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FINAL PROJECT
download the project development process (same as below)
Proposal Review & Outline development
This quarter we are reading and viewing imaginative re-interpretations of historical events and people. We are looking at all sorts of ways that authors and filmmakers use historical research and imagination to reinterpret the past. This assignment asks you to try your hand at such reinterpretation.
Week 10 all students will present reinterpretations to the whole program. These projects may take one of several forms: an essay, a short story, a fragment of a novel. Your project will be based on some historical research (see Barker’s afterward, and Ondaatje’s credits for explanations of their research) and your own imagination in order to create your own interpretation. The form of your final project should parallel the discussions we will hold on our program materials: that is, it should bear a logical relationship to the content you are imagining, and should demonstrate a particular relationship to the past.
You will need to
- Select an event or a person. Be as specific and concrete as you can at this stage—your project will go more smoothly. That is, select one battle in a larger war, one speech by an historical figure, one decision by an historical figure, one event in a larger movement.
- Research your event or person to find historical evidence and create an annotated bibliography.
- As part of your rough draft, identify the ways that your proposed project will confront the historical event or person in terms of narrator/authorial power, and the presentation of the past.
- Begin to write as you continue researching
The Project Development Process
Weeks 1&2. Brainstorming historical questions you might be interested in. The Brainstorm Workshop will help you et started thinking about which event or person interests you. The Library workshop will help you begin that research.
On January 4, we will have a workshop to develop rich questions, a library research workshop and bibliography workshop on January 11, The workshop assignments will be due January 14.
Week 3. Annotated Bibliography workshop on January 25,and assignment due January 25.
Week 5. Proposal workshop February 1. Proposal due to Critique Group February 2, and to faculty February 4. Faculty announce Project Groups and Rough Draft Requirements February 4.
Week 6. Research Materials and Outline for the project due February 9 to Project Group, and February 11 to Project faculty.
Week 7. Rough draft due to your Project Group February 16 and to project faculty on February 18.
Weeks 8 and 9, continue to work in Project Groups. Sign up to meet with faculty as a Project Group on February 23 or 24. [sign up sheet available on February 16]
Final version due to faculty March 4 in your portfolio, and presented to program during week 10.