Telling Stories Breaks the Silence of Injustice Research Paper

The title of your essay will be “Telling Stories Breaks the Silence of Injustice”



Your essay will be worth 25% of your final grade

Be 1350—1500 words (5-6 pages)



Follow MLA format for in-text citation and Works Cited



Be a research essay—containing an adequate number of peer-reviewed academic sources from library to back your argument sufficiently.

There is no minimum or maximum—the number of articles/chapters/texts required is the number that you need to cover your topic thoroughly and in depth.

Your argument should not be a parroting of another author’s opinion. Research should support your argument, not constitute your argument.

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Broadly speaking, you will be considering how questions about literature are often also questions about enduring political, cultural, and ethical issues. The background of your essay will be George Orwell’s 4th reason for writing in “Why I Write” that you were assigned at the beginning of the course:



“Political purpose – using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after. Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude”.



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The specific topic of your essay will be chosen by you—but that topic must address a form of social injustice AND be ~directly~ connected to that social injustice in one of the novels read in the course.



The assignment must be firmly grounded within the text of a novel studied in the course.



Novels:

Burns, Anna. Milkman. Greywolf Press, 2018.

Rosenberg, Jordy. Confessions of the Fox: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group, 2018.

Rushdie, Salman. Quichotte: A Novel. Knopf Canada, 2019.

Shafak, Elif. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World. Bloomsbury, 2019.





Assignments which wander too far afield from the novel (i.e. crowbarring a random topic into the novel) will not be highly regarded.

The assignment will consider what is at stake when a form of social injustice is revealed/written about in a novel.

The assignment will not be a laundry list of examples of social injustice in the novel—the assignment will discuss (in accurate detail and appropriate depth) the importance of writing about ONE form of social injustice, the author’s treatment of that injustice, and WHY it is important.

The assignment will avoid generalisations and broad statements

The assignment will provide relevant and accurate evidence for its claims.

Although all political perspectives are welcome, it is imperative to write respectfully of any group or individual discussed in your assignment.

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The assignment will analyse—rather than summarise—why writing about that form of social injustice in the way the author does might “push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after”.

The research chosen will offer germane substantiation for the argument being made and support the importance/impact of that social injustice.

The essay is not constrained by arguing that ‘push’ is in a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ direction—it is, as always, the quality of your argument being evaluated, not your political position within that argument.

You will need to think about this—it is an assignment that requires you to use your knowledge and your creativity. The thesis (argument) of the assignment will not pop into your head ready-made. It will, at times, be very frustrating. It will, at times, annoy you immensely. Start thinking about it now—as letting your ideas ‘percolate’ will serve you well. Doing a last-minute grab & jam will not work well here.



Some of you who are most comfortable with very specific essay topics will be frustrated by the general description of the assignment. The breadth of the assignment is designed to allow students to choose to write about the novel or an issue of social justice that most interests them AND to encourage students to become more sophisticated in their approach to assignments. Assigning students cookie-cutter assignments makes those assignments a lot easier to create and grade, but actively discourages students from developing their own ideas and interests in favour of the instructor's interests. Generally speaking, broad instructions, that leave focus and methodologies up to the individual, will be encountered often in your professional futures. Thus, consider this assignment as part of your professionalization: take control of the assignment within specified parameters and know that developing that skills of self-direction and taking initiative will be of use to you now, and later in your chosen careers--wherever they lead you.



You are not required to cite Orwell--the quotation is provided here to offer you a general background to the assignment.