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Hist 213: Assignment 1.Reading a Novel Like a Historian
Step one - choose one 20th century American novel from the list I have supplied. If you are desperate to read something that is not on the list then that will probably be ok as long as you CHECK IT WITH ME FIRST.Step two - find something out about the author of the book. Check the reference library or use the on-line Contemporary Authors database which can be found by going to OU Homepage > Library > Reference Tools > Biography (under General heading) > Contemporary Authors. Step three - find out when the book was written and think about how events or circumstances at the time might have affected the books content and the author's point of view. For example, Earnest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms came out of his experiences as an ambulance driver during World War I. Clearly the story he tells is semi-autobiographical, but think about how his experiences affected the way he describes the characters in the book, how he tells the story, and how he ends it. Step four - Once you have a rough idea of what the book is about and the time period it is set in, consult your textbook and other sources to find out more about that time period. Does the book accurately describe that time period? If not, ask yourself why. Step five - Read and enjoy the book. While you're reading it, think about it as a historical document rather than just a story and ask yourself questions like: What does the novel reveal to historians about some aspect of 20th century American history? Does it give us any insight into the way people thought or felt at a particular time or place? What does it tell us about the author and their place in American history? Step six - Write a three-page paper about the book you have just read and enjoyed. It is not necessary to spend a long time retelling the story or plot of the book; you should be able to do that in less than a page. The point of this assignment is to get you to think about novels as historical documents and so most of your paper should be concerned with answering the sorts of questions suggested in step 5. WARNING: There is a degree of speculation involved when historians use novels as historical documents since it involves trying to get inside the author's head to know what they were or were not thinking. Therefore, be cautious in your conclusions, and use words like "might" or "perhaps" to soften the degree of you speculation.
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