Dear all,

I want you to know that I will be responding to everyone's paper by tomorrow, and also posting grades tomorrow (morning). If I don't have both assignments, I will have no choice but to fail you. Grades are due on the 5th (but CUNY First will likely be down on the 4th).

In Other Words (In Altre Parole)

Choose your favorite passage from the book. Copy it here…. (should be no more than a paragraph). Do an analysis, focusing not only on what is written but how it is written, her choice of language and images. Discuss why this passage resonated with you.

Second writing assignment due June 30th midnight

For the next assignment, you will be required to write an essay in which you explore connections and points of departure between the works of two of the authors we have discussed so far. Choose ONE of the following topics and come up with your own thesis/argument statement, considering not only plot and theme but also the form the books take, the way they are written, the narrative method (form and content):

1. Authorial Identity

2. Female Friendship

3.  Cultural Hybridity 

I would suggest framing your introduction around the topic of contemporary women writers. Also, as in the first paper, give a brief summary of the author and her oeuvre, and orient the reader as far as historical context. 

Your essay should be 5-6 pages, double-spaced, with an MLA Works Cited Page. It should also engage with at least three scholarly sources…. no ass-kissing allowed, but piggybacking is welcome.

Please bring a synopsis of your argument to our next class.  I will give you some ideas. 

Morrison and Ferrante

This question is not related to Lahiri's work, but I want you to start thinking comparatively in preparation for the next writing assignment.

What connections and points of departure do you identify between Sula and Lila? What connections and points of departure can you trace between Ferrante's and Morrison's representation of female friendships? Between each author's representation of place, and of community?

For Revision

Since some of you are struggling to create literary arguments, I've given you some open-ended questions to consider. The answers to these questions will be your thesis statement. For the second and final assignment, you will have to create and answer your own open-ended question.


For the revision, I'd like to modify the original questions I'd assigned to guide you into creating a more complex thesis statement/argument.

If you chose topic 3, think about the following:
Why is the character of Lila necessary in a female Kunstleroman, a novel that traces the becoming of a woman writer? What does Lila signify in the context of the novel?

OR

Can the friendship between Elena and Lila be considered enabling, disabling, or both? What is unusual about Ferrante's representation of rivalry and competition between two women?

If you choose this, you will need to access 2 articles and interviews which address Ferrante's views on female friendships.



If you chose topic 1 (class consciousness), I'd like you to think about the following:

How is My Brilliant Friend a traditional rags-to-riches story…. and how is it not? How does Ferrante play with her audience's expectations of this genre through fairytale motifs? (You want to consider that, for girls and women, success in fairytales usually arrived through the marriage-with-wealthy-man plot).

OR

Ferrante's audience consists mainly of upper middle-class Americans and Europeans who have fetishized her fiction. Yet her novels challenge classist assumptions, subverting hierarchies between "high" and "low" culture in a postmodern fashion. Discuss, paying attention to issues of form and style as well as content.

Articles on Lahiri and her work

This link offers access to an interview with Jhumpa Lahiri:
http://cww.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/1/66.full?sid=e9f9c39a-5670-4d88-b288-60e45221ef16

And here's a link to an article on "Interpreter of Maladies:"
http://docs.rwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1056&context=rr

You can copy these links onto your browser to access them. I've also posted an article on "Interpreter of Maladies" on Blackboard.