11.13 Character and Drama assignment

Class discussion was based on material in the book about developing discussions of: 1) classical and modern (tragic) heroes; 2) evidence within the play related to character; 3) questions about how character drives the plot or otherwise structures the play to affect the reader/viewer.

Drama Essay.  The second part of class was focused on the assignment for writing about drama. (see assignment sheet posted to the right).  As a class, we agreed to use the "generic" assignment for the short story section, revised to focus on a play.  As we discussed how to develop a thesis for this assignment, we noted the following.

1. A thesis for a successful essay needs to pass the "so what" test.  The essay needs to make a point or show something  that BOTH connects to evidence from the play (or scholarship about the play) AND uses that evidence to make a critical observation or nontrivial point about how the play works, its relationship to the larger culture of its time (or of our time), etc.  

2. For some theses, you will need to cite sources other than the play to support your argument.  For example, if you were to discuss they way the female characters are portrayed in Othello, you would want references research about Elizabethan customs/culture/women as a way to place your comments in context. Or if you argued that Shakespeare drew from features of both classical and modern tragic heroes, you would want to ground your argument in what scholars have written on this topic.  

We have not spent much (any?) time discussing how & when to cite sources. We will work on that in some more detail in the novel unit, but if you want to write a paper that calls for some "back up" - here are some quick, easy strategies for finding what you want.

• Maybe start with Wikipedia to identify what's out there.  Then check out the scholarly references.
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• Check out Project Muse.  This is what comes up with a quick search of Othello.  You can refine your search and get much more relevant material (this has over 3000 hits).
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• Use Google.scholar a a quick way to identify/find articles.  
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• Once you identify the names of the primary journals with essays on your topic, you can search through the Kean Library Data bases by directly accessing the periodicals. Click Periodical List and enter the name of the journal you want to search.

Finishing the Drama unit.  We also took a look at the calendar and noticed that we are moving through this unit quickly and that the drama papers for peer review are due next Thursday.  

For next class:

Write: Identify your thesis.  Identify the points you want to make, and identify the sections of text you will use to support those points.  In addition to that - bring whatever writing you have developed for your essay for in-class conferencing and workshopping.

Have a good weekend and see you on Monday.