The purpose of this essay assignment is to teach students to examine a text by using a theoretical lens. In this essay, you will use Frantz Fanon’s “The Fact of Blackness” as a lens through which you read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Think about Fanon’s working terms and discuss how the lens (Fanon) both fits and does not fit the subject (Coates). Actively seek out the similarities and differences between the lens (Fanon) and the subject (Coates). Use the differences to make an interpretive leap.
I highly suggest that you limit the scope of what you choose to consider. Focus on 3 or so key concepts that provide you with opportunities to discuss the lens. This essay should include elements of close reading we engaged with for previous essays. This time, however, you are taking into account another source.
As in our previous essays, you will write an essay driven by a motivating question that uses both texts to arrive at new knowledge or understanding of a particular problem. In other words, you should be thinking about the effect of bringing these two texts together – how does turning to Fanon help us better understand Coates’s book? To be clear, your essay should primarily be about Between the World and Me. You are merely applying Fanon’s ideas to Coates’s book.
Some more questions to help you brainstorm:
Where do I see general points of agreement or disagreement between the two texts?
Which of the lens text’s (Fanon) main arguments could be applied to the target text (Coates)?
What does the lens (Fanon) reveal about the subject (Coates) that may not be otherwise apparent?
How does the subject (Coates) call the validity of the arguments of the lens (Fanon) into question or extend the arguments of the lens text (Fanon)?
How does bringing Fanon and Coates together provoke some other reevaluation of the two texts?
In addition, here are some lens essay-specific templates to help you get started. Your essay can adopt 1 of the 4 following approaches:
- The author of the lens text lays out a helpful framework for understanding instances of in the target text. Indeed, in the target text, one sees , which could be considered an example of by the lens author’s definition. Therefore, we see a point of commonality concerning . This similarity reveals __.
- According to the lens text tends to occur in situations where . By the lens author’s definition, in the target text could be considered an instance of . However, this parallel is imperfect because . As such, we become aware of .
- One sees in the target text, which calls the lens author’s argument that into question because __.
- If the author of the lens text is correct that , one would expect to see in the target text. However, actually takes place, revealing a critical point of disagreement. This discord suggests that . This issue is important because __.
Your essay should be 5 pages (maximum 7) and it should follow the standard writing format (12, Times New Roman, double space, MLA citations).