Term Paper
Your term paper asks you to write 9-10 double-spaced, typed pages as a literary analysis of Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness. What is a theme or a set of images that you see working in the novel? What do you think Conrad is saying about society or the human condition through his depiction of Marlow, Kurtz, the pilgrims, the Africans, and other characters?
Here are some possible topics, though you are not limited to these:
1. An analysis of Kurtz’s deterioration
2. An analysis of Marlow’s changing psychological state
3. Heart of Darkness as a racist novel
4. Heart of Darkness as a novel that exposes racism
5. The function of selected minor characters: The Russian, the helmsman, the manager,
the black woman, the Intended, the accountant, the brickmaker
6. Marlow's (or Conrad's) attitude toward women
7. Marlow's (or Conrad's) attitude toward colonialism
8. The function of ambiguous language in Heart of Darkness
9. Civilization vs. Savagery
One of the major purposes of this paper is to acquaint you (or re-acquaint
you) with the Modern Language Association (MLA) system of research
documentation, which is the conventional method of documentation used in the
field of literary studies. You will cite a minimum of five sources in addition
to the novel.
I will place on reserve a copy of Modern Critical Interpretations:
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, edited by Harold Bloom. This is a
collection of essays. Each essay counts as a separate source.
You may also use the online databases JSTOR and NC LIVE to find articles. Go
to the Shaw home page and click “Libraries.” Scroll down and click on the
database you want.
For JSTOR, click "Search" then click "Expert Search".
Type Conrad AND “Heart of Darkness” in the search box. Scroll down and click
"Full Text" and “Languages and Literature.” Then click
“Search.” Ninety-nine articles appear on the results list, at least 25 of which are newer than
1990. Check the relevance percentage to select articles that are worth reading.
For NC LIVE, click “Browse Resources,” then “Alphabetic.” Then click
“Academic Search Premier.” Type Conrad AND “Heart of Darkness” into the search
box. Click "full text" then click “search.” When I did this I got a results list with
81 articles, over 50
of which were newer than 1990.
At least one of your five sources must be from either JSTOR or NC LIVE
and must be newer than 1990.
I am picky about several things in student research papers: giving proper
credit to other scholars, quoting correctly from Heart of Darkness, not
letting your research take over your paper, following manuscript conventions,
and having a correct Works Cited page. English majors might want to buy a copy
of the MLA Handbook (available at most bookstores).
Giving proper credit: In any paragraph where you use a quotation or
paraphrase, you must identify the work and the author whose words or ideas you
are borrowing. Use this formula: In Title, author verb, “Quotation”
(#). For example: In The Vision of Melville and Conrad, Leon Seltzer
argues, “The monstrous egoism of Ahab and Kurtz, which enables them to
accommodate everything to their master passion, eventually leads – as seen by
both authors – to madness” (5). A full identification is necessary the first
time you refer to a work. After that, you can simply refer to the author. For
example: Seltzer further suggests, “[T]he terrible loneliness of the isolated
self may lead to insanity or suicide” (98). Please note that there is no “p.”
before the page number. Note also that the period ending the sentence occurs
after the page reference. Note that book titles are underlined. If citing an
article, place the article title in quotation marks: In “Title,” author verb,
“Quotation” (#).
How to quote from Heart of Darkness: You need not use the formula
for quoting a scholar; simply lead your reader to the quotation with a phrase
that provides some context or part of your argument. For example: There is
much irony in part of Marlow’s lie to the Intended when he says of Kurtz, “His
words will remain” (68).
If the quotation is over four typed lines, make it a block quotation. For example: Marlow’s imagination allows him to see Kurtz’s incredible choice of power and isolation over normal economic transactions:
As for me, I seemed to see Kurtz for the first time. It was a distinct glimpse: the dugout, four paddling savages, and the lone white man turning his back suddenly on the headquarters, on relief, on thoughts of home – perhaps; setting his face towards the depths of the wilderness, towards his empty and desolate station. (27)
A block quotation doesn’t need quotation marks because the typography tells you it is a quotation. Note that the period is placed as normally done at the end of the sentence. The page reference is tabbed over to the right hand margin.
Not letting the research rule your paper: I have three simple rules for
student writers: 1) don’t begin a paragraph with a quotation or paraphrase, 2)
don’t end a paragraph with a quotation or paraphrase, and 3) don't place
quotations back to back. Why have these rules? They force you to write topic
sentences for your paragraphs. They also force you to write sentences that tell
the reader why the quotation is pertinent to your argument. The rules also
force you to write sentences that connect your ideas from paragraph to
paragraph. The metaphor I use is that of a “sandwich.” The quotation is
sandwiched in between sentences of your own just the way the peanut butter &
jelly are spread between slices of bread. So use my sandwich metaphor in
constructing your paragraphs. It works.
