History 366
Second Assignment
Women, the Nation, and the Novel in 19th Century Latin America

The second assignment is relatively straightforward. You can pick either of the two novels that we will have read by November 6 (Sab or Birds without a Nest) or, if you want, you can read any of the novels discussed in the readings assigned on Sarmiento and the nation (e.g. Amalia), or you can compare any of the novels. What I am interested in is your particular reading of these texts in terms of how they deal with the general problematic we have been following of women and the nation. That's a broad question, so I would suggest the following starting points:

(1) Decide whether you want to work alone or with one or two other people. Since all of you wrote individual papers for your first assignment, you all can work on joint projects for either or both of the next two assignments including this one.

(2) Pick your novel or novels. Obviously, you will pick the one which most intrigued you, which you are most interested in or which raised the most interesting questions for you.

(3) What was it about that particular novel that interested you. Try to write down quickly why you were interested in that particular text. What are the questions which occurred to you as you were reading it? Is there anything about the text which excites you? Is this a text which angers you, and, if so, why?

(4) Begin your papers -- if you would like -- with these questions, with what drew you to select the book to write about. Then, in the bulk of the paper, try to answer your questions guided by the theoretical work we have done on women and the nation, by our class discussions, and by any discussions you may have had outside of class or inside your project group. To the extent that you are bringing contemporary theory into 19th century texts, you will be reading for subjects that may not have been immediately apparent to the author. By doing this you are not imposing your ideas on that time (i.e. insisting that the characters act the way you want them to act); rather, you are doing what historians always do, which is to reexamine the past based on questions and problems we are currently pondering.

(5) A caution related to the last point: As 19th century writing, these texts can sound outdated and problematic. They can be analyzed critically (e.g. what is the author's view on race?, etc.), but it is wise to avoid adopting a chronological superiority vis-a-vis the texts (as in: "how could those people have been so stupid to have thought those things since we know much better now"). It is one thing to ask texts about questions that are on our minds now and another to expect that people from other times/places should have been able to think the way we do now.

Papers should be 5-7 pages in length for an individual project, slightly longer (7-9 pages) for a group project. All papers are due on November 6. If you write a group project, you can divide up the work any way you please -- I will leave it to the individual groups to insure that each member does a responsible amount of the work.

Citations:

When you cite from texts, use the same format as in your first papers:

Book:

First citation: Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga, "Sab" and "Autobiography", trans. and ed. Nina M. Scott (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993), p. 131.

Second citation: Gómez de Avellaneda, Sab, pp. 140-1.

Article:

First citation: Elizabeth Garrels, "Sarmiento and the Question of Woman: From 1839 to Facundo," in Tulio Halperín Donghi,Iván Jaksi, Gwen Kirkpatrick, and Francine Masiello, eds., Sarmiento: Author of a Nation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994), p. 280.

Second citation: Garrels, "Sarmiento," pp. 283-4.