rationale
The first part of this project is a 1-page proposal rationale that explains why you have chosen your specific text and how you will creatively interact with it. Your rationale should state why you chose that author/text and that specific creative option. You should explain the important elements of the author and work that caught your attention and influenced your decision. Similarly, discuss why you chose to rework or contribute to the original text in this specific way. What is your reasoning for how this choice is significant and does justice to the original? Finally, the rationale should fully explain any change you made to the original. What were the literary elements that you needed to consider, such as point of view, dialogue/dialect, character development, setting, structure, rhyme scheme, meter, imagery, metaphors? How will you create your piece and why are you doing it? Think of the rationale as providing the reasoning behind why you did the things you did in your creative piece.
Part 2: Creative Piece
The second part of the project is your creative piece itself. It should be 2-3 pages in length. If you are writing a prose piece (short story, novel, narrative, speech) this will be around 600-1000 words. If you are writing poetry, you are welcome to write multiple poems. It should still be 2-3 pages total. However, remember that length is only a portion of your grade. Your creative piece will be graded in terms of its literary merit as well as its connection and value in relation to the original text. In this way, your rationale and creative piece are dependent on one another. This also goes back to my earlier point: If you are trying to successfully add to or rework a piece of literature, you will need to know and understand the text from the inside out. I encourage you to think deeply about which text you want to choose and how you can best interact with it.
