Awakening: Essay #1. 5 pages. 2190: Women’s Lit.

This is an analytical essay. You are not required to consult outside sources. I am primarily interested in YOUR reading of the novel, your interpretation of Chopin’s controversial novel The Awakening.  I’ve outlined three topics below. They’re all designed to raise plenty of questions, to give you plenty of scope within which to work and to formulate your own argument. They aren’t intended to be prescriptive. As you explore these questions by looking closely at specific passages and scenes in the novel, you should begin to formulate a thesis, a compelling argument about the text. Avoid generalizations; link your interpretation to Chopin’s actual language. Your paper should work on two levels: it will be a very focused, detailed, specific examination of the narrow topic you’ve defined, but it will also open up to consider how this topic (this character, etc) contributes to your interpretation of the novel as a whole.

This is not a five-paragraph essay. In a 5 page paper you should have far more paragraphs, as a rule. Open with an introduction in which you present your topic, capture our interest, and articulate your thesis. Explore a distinct idea in each paragraph as you build your argument; one paragraph should lead to the next, and each should examine a quotation from the text. Your conclusion should pull the threads of your argument together, announcing the conclusions at which you’ve arrived and, ideally, pointing toward the broader implications of that conclusion, of the questions and ideas you’ve been exploring, and Chopin’s contribution to that debate.

You’ll find additional guidelines for writing a critical essay on my webpage. Please consult them!

For Tues, Feb. 3: Email me a one page description of your paper topic. Include at least one key passage you intend to discuss. You don’t need a thesis—an explicit argument—at this stage; you should have ideas and questions. Please get these to me by 2:00 (class time.)

For Tues., Feb. 10: Come to class with a rough draft of at least 4 pages—typed and double spaced. We will have an in-class workshop. (You MUST bring your draft to class in order to participate.)

Tues., Feb 18. Papers due.

--Offer an analysis of a minor character. Ultimately you will be constructing an argument about that character’s function or purpose in the novel as a whole. In order to do this, consider what ideas, ideals, principles, or conflicts are associated with that character: what does he or she represent in this novel? What is the significance of this character’s interaction with Edna? How do they shape, influence, or complicate her life (or her death)—and how does this character ultimately contribute to our understanding of Edna’s fate?

How does Chopin use the representation of artistic expression (painting, music) to explore the position of women at the end of the nineteenth century? What’s the importance of these representations in the novel as a whole? How do they contribute to our understanding of Edna as a character—or Chopin as a writer? You’d be wise to concentrate on unpacking a couple of key scenes.

Construct an analysis of the representation of the female body in this novel. How do Chopin’s descriptions of bodies contribute to the main themes or ideas at stake in the novel? What do these descriptions allow Chopin to say? What ideas are embedded in these descriptions—in other words, do physical descriptions become a kind of code for something else altogether? You could choose to focus on one character or on multiple characters. Make sure you work VERY closely with specific passages.