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IF YOU HAVE NEVER READ THE BOOK, USE THIS LINK: https://www.litcharts.com/lit/th

IF YOU HAVE NEVER READ THE BOOK, USE THIS LINK: https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-buddha-of-suburbia

Final Paper: Length: 5-6 pages

Peer Feedback: May 13, 2024 (Optional)

Final paper Due: May 21, 2024 (by noon in my office)

Spring 2024

_________________________________________________________________

 

Requirements:  2-3 academic articles/literary criticism on the novel Buddha of Suburbia. These articles MUST be from scholarly journals and at least 8-10 pages long.  You will use the MLA method of documentation throughout the paper.

 

This is a paper driven by outside literary criticism and research and hence I cannot give you a topic for this paper. You will have to choose a topic for your paper, and then incorporate the academic articles you have found to write a paper that is critical, organized, and focused. Your objective will be to design a paper that uses both the primary source (i.e., the novel) and the secondary sources (written about the novel) effectively together to write a coherent paper.  You must provide proper context (historical, cultural, socio-political etc.) along with your arguments and critical interventions to provide a new lens through which we can begin to see the novel in question.

 

Some of the potential themes (and there are many others) running through the veins of both these texts are:

 

·      Coming of age

·      Love, Marriage, Infidelity

·      Racial Identity in Post Imperial London

·      Racism

·      Hybridity

·      City versus Suburbs

·      Representation of “The English” versus the Immigrants

·      Class consciousness/Class warfare

·      Sexual Rebellion/Experimentation

·      Breaking of the nuclear family structures

·      Generational Conflicts as witnessed by Karim and Jamila

·      Transgression and Perversity

·      Representations of power and masculinity

 

(These are just a few themes and there are many others)

 

 

If you would like to discuss some topics with me to both focus and

clarify your own ideas I will be happy to sit down with you and listen to

your ideas.  If you would like me to read an initial draft of your paper I will also be happy to do that, provided that you set up an appointment with me and given me a copy of the paper at least a day before you come to see me.  These must be serious drafts.

 

The best critical papers will have original ideas and questions asked backed by strong

evidence from the outside sources as a way of supporting your hypothesis.

The best papers will also incorporate the articles in a way that will provide

both context and depth to the novel at hand. Minimize your urge to summarize and devote most of your energy to unpacking the text and analyzing the different motifs,

metaphors, implications etc. thoroughly.

 

Since this is a research driven paper you will follow all guidelines that is applicable to research papers.

 

The Best Papers Will:

 

  • Begin with an introduction and a clear thesis that identifies the paper’s central question(s) or interests, explains them so that the readers begin to understand their complexities.

 

  • Clearly articulate the research framework early on in the paper.

 

  • Feature clear discussion that explains how and why readers ought to understand the importance of the theme you’ve proposed to analyze.

 

  • Effectively incorporate the secondary sources along with the primary source to strengthen the points you’re making.

 

  • Make consistently careful, accurate and detailed textual references (quotations when useful) to both expand and analyze your assertions and arguments.

 

  • Convey an overall sense that the theme of your paper is consistently woven throughout the paper to add both focus and depth rather than distract from it.

 

  • End with a conclusion that explains how readers ought to approach and read this text, and comment on some over-arching observation you’ve made about your theme that readers will benefit from knowing.

 

  • Avoid personal opinions when not supported by textual evidence.

 

  • Maintain a lively academic voice (engaged, thoughtful; not pedantic, not casual, or informal)

 

  • Check for errors in punctuation, spelling, diction; such errors will distract your readers from understanding clearly your arguments.

 

  • “A” papers will substantially succeed in all criteria, will provide a unique reading of the text and keep the reader thoroughly engaged.

 

  • “B” papers may have serious difficulty with one of the above criteria, or minor trouble with several.

 

  • “C” paper will have serious difficulty with two or more of the above criteria.  In general, although a “C” paper may show a genuine engagement with the material, it will appear to need further hard thinking, more clarify and articulation of the assertions and arguments proposed in the paper.  A “C” paper will need considerable revision to achieve its best form.

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