Not all libraries are created equal
English 301

20th Century American Fiction

For this assignment you will pick an American author of your choice and write a paper about that person.  Research for your paper should be conducted using books, articles and reference works.  Your paper should incorporate the following elements:

Biographical overview
Critical reception of the author’s works (book reviews)
Why is this author important?
How has appreciation for the author changed over time? (literary criticism then and now)

 

Response
While this assignment has a clearly stated purpose and objective, it may be asking too much for the resources of a junior college.  Specifically, asking for books reviews may be problematic for books that were released in the first half of the twentieth century.  The same is true for the literary criticism.  In order to get a sense of how an author's appreciation has changed you have to find criticism over a period of time.  A junior college may not have the resources available to accomplish this.  Finally, if students are expected to visit a local university to find sources, this should be clearly stated.