Essay Question-How are children used by author(s) to forward a social and/or political agenda? Choosetwo stories by different authors OR one collect

Essay Question-How are children used by author(s) to forward a social and/or political agenda? Choosetwo stories by different authors OR one collection of short stories on this moduleto formulate your answer.

Grade Required on essay: 90%

Your essay should discusstwoshort stories bytwodifferent authors OR your essay should focus on acollectionof stories by asingleauthor.Whichever question you choose, your essay should attend to the formal and thematic complexities of African American literary production.

Word Count- 3000

Assessment Criteria(review this before writing your essays and again before you submit your essay):

You will be assessed according to your ability to:

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a range of African American short stories

Interpret selected stories from the module in ways that take account of their formal distinctiveness while demonstrating an understanding of the broader history of the genre.

Substantiate written analysis and criticism through close textual analysis of selected texts

Survey and appraise critical and theoretical approaches to African American literature

Demonstrate a critical understanding of the short stories in their specific intellectual and historical contexts

Demonstrate very good command of an adequate and relevant critical language

- The overall aims of this module are to provide students with knowledge and critical understanding of selected African American writers and short stories. This module will also introduce students to key theoretical and critical debates concerning the production of short fiction within rubrics of racial and national identity formations. Students will examine the aesthetic and cultural representations of the selected short stories as a part of broader American and African American contexts.

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1st Text- Ellison, RalphFlying Home and Other Stories, 1996.,

Further Reading to support first text

Posnock, Ross.The Cambridge Companion to Ralph Ellison. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print. Cambridge Companions to Literature.

Ellison R.Shadow and Act(1964)

Ellison, R.Going to The Territory(1986)

March-Russell, Paul, The Short Story Cycle in Paul March-Russell,The Short Story: An Introduction(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009) 103-119

Second Text- Baldwin, James, Sonnys Blues {widely anthologized and available in Gates and McKay (eds)The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, 2nd ed. (New York and London, 2004); pp.1728-1749. Also available in Oates, Joyce Carol (ed.).The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992).}

Further Reading to support second text

Tracy, Steven C. "Sonny in the Dark: Jazzing the Blues Spirit and the Gospel Truth in James Baldwins Sonnys Blues."James Baldwin Review1.1 (2015): 164-178.

Elam, Michelle (ed.)The Cambridge Companion to James Baldwin. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Kaplan, Cora and Bill Schwarz, (eds) James Baldwin America and Beyond(University of Michigan Press 2011)

McBride, Dwight A., ed.James Baldwin Now(New York: New York University Press, 1999)

Writing Guidelines

Before starting your essay,make sure you have understood clearly the question or titleyou will be responding to.In your introductory paragraph, you should outline how you will approach or interpret your chosen question.You should show within the first few pages an understanding of what the question and or title means. You should plan carefully the argument of your essay to make sure that it is coherent and that it can be supported by the relevant texts.Consider carefully what quotations you will use to illustrate your arguments; then check the text briefly to make sure that these are really the best examples you could have chosen.Always give precise references (e.g. line numbers in verse works) for your quotations.

If you find yourself quoting a number of lines, you should draw the reader's attention to words and phrases within the passage which you think are particularly significant.A quotation by itself will not establish your argument for you: you have to explain the passage's significance for your argument, which will be weakened if your quotations are inadequately justified.

Try to show an awareness of secondary sources (works of criticism etc.).You should give evidence of having consulted secondary works so long as you acknowledge properly the source of your ideas(see the important section on plagiarism in the General Examination Regulations, above).Your examiners will assume that everything in the essay that is not acknowledged as somebody else's idea will represent your considered opinion.It is therefore unnecessary and obtrusive to use the first person voice prominently (e.g. In my own opinion... or I maintain that...') although there is nothing wrong with using the first person at some points (e.g. in such link' passages as: So far I have considered x; in the next section I shall go on to discuss y.')

In structuring your essay,ensure that you make links between its different sections, to keep your argument coherent and fluent.Make sure that all the points you make are relevant to the question or topic; this may mean dropping a favourite point if it would involve digression.You are not expected to say everything that might be said on the subject: it is better to develop an original and focussed argument in detail.Make points when they are relevant to your overall argument, and do not pad out points that you know to be weak or minor.Do not waste time summarizing the plots of novels.In your conclusion, do not just summarize repetitiously; try to draw out a strong closing point from the material discussed.

You will be expected to use accepted scholarly conventions for quotations and references.The departmental handbook on the VLE has all the regulations concerning scholarly conventions outlined.

Titles of Works Cited

Whenever you refer to a book, play, film, journal, or long poem, alwaysunderlineoritalicisethe title.Titles of short poems, essays, or chapters, though, should be put in single quotation marks without underlining: this distinguishes them from book titles which may otherwise be the same.