Instructions for writing the essay:
Write a 1000 word essay (4 pages) on ONE of the topics below:
The topics listed below are open-ended. Your task is to choose one of these topics and to develop it into a strong, clearly worded, challenging three storey thesis (which you will underline) that announces your topic, frames what your paper will do and highlights why your argument is significant. Your argument should be presented in a formal essay format and have an introduction and a conclusion. Please underline the topic sentences in each of the paragraphs in the body of the paper. Develop your argument by providing evidence from the text but avoid summarizing the plot. You want to present your reading or interpretation of some aspect or feature of the work, not retell the story.
No peer reviewed secondary source required for this assignment.
However, you will also be required to format your essay and document all primary sources using MLA style. You will find guides to MLA on the Purdue Owl website. Include a list of works cited at the end of your paper, using MLA style. As in any exercise, be it written or oral, you must cite all sources according to MLA format and as stipulated by Toronto MetropolitanUniversity policy. Failure to document others’ work properly is considered academic misconduct and will be dealt with according to university policy, which stipulates that the MINIMUM penalty for a first offence is a zero for the assignment. Repeat offences can lead to expulsion from the university.
NB: While you have a week to prepare and complete this take home assignment, I recommend you give yourself 2 hours to write it, the time allotted for this exam during the exam period. I will mark it as if you wrote it in 2 hours.
Please submit your exam as a Word doc or Pdf file.
Topics:
1. Intertextuality is a complex and sometimes controversial art; a writer may attempt to preserve or change an original work’s theme, comment ironically upon it, or update it to accommodate changes in a society. Compare Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly (as referenced in the play) and Hwang’s M. Butterfly. How does Hwang’s intertext refashion its source text to create new meaning? For example, how does it challenge traditional notions of gender and sexuality? Or subvert Western stereotypes about Asian femininity, its assumptions about Asian women and culture?
2. Hansberry reworks the “Angry Young Men” genre to represent an angry young woman. Throughout the play, Beneatha is frustrated by the injustices she faces, as she struggles to realize her dreams and aspirations. Discuss her character’s journey of self-discovery. Does she move past her anger? To what extent does she meet her goals? Is she empowered by the end of the play?
