American	
  Literature,	
  1865–1910
Conclusion	
  and	
  paper	
  proposal
It	
  is	
  impossible	
  to	
  prove	
  with	
  mathematical	
  certainty	
  that	
  when	
  we	
  
talk	
  or	
  write	
  about	
  a	
  real-­‐world	
  we	
  are	
  not	
  in	
  massive	
  error	
  or	
  
wholly	
  enclosed	
  within	
  an	
  ideological	
  order	
  of	
  things.	
  It	
  is,	
  
however,	
  equally	
  impossible	
  to	
  prove	
  beyond	
  doubt	
  the	
  
incommensurate	
  relativity	
  of	
  separate	
  worlds.	
  What	
  is	
  at	
  stake	
  is	
  
the	
  possibility	
  of	
  community	
  and	
  the	
  potential	
  to	
  make	
  new	
  
worlds.	
  This	
  is	
  the	
  inherent	
  utopianism	
  of	
  realism	
  as	
  art	
  form.
• Pam	
  Morris,	
  Realism	
  (London:	
  Routledge,	
  2003),	
  p.	
  162.
Ezra	
  Pound,	
  ‘A	
  Pact’
I	
  make	
  a	
  pact	
  with	
  you,	
  Walt	
  Whitman	
  -­‐
I	
  have	
  detested	
  you	
  long	
  enough.
I	
  come	
  to	
  you	
  as	
  a	
  grown	
  child
Who	
  has	
  had	
  a	
  pig-­‐headed	
  father;
I	
  am	
  old	
  enough	
  now	
  to	
  make	
  friends.
It	
  was	
  you	
  that	
  broke	
  the	
  new	
  wood,
Now	
  is	
  a	
  time	
  for	
  carving.
We	
  have	
  one	
  sap	
  and	
  one	
  root	
  -­‐
Let	
  there	
  be	
  commerce	
  between	
  us.	
  
Purpose: To organize the results of your research, to articulate your main
argument regarding a topic of your choice, to receive feedback from your
instructor, to get ready to write the research paper.
Content: A preliminary version of your main argument (Abstract), three
research questions + a list of the primary as well as (at least four) secondary
sources.
Form: Title, a full paragraph or a detailed outline (200–300 words), an
annotated list of sources using a recognised style guide (MLA, Chicago,
MHRA [the last available here: http://www.mhra.org.uk/pdf/MHRA-Style-
Guide-3rd-Edn.pdf.])
Bring this to our last class. Check access to Homework Vault on our course
page on is.muni.cz.
Submission deadline: 31 January
Submit online in Homework Vault
Length: 2,000 words
Paper proposal and annotated bibliography
Discuss class and nationality in Daisy
Miller.
Discuss nationality in Daisy Miller.
RQ 1: What are the conflicts between
different nationalities in the text?
RQ 2: What modes of nationality were
relevant at the time?
RQ 3: What was James’s own experience
of modes of nationality?
Horne, Philip, ed., Henry James: A Life in Letters (New York:
Library of America, 2016) [RQs 2 and 3]
Wadsworth, Sarah, ‘What Daisy Knew: Reading Against
Type in Daisy Miller: A Study’, in The Blackwell Companion to
Henry James, ed. by Greg Zacharias (Oxford: Blackwell,
2008), pp. 32–50 [RQs 2 and 3]
Barnett, L. K., ‘Jamesian Feminism: Women in Daisy Miller’,
Studies in Short Fiction, 16 (1979), 281–87 [RQ 1]
Bartlett, A. A., ‘Some pros and cons of travel abroad’, Old
and New, 4.4 (October 1871) [RQ 2]
What is the importance of
nationality in Daisy Miller?
Intro (250)
Conflict between nationalities (500)
Mrs Walker’s rejection of Daisy
in Vevey
in Rome
Wadsworth’s ‘foreign lady’
James as feminist (Barnett)?
Contemporary debates around Americanness (500)
Bartlett’s travel writing
James’s experience (500)
Letters on travel in Europe (using index)
Conclusion (250)
What is the importance of
nationality in Daisy Miller?
Intro (250)
Randolph’s critique of Europe
Conflict (750)
Mrs Walker’s rejection of Daisy (250)
in Vevey
in Rome
Comparative lack of conflict around Wadsworth’s ‘foreign lady’ (250)
James as feminist (Barnett)? (250)
Modes of nationality (750)
James’s letters on travel in Europe (using index) (250)
Bartlett’s travel writing (250)
Compare to Daisy and her mother
Daisy as type (Wadsworth)? (250)
Conclusion (250)
Daisy’s death: reconciliation between nations or continued conflict?
Winterbourne and Giovanelli’s conversation in the graveyard.
Introductions
State clearly what the paper is going to do.
This paper will discuss the politics of Samuel Beckett’s writing in
his 1982 play Catastrophe.
Outline your research statement (referencing the title)
It is my position that the political contexts in which Catastrophe was
written must be taken into account when studying Beckett’s play.
State how you are going to go about answering your research
questions
In order to examine the politics of Beckett’s work, we must analyse
the events which led to the composition of his work, the details he
decided to include while writing the play, and the reception of
Catastrophe in performance.
http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/introducing-work/
Main body
Link each paragraph to one of your research questions. Put these
questions in the body of your text if this is suitable.
What is the importance of the city in Joyce’s Dubliners? In order to
answer this, I’m going to show that the rural west of Ireland
functioned as a space which feeds the imagination of urban Irish
nationalists in the early twentieth-century.
New idea = new paragraph
Use secondary sources to back up your points. Don’t just quote
them uncritically.
While A argues X, a closer analysis of ‘The Dead’ shows Y.
As is argued in Hugh Kenner’s analysis of ‘The Dead’, narrative
viewpoint is highlighted from the very first sentence.
Conclusions
Bring what you have done to an ending
This paper has argued that the political contexts of Beckett’s
Catastrophe must be taken into account for a full understanding
of the play.
Keep it shorter than your introduction.
http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/writing-
conclusions/
Proofreading
Proofread for structure
Do my introduction, paragraphs and conclusion cohere?
Is my argument clear?
Do I do what I am going to say I’ll do?
Proofread for detail
Use spellcheck.
Print out your paper or put it on a device other than your
computer.
Read it slowly, at least three times.
Blow up the font on your laptop to 200%.
Read it aloud.