You will research a day (or week, or several months) in the life of someone who might have read or been aware of two or more of the texts in this class from the 11th century to the mid 20th century (just post-WW2). Situate your creative project when the texts in question were first published. You may identify an actual historical figure who read or experienced this material, or you may create your own plausible historical figure. This person can be any nationality, gender, age, race, or class, as long as you can show how such a person was most likely to acquire or be aware of the texts in question. You will sketch out a short biography, tell us about the person’s job, income, education, reading or aesthetic taste, and potential access to reading material. What current events may have resonated with them when they read or heard of the book? What made their reading experience with the text different than how we read it now? How might you represent the experiences of a subject who was not literate but was aware of the texts and their cultural impact? You will also explain how you think your subject may have responded to specific parts of the texts you chose, and you will support these claims with research-based evidence.
Your work may also take the form of a first-person narrative, as if written by the fictional reader in question. If you go with the fictional approach, you will still need to offer lots of footnotes that quote and cite your source material. I will expect the same density in terms of evidence regardless of your approach.
Texts you can use are the history of mary prince and Kaincaid on seeing england for the first time.
Your project will be 5-8 pages, double spaced.
You must use a minimum of 3 secondary sources for this assignment. This does not include the two novels you must reference.
