Essay 1

Five pages / 1250 words minimum + works cited. Proofread and headed by name, date, class and essay title. Due Oct 6 by 6 pm via email to Sandy (either as attachment or in the body of the message)

Write an exploratory essay dealing with one of the following texts: Sullivan and Gordon, Swoon, Murakami, After the Quake, Gordimer, Loot, Alexie, The Toughest Indian in the World, King, Everything's Eventual, and Clowes, David Boring. You may draw on your wiki postings and presentation, if you wish.

You not required to argue a single sustained thesis. However, your essay must engage with the text, and make attentive and accurate use of textual evidence. Some directions for exploration:

• a particularly rich or interesting passage in the text (a scene, story, or panel);
• a character or theme or image in the text;
• paratextual or visual information in the text;
• the language of the text, e.g. questions of style, structure, voice, or point of view.

From these starting points, make connections and raise questions, and convey the interest and importance of your exploration to the text as a whole. Your exploration should be informed by the class's cultural and historical frameworks, as well as by the class reading, discussions, and responses.