Select a key concept—-double consciousness; the construct of whiteness
and innocence; the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality; and the experience of
race and space, and provide a thesis-driven analysis of the ways in which two texts from two
different periods theorize this concept or depict this phenomenon. Your organizational
structure should follow what I have outlined for option 1, but your thesis will be based on the
concept that you select.
Your paper will be evaluated on the following:
Analytical Rigor:
Your argument is consistently supported with textual evidence that you then
carefully analyze rather than summarize (consider WHY this passage is written in the manner
that it is) and your thesis offers a strong rationale for why you have placed these texts in
dialogue with one another;
Organization:
You are placing these texts in dialogue with one another so you should devote
a
roughly equal amount of space and time to each text and you should analyze the full arc of
the text. In other words, your engagement with James Baldwins Down at the Cross: Letter
from a Region in My Mind should not be limited to his discussion of his adolescence in
Harlem.
