BIS 490B (LN 11313)
Senior
Seminar:
Toni Morrison's Beloved in Cultural Context
Spring 2009
Research Assignment
Artifacts due
online at 5:30 p.m on
Wednesday, April 22First version of research
essay due online at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29Revised version of research
essay due online at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13Final version of research
essay due onlnie at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27
The purpose of
this assignment is to help achieve the following course learning goals and to
assess how well you are achieving them:
Ability to
identify and articulate interesting questions and problems regarding the
literary work of Toni Morrison
-
Ability to
analyze, with insight and complexity, disparate kinds of data pertaining to
the historical and literary contexts of Toni Morrison'sBeloved
Ability to
work collaboratively and independently on a scholarly research
project
Our final
product, which we will produce collaboratively, will be a comprehensive
scholarly web site that helps other readers, students, and scholars of
Morrison's Beloved. We will provide artifacts (documents, sound
files, images, etc.) that provide context for the novel, and will write research-based
essays that explain the relevance of each artifact for understanding the
novel.
We will work in four groups, and each
student will be a member of one group:
-
historical period (the period during
which the novel is set, roughly 1855 to 1873)
-
author (the life and work of Toni
Morrison)
-
cultural context (the music, art,
literature, and popular culture of the period during which the novel is
set)
-
impact and influence (how
Beloved has been received by critics, has influenced other artistic
works, and has influenced scholars of history, literature, and ethnic
studies)
We will
complete this project in stages.
-
Wednesday, April 22: Collect
artifacts. Your group is responsible for collecting at least four
relevant artifacts per person, each of which will have a short annotation and
one of which will have a corresponding essay
tying it to the novel. All artifacts must be collected and
posted on your group's wiki by 5:30 p.m. on this date. Each of them must
have a one-paragraph annotation, describing the artifact and how it relates to
the novel. Be sure to cite your sources.
-
Wednesday, April
29: Each member of your group must post on your group's Group
Pages discussion board in Blackboard a
research-based essay describing in detail how one of the
artifacts you posted relates to the novel. In your essay, explain to web
site visitors how they can understand some aspect of Beloved
better by thinking about the artifact you have selected. You must refer
to at least two articles from peer-reviewed, scholarly journals. (See
Leslie Bussert's research guide at http://library.uwb.edu/guides/bis490goldstein/ for
assistance.) Please see the Research Essay assignment page at
http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/BIS490BEssay.html
for details.
-
Wednesday, May 6:
Each member of your group must complete two peer critiques for other members
of your group, due in class at 5:45 p.m. sharp. Instructions will be
provided later.
-
-
Wednesday, May 27:
Each member of your group must post on your group's Group Pages discussion
board in Blackboard a final
version of your essay by 5:30 p.m. Please see the Research Essay
assignment page at http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/BIS490BEssay.html
for details. In class that evening, each group will informally
present their completed wiki page.
This page last updated March 29,
2009.
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