| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Rough Draft Workshop Oxford

Page history last edited by Kaitlyn Oxford 4 years, 12 months ago

Name: (reviewer 1)_______________________________  (reviewer 2)_______________________________  

(paper) ____________________________________________ 

 

Ethnic Lit Final Paper Rubric 

Full participation in Rough Draft Workshop and Conferences (Yes) (No – loss of 10%): ______________

 

 

 

 

Satisfactory

Unsatisfactory

Comments

Organization

Strong thesis at the conclusion of the introduction to guide the paper.

Thesis connected and supported in all body paragraphs.

Thesis makes a strong argument about a single theme or idea using the primary text and artifact.

Discussion of the primary text and artifact is coherent and succinct. 

Thesis is vague or spread throughout the introduction and the paper.

Thesis is not clearly connected to all body paragraphs.

Thesis does not make a strong argument about the primary text and/or artifact.

 

Close Reading

Analyzes the theme of race, sex, and/or citizenship in ethnic literature in or through a primary text and artifact.

Recognizes the complex identity of the author and/or artist as well as the author’s artistic approach.

Close reading brings the primary text and artifact together in meaningful ways.

Places close reading in conversation with secondary sources.

Summarizes and paraphrases evidence from the primary text to support the close reading (only using direct quotes when it is necessary to analyze the language).

Does not clearly analyze a theme from American Literature in or through a primary text and/or artifact.

Close reading does not relate the primary text and artifact in meaningful ways (although it may discuss both separately).

Does not situate close reading among secondary sources.

Primarily summarizes the text or quotes it (rather than analyzing it).

 

Support (Research)

Integrates support from secondary sources to support close reading.

Creates a clear conversation with secondary sources (without being overpowered by them).

Uses strong evidence from secondary sources.

Summarizes and paraphrases evidence except when quotations are necessary.

Does not integrate support from secondary sources.

Argument is either overpowered or disconnected from secondary sources.

Evidence from secondary sources is not clearly connected with the argument.

Uses unnecessary quotes from the secondary source.

 

Pre-Writing

Completed all pre-writing activities on-time (including conferences and rough draft workshop)

Did not complete all pre-writing activities on-time.

 

 

 

The two stories, Impossible Story and Hair, can be linked together through the theme of objectification of women. Laura in Impossible Story gives and give to Montezuma, regardless of how long they have known each other. Yet, Montezuma does not care about what she has done, he only wants more. He gets her body and never returns to the memory of her. Natividad in Hair is constantly being watched and preyed on by a middle-aged man going through a “midlife crisis.” She is no more than an object of lust and desire in the eyes of Luciano. Both authors shed light on these issues, and they revolve them around the same theme.

Impossible Story by Carmen Boullosa is a sudden fiction piece that speaks of an average woman and an ancient Aztec leader. Laura and Montezuma are the only two characters in this short story. Boullosa packs loads of information into six pages which leaves the reader with a haunted open-ending. In the beginning, Laura is alone in her apartment when Montezuma appears. She plays him a piece of music that was dedicated to his name after his death and he gets lost in the music. Once the song is over, Laura takes care of the Aztec leader by helping him to the bathroom, giving him a bath, and eventually giving him her body. After this action, they both dissolve into the air like smoke. Boullosa uses the characters of the ancient Aztec leader and Laura as symbols to express the past of Mexican culture relationships.

            Montezuma plays a vital part in the representation of men in the culture of Mexican relationships. The reader sees more about him throughout the entirety of the story than Laura which parallels how much women were seen in relationships. The author chose this Aztec leader because there are very little-known facts about him and who he was. This corresponds with the way men are portrayed in Mexican culture, being private in a sense. Men in the Mexican culture, in this story, are presented as being powerful and this is realized in the choosing of the character Montezuma. The actions that took place in the bed, underneath the covers, were described as Montezuma being “called to duty”, which is a phrase used in particular here to show how Mexican men thought of their relationships with women. After the two characters have just had intercourse, he “dissolves like smoke” just as Laura does but after this, there is no mention of her. Montezuma was “dispersed into minute unidentifiable particles, in the fins of a fish, the bark of a tree, the bed of a river; wind and fire…” and this represents all men across the Mexican culture.

            While Montezuma plays an important role in the story, it is the character of Laura who brings the culture of Mexican relationships to full circle. She seems to be a character in awe of Montezuma, and this is shown when she plays music for him. Laura specifically chooses an opera that “honors” Montezuma and she lets him know that it was made specially for him. She also takes care of Montezuma. First, she takes him to the bathroom “like a child” and then she helped him take a bath. The repetition of she did this and she did that represents the amount of work that women put into their relationships with the Montezuma-like men. After their intercourse, Laura says, “I am coming, come with me!” Then she disappears. This was the only thing she said, and it is very significant. Even though Montezuma disappears the same way Laura does, he does not remain with her. He does not even think about her after “dissolving.” Men in the Mexican culture who were in relationships left their women without a thought. All of these things that Laura did for Montezuma shows the type of women that were in these relationships: caring, giving and loving.  

