Course Assignments

Presentations
Twice this semester you will give an eight-minute presentation on an assigned topic related to the day’s class discussion. Your presentations should indicate that you have done a considerable amount of research on the topic, more than merely reading a Wikipedia article. Your presentation should have a clear structure, and you should deliver it effectively.

Encyclopedia Entries
Seven days after your presentation, you will submit an eight hundred word entry on your presentation topic for The Encyclopedia of Southern Literature. Your entry should demonstrate significant research, it should cite sources in MLA style, and it should include a list of about five sources for further information.

Interpretive Research Essay
Southern Literary Journal is publishing a special issue on human trafficking and southern literature. They are looking for essays that offer new interpretations on the representations of slavery, abolition, and Reconstruction. Some possible topics include:

  • Slavery as an economic practice, as a social system, and as a cultural institution.
  • Slave narratives, political compromises, and the abolition debate.
  • The Civil War and racial memory.
  • Reconstruction and the literature of the Lost Cause.
  • The emergence of Jim Crow.

They request five hundred word abstracts by December 2. Two thousand word papers are due December 14.