Comparative Essay with Research

Please choose one of the topics below and write an essay comparing and contrasting any TWO primary works from the course. Aim to use each work to say something new and specific about the other. Along with your primary works, refer specifically to at least three secondary sources. Suitable secondary sources could include critical articles or reviews on the primary works, along with articles or books that offer definition and analysis of relevant literary techniques (for example, if you choose topic 2, you might consult critical works dealing with endings). The MacEwan library search page is the most direct route to high-quality sources, and you should avoid relying on Wikipedia or other crowd-sourced online materials. All of your sources should be fully documented in MLA format. TOPICS 
You need not address all the questions attached to your chosen topic; they are there to suggest possible approaches. 1. Analyze two works where narrators become more than a neutral means of relaying events. You could focus on narrators who prove to be actively unreliable or to have their own agendas, but you could also address narrators who are confused or otherwise lacking in the capacity to be objective. How do narrators’ biases and blindspots become important to the works concerned? 2. Analyze the endings of any two works. Do these endings significantly change or extend the effect of the whole work, and if so, how? What exactly defines an ending, anyway? Is the ending always the most important part of a work of literature? 3. Analyze the importance of speech and dialogue in any two works. How do characters’ voices convey important parts of a work? How do the exact words take on significance, beyond simply relaying information? How do the works use voices to show (rather than simply tell readers about) important things? 4. Analyze two works in which relations between human and non-human life are significant. Do these works emphasize differences or similarities between the living entities they depict? To what extent do these works suggest that it is possible for humans to comprehend and describe other forms of being?   5. Analyze the roles of realism in two works. How, and to what effect, do these works depict characters, events, settings, etc. that create an effect of verisimilitude (that seem as though they could or could have existed in the world we know through history, science, and personal experience)? Do these works suggest that there is such a thing as objective realism, or does comparing them suggest that realism is an evolving concept? Note: you do not have to focus on works that are entirely realistic; you could address ways in which realism can be combined with other approaches, or with elements of the fantastic, the uncanny, the dystopian, etc. Part of the point of bringing a group of works together in a course like ENGL 103 is to see how they do similar things in different ways, or different things in similar ways. Make sure your approach to the assignment is comparative: use each primary work to say something new and specific about the other. Try to arrive at an idea that you wouldn’t have without bringing the two works together. You don’t have to give equal space to each work, as long as you show why one or the other needs more space. Deciding whether to emphasize differences or similarities between the works is a way of generating a thesis and a structure for the essay: Apparent similarities>>underlying significant differences Apparent differences>>underlying important similarities The topics are meant to accommodate many different combinations of primary works. You can begin with a topic that interests you and then choose works to suit the topic, or you can begin with works that interest you and choose the topic that best suits them. Before doing a lot of secondary research, work out opinions and ideas of your own in response to the topic you are addressing and the works you are analyzing. Devise a working thesis: a claim neither too obvious to need proving nor too broad or farfetched to be supported by the argument (organized reasoning) of the essay. Once you have a working thesis, Seek out sources that will support and test your ideas with definitions, interpretations, relevant background information. In order to be useful, these sources do not necessarily have to be directly focused on the primary work(s) you are discussing. Material from one context may be adaptable into others: for example, general discussions of dystopian fiction may offer ideas etc. that you can apply to works from this course. At least one of your sources should be an academic source: a book, book chapter, journal article, etc. that identifies its own sources formally, using a recognized system of parenthetical or note references. Academic sources will usually identify their authors by name, field, and institutional affiliation. Academic sources always have dates; online documents without dates (or identified authors) are likely to be untrustworthy. Academic sources have editors (usually identified in each issue of a journal) and peer reviewers (anonymous but qualified critics who offer feedback before a piece of work is accepted for publication). Journal articles can be very specific, while books may offer a broader overview and a bigger set of sources to mine for further information. Articles very often have abstracts: summaries by the authors that can help you decide whether to read the whole. Some form of skim reading is reasonable when you’re at the stage of identifying sources to look further into. The Introduction to the anthology Research Now (edited by Daniel Burgoyne and Richard Gooding, Broadview, 2018) points out that an academic article “isn’t a novel where spoilers are off limits,” so “[i]t’s okay to read the conclusion before the middle” (18). However, be sure not to use any source in a way that alters or misrepresents