The title of this story is ironic to the fact that this is the norm in Mexican culture relationship. The overarching narrative of this story is not quite impossible. When the reader looks at the symbols of the characters in the plotline it is obvious that this could very well be a true story. This is very relative to a relationship in the Mexican culture and the reader can understand this by taking a closer look and the words chosen to describe certain aspects of the story. Just as Laura and Montezuma begin to have intercourse, the author describes them as becoming “man and wife” among a few other words. This can be counted as a fact that this really happens. Boullosa does not mention the words “making love” when describing what the two are about to do because that is not what they are doing. This relationship is not one of “desire” which is a point the author also makes. The last paragraph in the story gives an insight that brings the whole story to completion, “All pleasure at last without distinction, turned into complete surrender where not time or language or custom watch over one’s actions.” The author is giving the notion that this story is not limited to one culture or time, it can happen to anyone at any time.

In conclusion, Impossible Story is an impactful and haunting story based on the true relationships between a man and woman in the Mexican culture. The character portrayed as Montezuma represents men from Mexican culture who are in relationships with women from the same culture. These are powerful men who think of women as disposable creatures. The character Laura is a representation of the women in relationships with Montezuma’s character. These women are motherly figures who are caring, giving, and loving. There is no clear ending to this story because every ending can be different depending on the relationship at hand. This story is not impossible as the title would lead the reader to believe. The characters are represented as symbols of both men and women in the Mexican culture as well as their roles in relationships.

 

Another sudden fiction story Hair by Hilma Contreras is the story of a pharmacist’s obsession with a younger girl. The story begins with the meeting of Luciano, the pharmacist, and a young girl name Natividad at his store where his wife also seems to work. The man is overwhelmed by the sight of the girl’s hair, which is a cover for his lust towards her. Later in the story, the man has an exotic dream about Natividad. His wife, Dona Irene, is then woken up by his “nightmare” as she calls it. Luciano wakes up and walks to the balcony in pursuit of calming himself down. What happens next is a mystery to the reader, but Dona Irene is awakened again by a sudden weight on top of her. Contreras uses the flaws of a married man to represent themes of lust and obsession in order to express the ways women are sexualized by men.

The author’s usage of lust is one way she expresses how women are sexualized by men. Specifically, Luciano only thought of physicality’s when he daydreamed about Natividad. He thought about her “torrent of hair, which reached down to her hips,” as well as her “beautiful breasts.” This was not all, in fact, Luciano could only think about kissing her. He even dreamed about it. Luciano becomes more lustful when he keeps going to his balcony to peep on Natividad, who was also his neighbor. In the story, it can be recorded that he goes to his balcony to look at Natividad’s terrace four times, to look at her more specifically. These are all examples of the way men look at women as being objects of lust and being sexualized in the most natural ways.

The ending of the book explained a “frenetic weight” falling on top of Dona Irene in her sleep. Now is where the theme of obsession comes into play. It was explained early in the story that Luciano began an obsession with Natividad, “...he lifted his eyes from his work, there was the hair, on the street, on the balcony, at the window, on the terrace.” He was so entangled in is an obsession with this girl that he even began losing the sense of his job, “…his understanding perturbed by the suffocating impact of all that hair, the prescriptions he handled lost all sense.” One can only imagine the amount of control an obsession can have on a person and in the end, Luciano had to take out his sexual frustration on his wife, whether she was asleep or not. Therefore, sexualizing and objectifying her physical being.

In conclusion, Hair is about the sexualization and objectification of women by men. Even men held to the highest of standards, married men. The young girl did not provoke Luciano, he saw her one time in his store and made up his mind about the kind of woman she was based on her physical appearance. Contreras uses the theme of lust and obsession to portray the flaws in men. She uses these themes to show how men sexualize women on a daily basis.

 

 

 

Costantino, Roselyn. “Carmen Boullosa’s Obligingly Heretic Art: New Challenges for

Criticism.” Latin American Women Dramatists: Theater, Texts, and Theories.

Indiana University Press, Bloomington; Indianapolis, 1998, pp. 181–201. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1zxxzjz.15.

 

            According to Roselyn Constantino, Carmen Boullosa searches for identity if a disorganized postmodern world that coexists with remains of the premodern world. She claims that Boullosa demands imaginative and non-fictional ways to articulate her writings. The author states facts which are provided by a personal interview with Carmen Boullosa. The author performed research on many different narratives written by Boullosa which is how she concludes that the Latin America author forces her readers to expand the walls of discussion that have defined the ethos of Mexican women. This text is important for my research because it provides direct information from the author centered around my research.

 

Estrada, Oswaldo. “(Re)Constructions of Memory and Identity Formation in Carmen

Boullosa's Postcolonial Writings.” South Atlantic Review, vol. 74, no. 4, 2009,

pp. 131–148. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41337720.

