Critical Essay of "The Time Machine" H.G. Wells, English homework help

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Critical Essay of J. Huntinton (2001) "The Time Machine and Well's Social Trajectory"

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Norton Critical Edition of The Time Machine

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A researched, documented essay incorporating analysis and interpretation of primary and secondary literary sources. Topic: Response and Critique Pick one of the following articles from the Recent Criticism section (188-259) of the Norton Critical Edition of The Time Machine to read closely (I recommend you annotate the article and sketch out an outline before you begin drafting). In a critical essay, discuss what the article illuminates about the novel and evaluate its contributions to your understanding of the novel: • B. Bergonzi (1961) “Wells the Myth-Maker” (190) • K. Hume (1990) “Eat or Be Eaten: H. G. Wells’s Time Machine” (202) • E. Showalter (1992) “The Apocalyptic Fables of H. G. Wells” (213) • J. Huntinton (2001) “The Time Machine and Wells’s Social Trajectory” (222) • P.A. Cantor and P. Hufnagel. (2006) “The Empire of the Future: Imperialism and Modernism in H.G. Wells” (229) • C. Manlove (1993) “H. G. Wells and the Machine in Victorian Fiction” (243) • R. Lockhurst (2005) “The Scientific Romance and the Evolutionary Paradigm” (252). • Scafella (1981) “The White Sphinx and The Time Machine” (PDF in Blackboard) Development Guidelines Thesis statement: Formulate a clear thesis statement that takes an evaluative stance on the article (positive, negative, or mixed) that your essay will then explain. Summary: Summarize the article’s argument: give the overall orientation and/or conclusions and then lay out the main points and primary evidence the article uses to support that interpretation. Evaluate (Response and Critique): Once you have summarized the article’s argument, then focus on what is most stimulating about the interpretation or the argument and point out any problems you have with it: What (if anything) does it contribute to your understanding of the novel? Does the selected critic provide helpful background information, a compelling interpretation, or both--or neither? Who appears to be the target audience of the article? If the article is difficult to read, identify what makes it hard to understand: diction, implicit connections between sentences, complicated sentences, unfamiliar framework or critical apparatus, lack of examples, or something else? Do you find anything controversial (i.e., debatable) in the interpretation? Does it contradict or challenge your own understanding? Does the critic’s analysis overlap your experience of the novel in significant areas? Do any of the critic’s points provide stimulating yet ultimately unpersuasive readings of the novel? Do you note any flawed reasoning in the critical interpretation? Does the critic make his or her critical framework or evaluative criteria clear? Are there any hints that the writer is unfair, biased, or taking an ironic or aggressive tone for rhetorical reasons? Is there a lack of persuasive evidence or is the evidence sound? Are quotations accurate and given sufficient context? Does anything stand out about the sources the article cites? Is there anything useful in the reading beyond the novel itself, for example, an idea, fact, or critical approach that might have a practical application somewhere else? Formal Requirements: MLA format (typed, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins), developed from Wells’ The Time Machine and one critical essay reading from the Norton Critical Edition (or Scafella article on Blackboard). (Length: 4-6 pages plus a Works Cited page; 1500-2000 words.) Source use must be documented in the text of the essay with signal phrases and parenthetical citations. (Review “Writing About Fiction,” Gioia and Gwynn 863ff. for more formal considerations.) Essays should be proofread and edited so that the reader is not distracted from the message by substandard American English usage. Your evaluation or analysis should be based on a thorough and accurate understanding of the texts involved. Demonstrate this understanding through a blend of summary, paraphrase, quotation, and (where available) critical insight. If textual support for the essay’s claims is absent, I will consider the interpretation at best speculative, unconvincing, and most fit for the low end of the grading scale. Organization: Feel free to use any organization that is effective; however, whether your essay does or does not follow the simple guide above (Thesis  Summary  Evaluation), make sure that you provide enough structural cues to keep the essay coherent for a reader, with a clearly articulated thesis, clear overall structure and focus, straightforward transitions, logical connections between ideas, and unambiguous signal phrases. Advice: (1) read the article very closely and annotate it thoroughly, marking important passages, specialized terminology, key points, functions (what a passage is doing for the essay), critical observations, and any questions and associations that occur to you; (2) sketch out an outline of the article to make sure you understand its content and organization comprehensively (3) type the rough draft single spaced so you can see more on the page, and double-space it later; (3) make a “main-points” outline at the planning stage and another at the final rough draft stage to see what your essay says at a glance to ensure that your thesis is sustained throughout the twists and turns of the essay. Make sure your conclusion provides a sense of closure for the essay—a sense that some understanding has been reached or a decision made. Audience: Keep your essay at an appropriate level of formality for academic scholarship: use the articles themselves as a model of the authorial tone your finished writing should take. Your actual readers will be me and a few random classmates who may review the final draft for you. Imagine not only Wells himself, but the critics themselves, reading your work: will they respond positively? Make sure that both Wells and the critic would agree that you understand what they wrote. Documentation: Use the sample works cited list as a model for how to format your works cited page. For more information consult Gwynn pp1326-1328; Little Seagull Handbook p. 107, #7; Little Seagull Handbook, 2nd Edition p. 123, #7; or . Works Cited Bergonzi, Bernard. “Wells the Myth-Maker.” Wells 190-201. Scafella, Frank. “The White Sphinx and The Time Machine.” Science Fiction Studies. 8.3 (1981): 255-265 JSTOR. Web. 27 Feb. 2015. PDF file. Wells, H. G. The Time Machine. 1895. Ed. Stephen Arata. Norton Critical Editions. New York: Norton, 2009. Print. Zamyatin, Yevgeny. “Wells’s Urban Fairy Tales.” The Time-Machine, edited by Stephen Arata, W. W. Norton, 2009, pp. 188-89. In your essay, the above sources may be cited in a couple of ways: using signal phrases and parenthetical citations, or just parenthetical citations: The passage in that chapter is where the Time Traveler says, “yada yada yada” (Wells 41). Bergonzi remarks that yada yada yada (191). Further, he believes that Wells yada yada yada (193). By contrast, Scafella notes the x in the Time Traveler’s story: “quote” (259). If that is so, then the time traveler is not yada yada yada (191-93), which would corroborate Zamyatin’s suggestion that bleep bleep bleep (188).
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