Description
Persuasive paper: AGING STORIES –What to do with literature & media that has not aged well
LENGTH: 1000+ words min. (including MLA Works Cited
DUE: Thursday, February 29
This paper requires research. The internet will be a good source but I want at least one source from the library.
We have all seen TV shows or movies and thought, well THAT didn’t age well. It might be a joke we recognize as homophobic, a comment that is mired in gendered stereotypes, or a word that makes us cringe because of its racist overtones – some pieces of literature and media just do not age well.
For your persuasive paper, you will be examining pieces of media and literature that are under examination – not by outside groups that want to cast an idea or identity out of public discussion, but – in many cases – by the production companies and publishers (sometimes even the artists themselves).
What kinds of things am I talking about?
In 2011, a scholar released an edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that removed most incidents of racial slurs from the novel;
In 2020, streaming services like Hulu and Netflix removed four episodes of 30 Rock containing blackface at the request of Tina Fey;
In 2021, the Seuss estate announced it would stop printing and selling 6 Dr. Seuss titles because they included racist stereotypes;
In 2022, both Lizzo and Beyonce removed the word “spaz” from songs after disability rights organizations objected to the use of the slur;
In 2023, the estates of Agatha Christie, Ian Flemming, and Roald Dahl all authorized revisions to the language in some books that modern audiences often find offensive
In 2023, the live-action release of The Little Mermaid made minor revisions to the lyrics of “Kiss the Girl”
For this paper, I would like you to consider cases like those listed (and others you run by Maureen) for deeper consideration.
THE RULES
The work you are writing on has or might be eliminated/altered because of a decision made by the publisher or the producer of the work (so not a school board pulling Maus because upset parents). I am asking you to look at these works because these are people and companies that legally can alter the work and because it doesn’t take a lot of mental energy to say, “Don’t ban Maus.”)
The change is centered on language or an image in the book, so you can write on the lyric change in “Kiss the Girl” for this paper, but the casting choices that caused some people to throw a tantrum would be a topic better handled in the research paper, which will be on adaptations.
You may select a specific work (Huck Finn, It Happened on Mulberry Street, Death on the Nile) or a cluster of related works (all of the Ian Flemming re-issues, all of the 30 Rock episodes removed from streaming by Fey’s request, all six of the Dr. Seuss titles that the estate “retired”). However, I will want concrete examples from the works – which can be found through research (so you do not have to read both the old and new versions of every Roald Dahl book).
It is perfectly okay to decide some things should go out of print or have their language altered – authors revise their work if it makes their writing more effective. The question before you is whether the original texts are effective, if they could use a bit of help to be more effective for this generation, or if that piece of media or literature needs to fade into the sunset. I want your considered opinion after you have researched and viewed things from all sides – deciding to change some words in some Agatha Christie novels is not canceling Christie as a person. Not all published works stand the test of time, so if you decide its time is past, that’s your argument. This is not an assignment where I have an answer I want you to give and you have to guess it – This is about balancing different viewpoints and coming to your best answer.
WHAT AM I LOOKING FOR IN THIS PAPER
In this assignment, I will be looking for the following components (they can be in this order, but that is not the only way they can be presented):
An overview/summary of the materials under consideration, including date and place of publication.
A detailed explanation of the problematic language of images (put words you personally would not use in quotation marks – it will give you distance while letting you include problematic language; for example, Dahl describes characters as “fat” and “ugly.”
A discussion of the historic context AND movements or changes that have occurred between the time of original publication or transmission and when the alterations were proposed.
A review of positions supporting and opposing making the changes (if everyone agrees with one position, it’s not a good topic for a persuasive paper).
Your considered opinion on whether to revise, not revise, or just let the text fade away
WHAT WILL BE GRADED ON THIS PAPER
How effectively the paper takes a position based on careful and expressed reasoning.
Use of research to locate specific details to support all claims.
Logical and cohesive structure in the paper including all of the elements in the assignment.
Academic tone (you can use contractions, the word “I” to describe your personal experiences with the material, and the singular they – but avoid the “you” and put words that seem non-academic or that you would not use in your personal vocabulary in quotation marks. Include attributions like, According to the Seuss estate… and never just have a quotation in your paper that is not attached to an attribution or an introduction)
Good use of edited style to eliminate repetition and vary sentence lengths, types, and word choice.
Run the “darn” spellcheck.
