choose one short story or novel excerpt. Write a piece in which you explore the following: 1. In what ways could this story be considered an artifact of history? 2. What does this story teach us about history? 3. How does a story teach us about a time or place differently than a history book?
Short Story Selection: The Creation
1. In what ways could this story be considered an artifact of history?
- The story is an artifact of history in many ways. It was written by the Native Americans to explain how their deities created the world and all of its inhabitants.
- Another aspect could show how it can be considered the Native American history because that's what they believed on how the world was created.
2. What does this story teach us about history?
- This story teaches us about how the Native Americans believed the world was created.
- It's important to know their beliefs because if we didn't then we couldn't have understood their culture and lifestyle of the past.
- "And then, Earthmaker was standing there alone. Standing there, they say he went somewhere to the south. He went traveling along. Afterwards, going across the rim of the world to somewhere near where the sun floats away, he came elsewhere, into a different part of the country, traveling always from one place to another. And, when the had gone toward where the sun rises, he came to a place where he had once turned aside before, and he stopped and got things ready. Then, he made creatures, two by two" (Maidu,"Origins and the Way of the World", 28)
- The quote highlights the beliefs of the Native American people and how they believed the world was created.
3. How does a story teach us about a time or place differently than a history book?
- The thing about a history book, is that they are very matter of fact, like this is how different events happened.
- The difference that a story has is that it is a primary source of what the Native American people really believed, a history book could skew the beliefs of the people or not be entirely accurate.
Hi Austin! Thanks for your notes exploring your chosen topic a bit further.
ReplyDeleteYou have chosen to do a project examining a story as a historical artifact. The first thing I want to say is that in order to do this topic, you need some research about the history it represents. What tribe is this a creation myth for? What was that tribes' belief about the world? What does your research tell you about the approximate time period during which this oral stories about the world's creation started being told in this tribe? In other words, you need some historical information in order to do this project.
Here are some suggestions about how best to do this project:
1. Start with the text and your research. Your project should first begin with the text itself and with your own ideas about how it should be interpreted as a literary and/or historical artifact. Before doing anything else, first examine your reading(s) in detail and develop your own original reading. Then, as I wrote above, conduct research in order to learn about the historical and critical context of the story. Again, before you even begin writing, you should be well-informed about the historical context in which your text was written.
2) Develop your essay around a thesis. The thesis of your essay will be specific. It will present your interpretation of the text and your ideas about its meaning in a historical and/or literary context. This is an example of a good thesis -- even though it uses really academic language:
“In the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, Chaucer examines in detail how female desire was shaped by and channeled through male-dominated political, social, and literary structures in late-medieval society.
The good thesis is specific about both the topic that the essay is going to discuss -- medieval female desire as portrayed in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale -- as well as what the essay’s author has to say about that topic-- Chaucer shows how female desire was constructed by male-dominated political, social, and literary structures.
This is an example of a bad thesis:
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale are about female desire in the Middle Ages.”
The bad thesis really just offers up an overly-general topic of discussion without giving the reader any insight into what the essay’s author thinks about that topic.
Your essay should have a logical and coherent organizational structure. Ideally, your project should contain a brief introduction that sets out your thesis .
The introduction should be followed by several body paragraphs, each of which develops an important point supporting your thesis using appropriate evidence drawn from the primary text(s) and your research sources.
I know this is a LOT of information, but I want to make sure you understand what your chosen topic is asking for.
You should use transition sentences strategically to demonstrate how the idea in one paragraph flows from the idea in the preceding paragraph, so that paragraphs are connected to one another as well as to the thesis.
Hi Austin it was very interesting to see a different perspective especially on how this story compares to that of the history books. When we read about history we usually are given one side of the story and with this story, we can truly get a different perspective and how tribes taught their history and what the truly believed how the Earth and people were created. I also think that it would be interesting to compare how the idea of order is created both in the history books compared to the story. I was also wondering if you have considered not only the story as a whole but also each character and how they play a role in different stories within the tribe. In an article I read there is significant importance to the Coyote and how it is portrayed in other stories as well as it seems to be a common and important character or symbol.
ReplyDeleteHey Austin,
ReplyDeleteI like that you chose this project option. It is a difficult in my opinion because trying to find historical context on the writing itself is difficult. I I like that you decided to take on the challenge and see that you are understanding of what you are going to write about. I do agree that the story is an artifact of history. Do you feel the topic is easy to find information on? What are you going to research using the thesis you are looking into? What if you search different terms from the story to build up your information? I would look up the symbolism of the coyote, the earth maker, and others key words from the reading. Good luck!
Hi Austin,
ReplyDeleteto start out your project, I suggest a hook or rhetorical question related to the topic in order to grab the readers attention and get them to think more. Your setup for each question is good, but you may want to include some samples from the story along with literary devices. Also, adding in some information and research about the historical aspect of the story would be beneficial.