Mexican American Music

Analytical Paper Prompt

30% of final course grade.

Length: Write a 6-8 page analytical paper analyzing the aesthetics of one or more of the literary readings assigned during this quarter. The discourse you analyze could be a

Option A. The basic narrative logic of the novel Song of the Hummingbird situates the two competing discourses and ideologies held by the two main characters. This antinomy unfolds primarily during the dialogue between Hummingbird & Father Benito, but slowly they come to understand each other. This process of understanding culminates in the final passage of the novel where Father Benito hears Hummingbird's voice in the wind asking him "do you forgive me?" How does this final passage condense and link the many themes in the novel? Refer back to previous passages in the novel. As you proceed in your analysis, map the trajectory of a specific recursivity or a cluster of complementary recursivities. What literary devices does Limón use to develop the recursivity into a theme? Why do you think the author chose to develop that specific theme in the particular way she did? Do you think it is still relevant today even though the subject matter took place over five hundred years ago? Why or why not?

Option B: Silence is a dominant theme in Chicana/o literature and each of the literary readings assigned in this course thematize the seizing of subjectivity by deploying a unique set of literary techniques. Choose one of these readings and examine how the literary techniques deployed by the author seeks to contest or subvert the historical silencing of Chicanas/os or the Chicana/o community.

C. Develop your own prompt and consult with me to assure that it is a doable prompt.