The material here applies to students in all of my classes, on-campus and online. The term paper for the Caribbean Theatre Course should be 10 pages, double spaced, with footnotes or endnotes (MLA or comparable format). For the Bibliography or Works Cited page, please use standard MLA format for books and articles. Please underline or italicize all book titles and play titles in the body of your paper and in the "Works Cited" page. You may use the following form for citations when you quote in the paper itself: (Hill 8), provided you list the book in a “Works Cited” page at the end of your paper. For example: Olaniyan, Tejumola. Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance: The Invention of Cultural Identities in African, African-American and Caribbean Drama. New York : Oxford University Press, c1995. If you use Internet sources, please cite using the following format: Minshall, Peter. “Biography.” 18 March 2002. <http://www.callaloo.co.tt/people/minshbio.html>. If you quote from a CD, please use the following citation format: Marley, Bob. The Best of Bob Marley. Island Records, 1991. You should not limit your sources to the Internet. The Library page has many online journals and actual books that you can check out from the library. Your paper must include at least two real books in addition to the textbook if you use that as a starting point.
Please underline or italicize all book titles and play titles in the body of your paper and in the "Works Cited" page. The papers should use 12-point fonts and 1" margins. I don't want to read papers with gigantic letters and huge margins. Please do not use report covers or bindings. A staple in the upper left hand corner will be sufficient. Also remember to put your name and title on a cover page. Cyberstudents may mail papers to me the conventional way (snail mail or campus mail). I will give instructions how to submit an electronic copy of your paper to a special website for processing. I will not accept papers sent via fax. The Caribbean Theatre papers will be due at least one week prior to the end of the semester. Your research papers will improve if you can structure your thoughts in an outline before writing your essay.
There are three steps involved in writing this paper, and this applies to the student as well as the scholar who wants to publish in a professional journal. First, you must investigate and examine the evidence. This is the data gathering part. For instance, if you are investigating the first production of Ibsen's "A Doll's House", you may want to examine documents that record the production (accounts, programs, reviews, drawings, letters). You examine the event. The second part is to analyze and synthesize the data that you have gathered. You might look at an event in terms of the thoughts expressed. For instance, suppose you chose to examine the founding of Minshall's Callalloo Company or the development of steel band music or the history of Junkanoo. You might ask yourself about the motivations, aims and purposes. Examine the context and conditions that existed at the time that Junkanoo developed in the Bahamas. Thirdly, you must communicate the results of your efforts - make a report. Documentation and interpretation are both involved. Please do not limit yourself to the kind of writing we find in Encyclopedia's (e.g. "Derek Walcott is a West Indian poet and playwright born in 1930, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.") We'd much rather read about your analysis of his plays, poetry and dramatic writing or how the characters animate your thoughts about West Indian life and culture.
This is a list of possible term paper topics, but you are in no way limited to choosing from among the titles below. Please refer to the links at the end of the list for additional sites that offer possibilities for research.
Derek Walcott: Poetic Dramatist
Peter Minshall: Mas Master
Trinidad Carnival: History and Contemporary Practice
Rastafarianism, Hailie Salassie I and Bob Marley
Bob Marley and Reggae
Colonial and Post-Colonial Drama in the West Indies
Marital Relationships in Caribbean Drama
The Outlaw Hero in Caribbean Film
Midnight Robber: Stock types in Carnival
Calypso: Politics and Music
Steel Band Competitions
Caribbean Carnival Outside the West Indies
Maryse Condee
Female characters in West Indian Drama
Resources
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