MLA format two works must be choose from Ambrose Bierce: an occurrence at owl creek bridge/ chickamauga Henry James:  Daisy Miller: A study/ The Jolly Corner/  The real Thing/ The turn of the Screw Ma

5 pages essay, please use MLA format

I. Overview:

This first formal writing assignment asks you to seriously contemplate a new phrase: the American Literary Canon

The term canon originally referred to a set of selected books of the Christian bible. However, for our scholarly purposes, canon refers to notable and accepted works of literature that best represent a particular era.

In the last century, the American literary canon has been challenged for many reasons, namely, the lack of diversity amongst these “approved writers.” For instance, an American Literature anthology in 1950 may have contained Walt Whitman but not Paul Lawrence Dunbar or Gertrude Stein. While some critics praise the change to be more inclusive, others argue the classics will always be the classics—as in, what has always been viewed as the iconic writing of a time period should remain so.

This concept becomes an important one for us to contemplate. Why have these texts been continually anthologized? What is it about them that sustains over time and still speaks to readers? Is it because the text itself is entertaining? Is there some facet of the work that is inherently “American”? Or does it teach us something about a past era, an aspect of humanity, societal expectations of the genders, the true meaning of and appreciation for freedom? Some other as yet unnamed reason?

If you’re suddenly concerned that you can’t answer for a whole generation why one text is more significant than another, trust your intuition. You are the life-long reader.

Your reading of a text is as unique as the text itself. You may see something in a Dickinson poem that your peer in the same course does not; you may find bitter truth in Howells’ “Editha” because you too have questioned the true human costs of a nation engaged in war; you may be shocked by the representation of infidelity in Chopin’s short story “The Storm”; you may find beauty in the order and insight of Whitman's poems.

While you may not “care” for some of the stories, essays, poems, and plays that we read in class, there should be a few that do provoke you intellectually, ones that “speak to you” in some significant way. At the very least, you should be able to make thoughtful connections between the people who were writing the words then, the times during which they lived, and the context during which we read them today.

II. Assignment Specifics:

A. Directions & PROMPT:

1. Select your primary sources:

1. You may choose two works by the same American writer or two works by two different American writers in the require book “anthology”. American writers who were publishing their work starting during the period of the American Civil War to the 1990s

two works must be choose from:

Ambrose Bierce: an occurrence at owl creek bridge/ chickamauga

Henry James: Daisy Miller: A study/ The Jolly Corner/ The real Thing/ The turn of the Screw

Mark Twain: The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras county/ Story of the bad little boy/ Disgraceful persecution of a boy/ sociable Jimmy/ A true story, repeated word-for-word as I heard it/ Adventures of Huckleberry Finn/ my first lie, and how I got out of it

Mary e. Wilkins Freeman: a new England nun/ a mistaken charity

Kate Chopin: the storm/ neg creol/ the awakening

Jack London: the law of life/ to build a fire/ the red one

However, you must show a connection between the works and you must use at least TWO.

b. You may also choose from any one of the American authors, poets, or essayists who are published in our course anthology, even if we will not or haven’t covered them yet. Please contact me if this is your plan.

1. Your general essay topic:

Your essay should focus upon your experience reading the text(s) you select and a defense of why it should remain a part of the American Literary Canon. Therefore, you should use first person “I” in the paper.