Before you write, please remember the following:
- a meaningful working title that sums up your views like a synopsis
- a strong thesis (focus on an issue or an intellectual concern) in the opening paragraph, including names of the works and authors you want to discuss and explain succinctly how each work is relevant; the scholarly substance of your paper is all in this opening paragraph; if you have a weak or non-existent thesis, your subsequent discussions won’t cohere.
- organization means the order in which you discuss works in question.
- textual analysis and interpretation are necessary as dramatic details and quotations are not self-explanatory. Respect the richness and complexity of the text. Discuss what the author is doing and not what the characters are doing. If you treat characters as real people, you miss the whole point of literary criticism.
- length should be around 2,000 words, font size 12; a top sentence to sum up what you say in each paragraph. No need for plot summary. Interpret quotes .
- In endnotes, acknowledge the author and/or books that you have cited or quoted as reference. To avoid plagiarism, pay attention to the following:
- Any idea or argument taken from a work that is not your own – whether it is from a printed source, the internet, or another student – must be properly cited. You must incorporate an acknowledgment of the source of the idea in a footnote.
- All quotations must be clearly marked with quotation marks in the text and the source identified in a footnote.
- Any group of three or more words taken directly from a work that is not your own must appear in quotation marks and the source identified in a footnote.
- The borrowing of any complete sentence, sentence fragment, or sequence of three words or more from a work that is not your own (whether taken from printed works, the internet, or the work of another student) without quotation marks and without proper citation is considered plagiarism. This includes words taken from reference works, online book reviews, or student essay posting sites.
First paper: Self Identity
Write an autobiography of sorts bout your individuation, which focuses on the formation of your personal identity. Having been exposed to the Chinese crisis in cultural identity during the May Fourth period in China, you are invited to write a narrative (fictional account) about your growth (people, culture, religion and historical moments) important to your becoming who you are today. In this self-analysis, feel free to reference Chinese texts that address the same tissue.
Second paper: Social Identity
Considering how Western Enlightenment impacted on modern Chinese culture (individualism, anti-traditionalism, feminism, nationalism, etc.), you are expected to offer a social-analysis about issues of justice as being addressed by Hegel, Marx and Mao, and represented in Chinese texts. Give a narrative about where social injustice still exists, what causes it to happen and how it should be dealt with. Feel free to reference Chinese texts that address the same issue.
Third paper: Political Identity and Identity Politics
Every society has both some socialist and capitalist elements in its social structure. Give your take on Mao’s communist revolution as a global phenomenon to democratize China in the name of social equality or modernity. Feel free to reference Chinese texts and comment on the validity of political theories on capitalism by either the new Left like Keynes for government regulations or the neoliberals like Hayek for a liberal market.
Fourth paper: National, International and Transnational Identity
In today’s post-American world, in which the world is no longer bipolar but multi-polar, and in which one’s identity is no longer necessarily limited by his or her national borders, how do you understand the question of social justice? Write your own narrative on one of such global issues as democracy, racism, socialism, imperialism, multiculturalism, post-colonialism. Feel free to reference Chinese texts that also address the same issue.