Description

Essay Two: Cultural Analysis

Once you have developed the analytic vocabulary for textual

analysis in your explication, you can explore literature within their

socio-cultural contexts, considering how they create meaning from

the day-to-day flow of life. In this essay, you will write a 4 to 6

page analysis of one story (or a sample of poems from one author),

examining how it relates to its historical and social context. In this

essay, you will need to locate and summarize secondary sources

and incorporate them into your analysis. Instead, you may write a

comparative analysis of two works.

FORMAT - MLA

This paper must be typed in 12 point, Times New Roman font, using black ink

and double spacing.  Margins must be set to 1-inch and an informational heading

must appear at the upper left corner.  The author’s last name and the page

number should appear in the upper right corner on every page except the first.

AUDIENCE

Although you are still writing this paper for your peers and your instructor, you will

still need to use language and expressions that are appropriate to explain your

ideas in great enough depth that someone who is not familiar with them can

understand them as well as you do.

In addition, you may consider your audience those who rarely understand that

literature helps us better understand our responses to the problems, stressors, of

life. Thinking of this as your audience, you can shape your introduction and

presentation of examples to affect these people.  

PURPOSE

The purpose of this paper is to have you develop your close reading skills and

use them to analyze a short story, comparing that to information about the

historical, social, and cultural contexts that existed when the work was written.

 The aim is to develop an essay that reveals how literature functions to provide

insight into the dynamics of our culture. 

Questions to consider are: Is the work a by-product of forces in the culture?

Does the work help understand a particular epoch? Did the work help inspire

social change? Is the work critical of political events? Does the work reveal or

promote a particular ideology or worldview? Is the work a response to a

perceived injustice or crisis?

STRUCTURE

Your paper will need to include both introductory and concluding sections, as well

as a thesis statement that frames your comparison in a concise manner.  Your

body paragraphs should follow the logic of your argument, but examples and

claims should all be supported with evidence from your source text and

secondary material.

The general structure of this text is as follows:

1. Introduction: Shared context, Problem (condition and cost), and

Solution/Thesis that includes an assertion and its reason or reasons. 

2. Body paragraphs: Topic sentences that introduce the themes of each

paragraph, which are developed with specific details and associated warrants

(which explain how your evidence supports your claims). 

3. Conclusion: Restatement of the thesis and a discussion of why your analysis

matters. 

Overall: Your essay should matter explaining a meaning that your readers would

not otherwise understand.