the authors’ intentions. Choosing the right terms affects the success of a search just as it does the clarity of an essay. Googling the phrase “unreliable narrator” produces “about 1,610,000 results.” Typing the same phrase into the MacEwan Library’s main search page yields 2,010 hits. Limiting the search to available Peer Reviewed items produces a somewhat more manageable 857 hits. Adding another search term—like “fiction” or “short story”—will focus results further, to the point where you can start scrolling to locate sources worth a closer look. Google and Wiki with Caution There is no guarantee that what Google presents as the most up-to-date or relevant set of results for a given set of search terms really is comprehensive. Google itself is like an unreliable narrator: not always to be trusted as a sole source of information. However, Googling an academic source can occasionally take you to an accessible electronic copy even if our library does not have one. Possibly, developing the habit of using online sources critically can make us all better readers, by encouraging us to scrutinize every source we use and every major assumption we make. Reference sources For definitions of literary terms and critical concepts, see e.g. the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, part of the Oxford Reference Online Premium database. For terms or concepts that are particularly important to your essay, you may want to consider two or three different definitions, in order to broaden and test the grounding of your ideas. The value of sources you disagree with Finding a published interpretation that says exactly what you were planning to say about a work can make your plans seem redundant; you do not want a secondary source to take over your essay. In such a situation, you can cite the source and build on the idea you share with it. However, challenging a published interpretation is one way of generating a compelling argument— Critic A. Professor claims that the setting of a work of fiction is always secondary to the characters that experience it, but I will show how Work A and Work B challenge this view in different yet related ways. You may find yourself agreeing with a source on some points but disagreeing on others. Keep an open mind in your research: if you come across a critical interpretation that differs from yours and that you find hard to rebut (prove to be flawed), you many need to adjust your argument. Please use MLA format. American Psychological Association (APA) style—commonly used not only in Psychology but also in Sociology, Nursing, Education, Business, etc.—suits fields that prioritize facts, findings, and up-to-date scholarship. Hence, sources are often paraphrased or summarized rather than quoted directly. This approach works better when the focus is on informational content rather than literary form. MLA also requires exact page references for material that is paraphrased or summarized. Revised MLA guidelines The eighth edition of the MLA Handbook (2016) includes significant changes, reflecting the evolving effects of digital technologies on the ways we find and use materials. The MLA’s own online document “What’s New in the Eighth Edition” explains how this latest guide “rethinks documentation for an era of digital publication,” where “publication formats are often combined [ . . . ] or are undefinable.” As the MLA document indicates, most of the changes involve Works Cited entries rather than in-text referencing. “What’s New in the Eighth Edition.” Modern Language Association. www(dot)mla(dot)org. 2016. www(dot)mla(dot)org/MLA-Style/What-s-New-in-the-Eighth-Edition. Accessed 4 March 2018. Quoting and referencing In the Broadview Pocket Guide to Writing (2017), editors Doug Babington and others describe a basic MLA in-text citation as follows: “Under the MLA system a quotation or specific reference to another work is followed by a parenthetical page reference” (192). This description provides its own example. When you name the author(s) of a source in a signal phrase, only the page number needs to be in the parenthetical reference. When you don’t name the author(s), their surnames should be in the parenthetical reference— “Under the MLA system a quotation or specific reference to another work is followed by a parenthetical page reference” (Babington et al. 192). Sites for citations “Place in-text citations at the ends of clauses or sentences in order to keep disruption of your writing to a minimum,” advises the BPGW (193). A sentence that quotes short phrases from two or more separate pages should place each page reference after the relevant quotation rather than grouping all of them at the end— King’s “Borders” illustrates the mixed Aboriginal and European origins of North American place names, mentioning “Medicine Hat and Moose Jaw and Kicking Horse Pass” (270) as well as “Calgary and Lethbridge and Pincher Creek” (271). Quoting poetry A word, phrase, or single line from a poem can be integrated into your prose— “I am a part of all that I have met,” remarks Ulysses in one of the many memorable lines in Tennyson’s poem (line 18). For short poems, identify quotations by line number rather than page number. You can alter punctuation as necessary: in the example above, the original semi-colon becomes a comma. If you alter or omit words from a quotation, use ellipses and square brackets to indicate your changes— Ulysses declares his intention not “[t]o rust unburnish’d, [ . . . but] to shine in use” (line 23). As with prose, in-text citations should be placed so as not to disrupt the syntax (word order) of their sentences— After calling himself an “idle king” (line 1), Tennyson’s Ulysses expresses his unwillingness to “store and hoard” himself (line 29). Multi-line poetry quotations From the BPGW: “Poetry quotations of three or fewer lines [ . . . ] may be integrated into your paragraph and enclosed in double quotation