11.20.2009
Proposal for Final Project – English 1500-003, Fall 2009 (Leuner)
Directions:
Fill out this worksheet and then cut/paste your answers to your blog as a blog entry. Hand in a hardcopy in class on Thursday, November 19.
Project Option You Choose:
Write a 5-7 page essay
My topic will be about forced or unwanted travel in our novels, especially in Equiano and The Black Man’s Lament, but also including A Sicilian Romance and The Tempest. It will focus on the contrast of traveling for pleasure to places you want to go versus being taken against your will to places you never wanted to see in the first place.
My project will try to answer why people are taken against their will in the first place. Also, what sort of effect being taken away from their home has on them should also be answered. Another important thing to explore is how they react to these events. Other questions of this nature will also be answered.
My thesis statement will probably be something about how despite all the struggles, the forced travel helped the characters of these works grow. This obviously needs to be refined, but I think it is a good starting point for that.
I am anticipating not being able to find textual evidence from the older novels, at least right away. However, if I just go back and skim through the older works, I should be able to find good supporting evidence as long as I look. It will also be hard to find a lot from the older works, but I think Equiano has more than enough evidence, and will probably be what supports this essay the most. As long as I find a little information from the other works, Equiano will be able to support the essay. I am afraid that I will get behind and procrastinate on this essay, because I tend to do that with every essay I write. However, I think that having a drafting process will Really help. Also, this time, I will really take to heart the advice I get from my peer editors. This will help make my essay interesting for readers, not just a spewing of information back at the reader.
I think this is a good project because I think it is an interesting subject to follow. Most people, at least nowadays, travel for pleasure or work. But sometimes people have to leave their homes with no other choice, either by force or out of necessity to escape or find work. I do not understand this, because I have not personally experienced it, so I wanted to explore it.
odegaard said,
December 12, 2009 at 12:24 am
I like your perspective on forced travel, and think that British literature does not focus on this so much. Theres a ton of literature on pleasurable travel, such as Jane Austen, but very little on the unpleasant side.