Following manuscript conventions: A title page is not necessary. Just type
your name and course info in the top lefthand corner of page one. Double space
and center your title over your first paragraph. All pages should have 1-inch
margins on all four sides and succeeding pages should have a header in the top
right hand corner with your last name and the page number, as you can see on
your course syllabus. The font should be standard (usually Helvetica, Geneva,
Times New Roman or Courier. Not italic.) And it should be 12-point in size.
The lines should be double spaced. Do not skip an extra line between paragraphs (this is a convention for
single spacing). A paper clip is best for holding the paper together; a staple
is also fine. Do not waste money on plastic or manila folders.
The Works Cited page: This should be the last page of the paper. It should
contain an alphabetical list of all the works referred to in the paper. For
this paper, the Works Cited page should have a minimum of six entries: five
books or articles and your source for Heart of Darkness, which for most
of you will be the Norton Anthology of English Literature. Make sure you
indicate which edition you have used. Again, the MLA Handbook will help
you determine the correct formats for your entries. Remember that indentation
is the reverse of that for paragraphs (so that the alphabetized words fall on
the left hand margin). Remember that you type two spaces after a period or a
colon and one space after a comma or semi-colon. On the English 113 page of my
website you will find a link on how to write correct Works Cited entries. Check
it out. And of course, you may visit me during office hours or call me at home.
Sample Works Cited entry for a book by a single author:
Seltzer, Leon. The Vision
of Melville and Conrad. Athens, OH: Ohio
University Press, 1970.
In your paragraph, you cite the page number for where you found the quotation,
but because Seltzer wrote the whole book, no page numbers are given on the Works
Cited page.
Sample Works Cited entry for an article from JSTOR:
Watt, Ian. “Marlow, Henry James, and ‘Heart of Darkness’.”
Nineteenth Century Fiction 33 (1978): 159-174. JSTOR.
Shaw
Univ., Raleigh, NC. 14 Jan 2005. <
www.jstor.org >.
Your date of access (the date you looked it up; I looked up this article on 14 Jan 2005) would be different from this example. For an NC LIVE article, the format is the same. Substitute “Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. NC LIVE.” For “JSTOR”. In NC LIVE, they present page numbers in the citations rather oddly. If you see something like “p91, 4p” you need to change that to “91-94”.
A lot of students seem to have a hard time understanding that
some books are edited collections of essays and that the editor of such a book
did not write the whole thing. You must give credit to the author of the
individual essay in the book. Here is an example of a Works Cited entry on a
completely unrelated topic, taken from a book in my office. Use it as a model
if you cite an article from Bloom’s book.
Evans, Malcolm. "Deconstructing Shakespeare's Comedies." Alternative
Shakespeares. Ed. John Drakakis. New York: Methuen, 1985. 67-94.
What this means is that in my paper I quoted Evans, not Drakakis. Evans is the
author of "Deconstructing Shakespeare's Comedies." Drakakis selected Evans's
essay and about a dozen others to include in his book, Alternative
Shakespeares. If I also quoted from another essay in the same book, I would
cite that author and his or her article title and page numbers. The book
information would remain the same. These would count as two separate sources.
Warning: Websites such as monkeynotes.com, sparknotes.com, free-essays.com, pinkmonkey.com, and many many similar sites which purport to be "helps" to students are not academic sources and are not acceptable for use in this paper or any in other paper you write in one of my literature classes. Read whatever you want, but don't take anything from these sites.
Another Warning: I will not tolerate plagiarism! Plagiarism is a crime: theft (taking someone else's work) plus fraud (pretending that work is your own). Do not quote or paraphrase anything from any source without proper documentation. This website tells you everything you need to know to avoid plagiarism, but if you aren't sure, document. Bring me a draft and ask if what you have done is correct. Plagiarism of even a single sentence is punishable by getting a zero on your paper with no opportunity for revision. Don't do it. Anything you can find on the internet, I can find on the internet.
Due date: Monday, April 24, by 2 PM. Turn it in earlier (at least a week earlier),
if you want a chance at revision. I hope everyone will show me a working draft
at least a couple of pages long sometime before turning in the paper. It's
scary, I know, but I can help.