The assignment:
Read a novel by a non-American author and
analyze the culture portrayed in the novel. Then
research the actual culture of novel’s setting and
compare/contrast it with the way it is shown in
the novel.
What does that mean?
For starters, it means that this assignment requires
a lot of reading. Besides the novel itself, you have to
read critical articles and books about the novel, some
history, and biographical articles about the author.
Second, this assignment calls for a lot of thinking.
You have to understand what the novel means and how
it works. Articles and books by critics will influence
how you think about the novel. Since the assignment
consists of comparing the culture shown in the novel
with the real culture of that time and place, you also
need to do some historical research.
Your final paper must have at least five (5)
research sources. This does not include the novel
itself. In other words, your Works Cited list will
have at least six items. A paper that has fewer than
five sources plus the novel does not meet the
minimum requirements.
Analysis versus Summary
Your paper needs to do two things:
1) Analyze the novel’s meaning and explain the
culture (or cultures) that it portrays.
2) Compare and contrast the fictional world of the
novel with the real culture of the story’s setting.
Plot summary is not analysis. You might have
to include a brief summary, but keep it short. Write
about the meaning of the novel; do not merely
rehash plot incidents.
Note Cards
The best way to make a proper Works Cited
page, get your in-text citations right, quote
accurately, write good paraphrases, and avoid
plagiarism is to use note cards. If you think that you
might use a source, make a card for it with a correct
MLA Works Cited entry. Do not trust any online
source to give you a correctly formatted entry for a
Works Cited page.
Use note cards for quotations, paraphrases, and
summaries. Make sure that every note card is keyed
to the correct bibliography card.
You will turn in your bibliography and note
cards with the final paper.
Documentation
Everything in your paper must be documented
according to MLA style. Use in-text citations for
summaries, paraphrases, and direct quotations.
A paper with incorrect documentation cannot do
better than a C. Truly bad documentation always
results in an F. A paper with no documentation
results in a 0 and an Academic Integrity report filed
with our office of Academic Affairs. Get your
documentation right.
Final Paper
The final paper must be at least 2,300 words
long, not counting the Works Cited list.
Some Literary Works for the Research Project
• Laura Esquivel (Mexico): Like Water for
Chocolate.
• Chinua Achebe (Nigeria): Things Fall Apart;
The Arrow of God; Anthills of the Savannah; A
Man of the People.
• Joseph Conrad (Poland): Heart of Darkness;
Lord Jim; and other novels.
• Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russia): Crime and
Punishment.
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Russia): One Day in
the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
• Voltaire (France): Candide.
• Erich Maria Remarque (Germany): All Quiet on
the Western Front.
• Gustave Flaubert (France): Madame Bovary.
• Alan Paton (South Africa): Cry, the Beloved
Country; Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful.
• Boris Pasternak (Russia): Dr. Zhivago.
• J. M. Coetzee (South Africa): Age of Iron;
Disgrace; Waiting for the Barbarians.
• Nadine Gordimer (South Africa): A Guest of
Honor; A Sport of Nature; Burger’s Daughter;
The Conservationist; July’s People; The House
Gun.
• Isabel Allende (Chile): Eva Luna; Portrait in
Sepia; The House of Spirits.
• Siegfried Sassoon (England): Memoirs of an
Infrantry Officer.
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia): Of Love
and Other Demons; One Hundred Years of
Solitude; Chronicle of a Death Foretold; Love in
the Time of Cholera.
• Salman Rushdie (India and England):
Midnight’s Children.
• Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru): The Green House;
Conversation in the Cathedral; Captain Pantoja
and the Special Service; Death in the Andes; The
Time of the Hero.
• Carlos Fuentes (Mexico): The Old Gringo; The
Death of Artemio Cruz.
• Buchi Emecheta (Nigeria): The Bride Price; The
Joys of Motherhood.
• Clarice Lispector (Brazil): The Hour of the Star.
• Peter Abrahams (South Africa): Mine Boy.
• Jamaica Kincaid (Antiguan-American): Annie
John, At the Bottom of the River.
• Bao Ninh (Vietnam): The Sorrow of War.
• Sherman Alexie (Native American): The
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
• Leslie Marmon Silko (Native American):
Ceremony, Storyteller.
• Louise Erdrich (Native American): Love
Medicine.
• Arundhati Roy (India): The God of Small
Things.
• Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan): The Kite
Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns.
• Albert Camus (France): The Plague
• Jules Verne (France): Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
• Alberto Moravia (Italy): The Conformist
• Isak Dinesen (Danish): Out of Africa
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