marks, with lines separated by a forward slash with a space on either side of it” (184)— Tennyson’s Ulysses insists that he will never retire: “my purpose holds / To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths / Of all the western stars, until I die” (lines 59-61). Poetry quotations of more than three lines should be treated like block prose quotations, and presented as they appear on their original page— Tennyson’s Ulysses rallies his crew: Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows (lines 56-59) MLA Works Cited All works quoted, paraphrased, or summarized in an MLA paper are included in a list of Works Cited on a separate page after the paper. The list is arranged alphabetically by author, or by title for any authorless works. Works Cited entries are based on a list of Core Elements, which are assembled in a specific order. Not all elements are part of every work. These elements can appear complicated and confusing. However, arranging them gets easier with practice, and the new system gives you a template to construct a WC entry for nearly any imaginable source. Especially with sources created by many people, such as films, TV, podcasts, etc., there’s flexibility in the construction of WC entries to allow for emphasis on the contributors who are most relevant to a particular paper (see BPGW 226-227). MLA “Core Elements” (See BPGW 207) Author(s). Title of source. [the full title of the work you’ve cited in your text] Title of container, [the box(es) (if any) the work comes in: anthology, journal, database, etc. There may be both a print and a digital container (see BPGW 205-210)] Other contributors, [translators, editors, performers, directors, etc.: see BPGW 210-211] Version, [numbered or designated edition of a book, Director’s Cut of a movie, etc.] Number, [most often, the volume and issue numbers (or similar) of a journal issue] Publisher, [book publisher, organization running website, film studio, etc. no publisher needed for periodical, website that shares publisher’s name, database] Publication date, [usually on the copyright page of a book, and at the top or bottom of an online resource] Location. [page numbers for a print work (note that city of publication is no longer required); url or doi for an online work] Formatting titles The title of a stand-alone work—such as a novel or other book, a movie, a periodical (newspaper, magazine, academic journal), or a website—goes in italics. The title of a work that is contained in a larger work—an essay, a poem, a short story, an article in a periodical—goes in quotation marks. All main words in a title (nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives) should be capitalized in an MLA-style paper, whether or not they are capitalized in the original title. If a book has a subtitle, it is attached to the title with a colon; the same capitalization rules apply. Sample Works Cited entries: book and e-book Book Ronson, Jon. So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. Riverhead, 2015. Williams, Jeffrey J., and Heather Steffen, editors. The Critical Pulse: Thirty-Six Credos by Contemporary Critics. Columbia UP, 2012. (UP is an MLA-approved abbreviation for University Press) e-book Williams, Jeffrey J., and Heather Steffen, editors. The Critical Pulse: Thirty-Six Credos by Contemporary Critics. Columbia UP, 2012. EBSCOhost, http://web(dot)a(dot)ebscohost(dot)com(dot)ezproxy(dot)macewan(dot)ca/ ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzQ4MTM2Nl9fQU41 ?sid=7851a3d9-3261-4db6-a65c93c8cc79d1ae@sessionmgr4007 &vid=0&format=EB&rid=1. On such “Ridiculously Long URLs,” the MLA offers some online guidance: Gibson, Angela. “URLs: Some Practical Advice.” Modern Language Association, 2 November 2016, https://style(dot)mla(dot)org/urls-some-practical-advice/. Sample entries: journal articles Journal article accessed through a database Hammond, Andrew. “‘The Twilight of Utopia’: British Dystopian Fiction and the Cold War.” The Modern Language Review, vol. 106, no. 3, 2011, pp. 662-681. JSTOR, https://www(dot)jstor(dot)org/stable/10.5699/ modelangrevi.106.3.0662. Open-access journal article Vesztergom, Janina. “‘And I Choose Never to Stoop’: Suspense and Unreliability in Robert Browning’s Complementary Dramatic Monologues,” British and American Studies, vol. 20, 2014, pp. 43-50. BAS: British and American Studies, https://litere(dot)uvt(dot)ro/publicatii/ BAS/pdf/no/bas_2014_articles/06%2043-50.pdf. Sample entries: review, news article, work in an edited collection Review Crawford, Kristin. Review of Bad Cree, by Jessica Johns. Anishnabek News, 3 May 2023, https://anishinabeknews(dot)ca/2023/05/03/book-review-bad-cree/. News Article Onesi, Michael. “Canada’s Next Big Author Is a Queen’s Grad.” Queen’s Gazette, 9 Sept. 2020, https://www(dot)queensu(dot)ca/gazette/stories/canada-s-next-big-author- queen-s-grad. Work in an edited collection Oswald, Alice. “Wedding.” New British Poetry, edited by Don Paterson and Charles Simic, Anansi, 2004, pp. 150-151. Sample entries: interview, reference work in a database Interview Johns, Jessica. “‘Jessica Johns on Her Novel Bad Cree.” Interview by Ayesha Rascoe. NPR, 15 January 2023, https://www(dot)npr(dot)org/ 2023/01/15/1149318678/jessica-johns-on-her-novel-bad-cree. Reference work in a database Baldick, Chris. “Dramatic Monologue.” The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, edited by Chris Baldick, 4th edition, Oxford UP, 2015. Oxford Reference Online Premium, https://www- oxfordreference-com.ezproxy.macewan.ca/. Sample entry: work with a corporate author “Writing and Citing in MLA Style.” Writing and Learning Services, MacEwan University, 2016-2017, http://sites(dot)macewan(dot)ca/macewantoday/files/ 2016/08/Writing-and-Citing-in-MLA-Style-Full-Version.pdf. “If the work is published by the same organization that is the corporate author, skip the author element and list only the publisher” (BPGW 202).