MCHC 1002: The Peopling of Brooklyn
Final Research Paper
For the final research paper, you will write about a topic relating to the literary and social/ demographic history of Brooklyn. Ideally, you will be inspired by one of the texts that we have discussed in class or that you have discovered in the course of your research for the final web project. You may consider any number of issues that some how link a literary text and the historical context from which it emerges. For example, you could examine the representation of housing in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or the debates about housing and poverty in 1930s and 1940s New York. You could try to come up with a definition of the literature of gentrification (A Fortress of Solitude or A Meaningful Life or Desperate Characters or The Landlord) or conduct a comparison of 1970s and 2000s Brooklyn gentrification. You could compare the themes of mapping in Thomas Wolfe’s “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” and James Agee’s “Brooklyn Is” and speculate about why it emerges in Brooklyn literature. Whatever you decide, try to write about something that puzzles or intrigues you. The strongest papers emerge when you don’t have your answers before you begin writing.
Length: 10-15 pages, double spaced in a standard 12 point font (Times New Roman)
Key Dates:
March 21: Tentative research topic , along with preliminary bibliography of 10 secondary sources, due.
April 11: Final research topic, research questions, and bibliography (a minimum of 5 secondary sources, of which at least 2 must be books) due.
April 18: Tentative thesis statement due.
May 23: Final paper due.
