Today’s Agenda
Presentations
A Peterson: Queen Elizabeth
B Ashley: Dante’s Inferno
Journal Work: Ending Robinson Crusoe
For the next 10 mins, I want you to journal on the following topic:
Last class, we ended with an observation that Friday looked more European than, perhaps, Caribbean. I asked you to think about why this may be the case. While there are several possible answers to that question, I would like you to think about why this is true – if you believe it is true – and what this fact may tell us about the character of Crusoe, the author Defoe, and the initial audience for the text.
Your short academic paper:
Your short academic paper is due this Friday. Let’s briefly review the requirements:
Your short research paper will be 4-5 pages in length.
It will offer a literary argument on one of the texts we have read by mid-semester. The paper will need to follow MLA conventions, and have at least four secondary sources.
As noted in class, your presentation can and should serve as the basis for this paper. However, the paper itself must follow the basic format of a research paper: i.e. MLA citation, correct font size, and appropriate sentence and paragraph structure.
There are a few aspects to paper writing that I want to mention to you now, as you may or may not have heard them before.
1) Quotes: When we quote or paraphrase from a source, there is a three step process we ALWAYS follow. First, we introduce the material — let the reader know where it is coming from. Next, we present the material, and, finally, we EXPLAIN in our own words how the material supports our thesis.
2) Heavy Proofreading is EXPECTED.
3) Rushed papers are always awful. Always.
Min-Lecture
In our reading for today, we saw two things that I think will be very important to us later on this semester. The first thing to notice is how absolutely correct and reliable the market economy of Crusoe’s world is. Even though he vanishes for over 28 years, he leaves the island to find that all of his finances are still pretty much in order, and that, more importantly, his wealth has vastly improved since his departure. The system is absolutely justified by his experience, and can be thought of as being essentially a perfect system under the thoughtful and honest stewardship of prudent individuals.
There is a very important subtext here, which is that the economic systems that were underpinning the expansion of the British empire were absolutely reliable and justified, as they could make a given hard working man the equivalent of a millionaire without the least bit of regulation.
The second issue I think we need to address is the battle of 300 wolves. Notice how different this is from the wolf encounter we had at the beginning of the semester, where one wolf so badly frightened Dante. Crusoe leads his army like a general – and we might notice that, once again, we have no evidence in the text that would suggest why or how it is he knows to do this – and is able to totally overcome an otherwise impossible foe. There is another subtext here as well, which is that the British Everyman is totally capable of overcoming the extreme dangers of the natural world by himself. There is no need for Virgil here, only for guns and men willing to use those guns.
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