Friday, October 12, 2007

Paper #1 Redux

A place to discuss paper topics, ideas, troubles.
Also, I strongly encourage you to meet with a classmate and have her read through your rough draft before you turn in your paper.

7 comments:

Claire said...

okay, so I think that I've decided to write a paper examining the utopian societies and how they challenged gender and marital roles. Any suggestions?

Gale Kenny said...

Claire - check out Frances Wright - she started an interracial commune in Tennessee in the 1840s and was an early feminist.

Also - the book Eve and the New Jerusalem might be useful. It's primarily set in England but some of the women in it came to the States.

Bailey said...

I'm having some pretty basic trouble limiting my sources and topic. I am working on how the institution of marriage was compromised in the antebellum period. Im using Stanley as a primary text. I have come across many articles with multiple historiographical approaches. Should I be focusing on the conflict created by these approaches and claims, or more on an argument for the way marriage was compromised.

Gale Kenny said...

Bailey - It might be fruitful to look at the historiography - how the arguments about the past are changing/being shaped.

A good way to start might be to divide the different historians into groups: for example, legal historians, social historians, cultural historians . . . or something. Then read them with a mind to their different approaches.

You could also approach the subject chronologically:
In 1970, women's historians wrote X about antebellum marriage; in 1985 this was revised when historian Y argued that this needed to be considered, etc.

Claire said...

I found an interesting group of books on the Oneida at Fondren today. I think I may focus on them in order to narrow a bit.

Gillian said...

I'm having a hard time finding outside sources, especially those regarding the novel I'm looking at. Do you have any suggestions of other places to look (I've combed through JSTOR, LION and the books at Fondren)?

Gale Kenny said...

Gillian - I'm not sure where else to tell you to look. You could check with a reference librarian at Fondren who might know more about the lit crit databases. Other than that, go with what you have!