Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quijote and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée.

write a five-page argument, based in close
reading, on either Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quijote or Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée.
In your paper, take a position on one of the two questions below, then defend it by citing
and analyzing quoted passages from your chosen core text, Cervantes or Cha:
1) Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quijote insists that it is a “truthful history.” Would you agree
or disagree? Why? Do you think Cervantes puts those words in the mouth of his narrator
in seriousness, or in jest? Does Cervantes’s understanding of history chime with that of
Aristotle—or of Valmiki, Irwin on Arab-Islamic poetry, Tagore on the Ramayana, or
Sunjata (as narrated by Condé)? How or how not?
2) Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée has been called a contemporary “epic.” Would you
agree or disagree? Why? Does Cha’s text reflect or complicate Aristotle’s understanding
of the epic, or that of Valmiki, Tagore on the Ramayana, or Sunjata (as narrated by
Condé)? Does Cha’s text mirror or overturn Homer’s Odyssey? How or how not?
Your paper will be due in hard copy in class on Tuesday, April 3. It must be typed and
double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins throughout.
Please use MLA style for all in-text citations; on page 6, include a Works Cited list (i.e., a
full bibliography) in MLA style. Kindly staple your paper before handing it in!
• Follow the “Format Guidelines for Papers + Purdue OWL Guides to MLA Style
and Avoiding Plagiarism” handout. Take special care to avoid plagiarism.
• Use the “What Is an Essay?” handout as your guide to thesis, paragraph, and essay
structure, and the “Close Reading” handout as a step-by-step guide to one of the most
important methods of literary analysis. (Scholars of literature often use close reading to
identify and to “decode” evidence for the arguments they make about texts.)
• Make sure that your paper’s introduction culminates in a strong thesis statement
and that each supporting paragraph is argument-driven, not plot-driven.
• Keep each paragraph focused on one sub-argument.
• Make sure you support each sub-argument with 1) well-chosen, relevant quotations
from Don Quijote or Dictée, and 2) close readings that show us how the quotations
you’ve cited make the sub-argument you say they do, and why those quotations are
significant to both your sub-argument as well as to the overarching thesis of your paper.
• Remember: No quotation, however eloquent, speaks for itself. It is your task as a
critical thinker and writer to help us see what it means, how, and why.