Artistic Works in the Context of an Aesthetic Movement - A Comparative Analysis

This week's works are examples of literary texts connected to contemporary literary and political movements: the Iranian women's movement and Iranian intellectual movements, the Hausa Literary Movement of West Africa, the Chicano Movement of Mexican-Americans, and the Latina Movement of women Latin American descent.

It is important to remember that although works from these particular aesthetic movements share important commonalities, each work and artist is also distinct and may express ideas which conflict with other works from that same movement. For example, Azar Nafisi's "Reading Lolita in Tehran," Marjane Satrapi's "The Convocation," and Fatemeh Keshavarz's Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran might all be considered to be connected to the Iranian women's movement, but the authors' representations of Iran and of women's roles in Iran also contrast one another in important ways. Indeed, as Jasmine and Stars full title suggests, it was written in part as a challenge to Nafisi's work. Many literary critics may connect Octavio Paz's, Judith Ortiz Cofer's, and Sandra Cisneros' writings to the Chicano/a Movement, and yet these authors' work, while all connected to the Latino/a Movement, express unique ideas and apply distinct styles.

Compare two works commonly associated with the same aesthetic movement (for example, Nafisi's, Satrapi, and/orKeshavarz's writings or Paz's, Cofer's, and/or Cisneros'). At least one of the works you discuss must be taken from the course's required reading assignments. If you wish, you may identify a work that was not part of our readings, but which is still ascribed to the aesthetic movement in which you are interested.

What commonalities do the works you are comparing share, and where are differences between them apparent? In your comparison, consider how the styles and content of each writer's work reflects the social and cultural conditions in which they write. Also address how their personal and/or political philosophies are expressed in their work. To what extent are these writers' works connected by a common history, culture, or aesthetic movement? To what degree do they remain distinct from one another?

Structure your paper with a thesis statement that indicates the larger significance of your argument. For example, does your comparison suggest anything about the nature of the literary movement you are examining; about the connections between artistic works; or about the role of literature in our social, political, or personal lives? Support your views with specific details from the works you are examining and analysis of those details, and give the paper a unique title.