![]() |
Creative Commons Flickr |
ME: Okay, friends-- so I'm supposed to share one of my theses for a research paper via social network and get my homies to comment on it. I'm so sorry for the imposition, but if you could just give one line (not like "good" or "bad," but a suggestion or source or something it reminds you of- any sort of helpful feedback- I would love you forever. It's also about two very specific books and this is just a working thesis, so I apologize for the weirdness of this task:
FRIEND: Hit me
FRIEND: I'm down.
ME:The Poisonwood Bible and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland both tell the stories of white females from ordered, conservative backgrounds who find themselves adrift in a foreign land and struggle to maintain their previous faith and sense of reality as the customs of the new land disorients and strips them of their basic foundation. Both of these texts feature aspects of post-colonialism and even reverse post-colonialism. Both texts also tell the stories of women who struggle against the didacticism of the patriarchy of their homeland. I would argue that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, though normally considered to be a Victorian text, has many aspects in common with post-modernist texts in the sense that it fights against didacticism. For those who don't know, The Poisonwood Bible is about a missionary family in the 1950's that go to the Congo to convert all the Africans, but everything goes wrong and it destroys their family.
FRIEND:So what sort of comment do you want from us again? And what's didacticism?
ME:Honestly, not exactly sure, but just whatever you got that goes beyond saying it's good or bad. Like, I'm supposed to share my research paper throughout the process so the feedback I get can help sculpt the paper. Didacticism is like moralizing. Like, Aesop's Fables are didactic because they teach a moral.
FRIEND:Gotcha. Ok well I like how you've introduced your subject in such a way that your argument description fits in really well. A great start for a working thesis but defining a couple of terms and show how you'll describe post modernist writings connecting to a traditional Victorian book. Idk if this helps at all or even makes sense but there ya go
ME:Thank you, that is perfect! Just a couple more peeps and I'll have this assignment in the bag! You guys are the best!!!