ENGL 371 (Schedule #26725)
Virginia Commonwealth University
Spring 2012
Tues-Thurs 11am-12:15pm :: 429 Hibbs Hall
Prof. David Golumbia
Office: 324D Hibbs Hall
Spring 2012 Office Hours: Tues 12:30-3:00pm

American Literary Beginnings

SHORT PAPER ASSIGNMENT 1

The first short paper assignment is due Thursday, Mar 8, during class period. The paper may be submitted physically as a print-out, or may be sent electronically to me at dgolumbia@vcu.edu.

The paper should be a work of literary analysis of 6-7 pages or about 1500 words. Word count is more important than page count, so if you have any questions, use the word counter in your word processing file. Within reason, there is never a penalty in my class for handing in too many words, but a paper notably under 1500 words will fail to meet the minimum requirement for the assignment and will have difficulty receiving full credit.

The basic rule for all assignments in the course is simple. You are to produce a short essay of literary interpretation about one of the works we read in class, or another closely related work chosen in consultation with me during my office hours or via email. It is not a research paper, and there is no expectation that you will do extensive outside research for the paper.

Nevertheless, because of the unusual and historical nature of the texts in this class--because they are not conventional literary works like novels or poems--and because they are implicated directly in a long series of historical events, there are many ways in which you may choose to use a small amount of outside research in your papers. Some of the essay prompts below hint in this direction; I encourage you to consult with me directly about any ideas you have for the paper, especially if they do not fit neatly into one of the assigned prompts.

Your paper should include quotations from the primary work you are interpreting. It amy also include quotations from any secondary sources you discuss or whose ideas you mention. Every one of these citations or references must be clearly indicated in any standard reference style. Failure to properly cite these sources constitutes plagiarism under VCU's guidelines and standard research guidelines. You may use footnotes, endnotes, and/or a bibliography. In each case, the essential thing is to clearly indicate which work and which page number you are referencing. For online works such as Wikipedia without distinct page numbers, simply indicate the reference source without page number. If you have any questions about proper citation procedures please contact me either after class or via email.

You are welcome to try to cite older works so as to indicate both their original composition/printing date and the modern edition you are using, although I do not require you go into quite this much detail. For example, here is one very complete way you might accurately cite the Brief Destruction... by Las Casas:

There are a total of three written assignments for this class. This paper, due March 8, I am calling "Short Paper Assignment 1." The second assignment is keyed to the oral presentation each student offers to the class, and does not have a separate assignment page. The final short paper, due during the exam period for the class, will be called "Final Short Paper Assignment."

Essay prompts

  1. Open topic: any topic on the literary interpretation of the texts we have read for class that was not covered in class discussion
  2. Read the chapter "Gender and Discovery," pp. 152-179 in Margarita Zamora's Reading Columbus (on reserve for this course, & also a Cabell library eText). Discuss her analysis in terms of a different text than the Columbus texts she analyzes in the chapter. The Cortés documents in particular may reward this sort of analysis.
  3. Read the chapter "Voyage to Paradise," pp. 95-151 in Margarita Zamora's Reading Columbus (on reserve for this course, & also a Cabell library eText). Discuss her analysis of the religious content of Columbus's texts in relationship to the religious views offered by Bartolemé de Las Casas in his Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, the Valladolid debates with Sepúlveda, and/or other parts of Las Casas's writing.
  4. Research the history of the Pinzón brothers and read whatever writings you can locate about them (a good starting point is the Wikipedia account of the Pinzón brothers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pinzón_Brothers). Compare and contrast these with the accounts of Martin Pinzón you find in the Columbian texts. How and in what ways do these accounts vary from each other? What do the differences and/or similarities make you think about the "rhetorical" and "referential" aspects of the Columbus texts?
  5. Closely compare the presentation of one part of the Cortés expedition in Bernal Díaz's text and in the third, Fourth, or Fifth letter of Cortés. How do these texts differ in their description and presentation of these events? What is the rhetorical purpose of these texts?
  6. Compare closely the tone and rhetorical orientation of a short part of a text by Bernal Díaz and Las Casas. For whom are these texts written? Of what are they trying to convince their readers? Are they successful in these efforts?
  7. The "Black Legend" is a term used for describing the cultural effects of some of the texts we have read in class--that is to say that these texts were said to produce a very dark view of the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Research the "Black Legend" and interpret some of the texts most responsible for the development of this view. What does the Legend say about the power of texts and interpretation to create history? How might we accommodate the many Spanish writings highly critical of the encomenderos with the blanket view of the Spanish indicated by the phrase Black Legend? What does it say about the construction of history itself as a process of the reading of texts?
  8. Read the essay "The New World Now Revealed: Hernán Cortés and the Presentation of Mexico to Europe" (in Blackboard Course Documents for this course, under "Secondary Sources") Research a few of the maps included in some of the writings we have been reading in class, such as Vespucci's map or maps in the letters of Cortés besides the ones discussed by Boone. How are maps like and not like literary texts? How might you describe their "rhetorical" and "referential" functions? Be specific in your interpretation of the maps you discuss.