Analytical paper

In an analytical paper of 8-10 pages, please analyze primary textual materials (films, fiction, poetry, etc). The object is to use ways of looking (theoretical concepts or frames) from the readings to analyze or make sense of literary or filmic work you select. Further instructions on Analytical Paper Please write an 8-10 page paper on a topic of your choice that we have raised in this course. The object is to use concepts and theories learned in this course to analyze/interpret film and/or literature; or alternatively, to use film/literature to question, critique, modify theories learned in class. You may bring in theories/concepts from outside of class readings as long as you also address one or more theories we cover in class. You may use film or fiction we have not watched or read in class in addition to ones that we have. Some possible topics are suggested below. In evaluating your paper, I will look for a well-articulated and well-supported argument about how to best interpret or understand some of these fictional works. I value arguments that, if possible, shed new insights in your analysis rather than just a straight application of theory to reading works of literature and film. Just make sure your analytical insights are well argued in theoretical terms as well as in close reading of texts or films for details to support your argument. You may choose to read the works with the analytical concepts and issues we discuss and read in class, or you may choose to read against theory (i.e. in a critique of a theory or of critical theory as a method of reading, which requires you to fully address these theories in the first place!). You may also choose to read the works in their broader social, political, historical contexts. In whatever case, your paper must have a thesis/argument supported by your analysis of literature or film. Resources for writing on literature and film are posted on your course website under Course Information. Please work on writing mechanics such as organization, structure, spelling, and grammar since these greatly affect the effectiveness of a paper. Please use in-text MLA style consistently, and provide a list of references at the end. Some General Topics (These are only general topics to help orient your question. You will need to fashion a specific research question and an argument from them): 1. The use of masculinity/femininity, exoticism, eroticism (relevant readings: McClintock; Bradley; Nguyen-vo, Duong, etc.) in one or any combination of Vietnamese or Vietnamese diasporic filmic or literary works we have seen or read in this class. You may also bring in literary works or films we have not covered in class. Please place the works you choose in historical contexts, and take care to make your argument historically specific. 2. The colonial gaze and/or Vietnamese nationalist modes of representation in film(s) or literary work(s) of your choice. Relevant theoretical readings include Said, McClintock, Anderson, Nguyen-vo, Bradley, Taylor, Duong, etc. Please place the works you choose in historical contexts, and take care to make your argument historically specific. 3. Draw continuities or discontinuities in the relationship between various kinds of realisms (Nguyen-vo) in works of Vietnamese/diasporic film and/or literature. 4. Global economic processes (e.g. flexible accumulation and neoliberalism) and gender/class (Duong, Nguyen-vo, etc.) in works of Vietnamese/diasporic film and/or literature. 5. The relationship between global economic processes and/or political reforms (e.g. flexible accumulation, neoliberalism) on the one hand, and representation of history or geographical space on the other (Duong, Bradley, Nguyen-vo, etc.) in any works of Vietnamese film and or literature. 6. How should we read narratives of exile, immigration, diaspora, or return? Should we read these narratives in the context of the formation of an imagination about diaspora or soemthing else? You could use theoretical works by Nguyen-vo (“History Interrupted”, Duong, Long Bui, Tuon, C.D. Vo, Troeung, and poetry such as by Ocean Vuong, Phan Hai Dang, Cathy Linh Che, fiction such as those by Thanh Ha Lai (verse story), Aimee Phan, and Angie Chau, or any other appropriate fictional text/film such as “Three Seasons,” Journey of Vaan Nguyen,” etc. 7. Any topic you devise that will directly deal with Vietnam and the diaspora, and any of the theoretical issues we raised in class, and in relation to any of the filmic or literary works we watched or read.