 

            Oswaldo Estrada presents his take on identity formation in Boullosa’s writings. His argument states that the novels written by Boullosa confront unsettled identity issues of the past and present. He also investigates how her writings tell readers that the past is not as far away as it seems to be, and he later presents support for this statement. The supporting details arise from Boullosa’s texts and several other historical critics. From the very detailed supportive text, Estrada provides to the historical sources of different critics the article is superbly persuasive. This text is useful for me as it links other articles I am using for research.

 

Larson, Catherine. Hispania, vol. 87, no. 1, 2004, pp. 81–82. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/20062988.

 

            According to Catherine Larson, two original objectives of the feminist agenda in the 1970s revolve around female authors writing about women needing rescuing and male authors writing about female characters. The author doesn’t seem to be presenting any factual information as she states her opinion on the work of Boullosa among other female Latin American authors. Although no factual information can be provided, it is important to understand that the author has done research on background information that outlines specific assignments of race, class, gender, and ethnicity. This includes the research of others such as Yolando Flores. The argument is clear in this article and it states that some writings from Latin American women investigate variety over a universal vision of women as one nonracial being. This text is useful for my research because it adds commonalities among women which is important to relate to society.

 

Lopez- Lozano, Miguel. “The Dream of Mestizo Mexico: Memory and History in

Carmen Boullosa’s Cielos De La Tierra.” Utopian Dreams, Apocalyptic

Nightmares: Globalization in Recent Mexican and Chicano Narrative. Purdue

University Press, 2008, pp. 135–174. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wq3f5.7.

 

            Miguel Lopez-Lozano proposes that through Boullosa’s narratives the need to rethink the development of Mexico suffers a major historical crisis. While he uses quotes from specific narratives that is all he uses as research. Although the extent of research is little, it is mighty. The supporting details provided correlate well to the argument made by the author. He suggests that the different plots from Boullosa’s novels are unified and they narrate modern Mexico. This text is useful for my research as it provides historical crisis information that is crucial for societal research.

 

Paden, Jeremy. “Reading Colonial Ruins in Carmen Boullosa’s Poetry.” Colonial

Itineraries of Contemporary Mexico: Literary and Cultural Inquiries, edited by

 OSWALDO ESTRADA and ANNA M. NOGAR, University of Arizona Press,

 2014, pp. 42–59. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183pchk.6.

 

            The author, Jeremy Paden, gives many examples from Boullosa’s novels and poems that correlate historical characters and gender hierarchies. The author uses critical literature from a variety of different authors and presents information that is factual. The argument is clearly stated in the abstract of this article. Paden argues that the acts of remembering history throughout the writing of Boullosa’s works are a natural allegory. He takes the view of many others and presents historical fragments as part of revealing secrets of the history of Mexico. The sources the author has cited are credible as they have noticeably originated from credible resources and databases. This article is useful for my research because it gives history behind the literature, making this important for factual information.

 

Prada, Ignacio. “The Idea of the Mexican Woman Writer: Gender, Worldliness, and

Editorial Neoliberalization.” Strategic Occidentalism: On Mexican Fiction, the

Neoliberal Book Market, and the Question of World Literature. Northwestern

University Press, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, 2018, pp. 139–182. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv4cbh14.7.

 

The author investigates important changes in the role of women throughout the literacy field. Prada states that major Mexican female writers are the cause of the most significant event patterns of Mexican literature. The author suggests that specific authors including Boullosa are responsible for challenging gender dynamics in Latin American literature. Prada takes a look at different reading and writing strategies that are crucial to understanding how these female writers focus on a specific problem. The argument is clear in this article. The author presents the research of others as a parallel to his own research. This text is important to my research as it reflects on Boullosa’s writing which becomes a power in the female world.

 

Reid, Anna. “Disintegration, Dismemberment and Discovery of Identities and Histories:

Searching the 'Gaps' for Depositories of Alternative Memory in the Narratives of

Diamela Eltit and Carmen Boullosa.” Bulletin of Latin American Research, vol.

17, no. 1, 1998, pp. 81–92. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3339666.

 

            Anna Reid argues how the “gaps” of alternative memory in narratives of female Latin American writers produce new hybrid identities. The author presents supporting information from Latino writers and from other sources about gender representation in Mexico. She presents information on where she got her supporting evidence in the notes section of this article. The argument is not very clear in the abstract. The reader must pay close attention in the first few paragraphs to understand what is being researched. The argument is very persuasive in the context that the author understood what was being researched and how to express her findings. This text is useful for my research because it describes the depth of written text among female Latin American authors.

 

Comments (1)

Megan Grose said

at 3:20 pm on Apr 4, 2019

I believe you stayed on topic throughout the paper and it has good points regarding views of Latino women in the books.

You don't have permission to comment on this page.