While the previous assignments have asked you to directly analyze the text, this assignment asks you to mimic the methodology of it. In the texts we have read this quarter, there are characters who conceive of another character or themselves through an examination of artifacts. For example, in Season of Migration to the North, papers and photographs left behind help the narrator better conceptualize Mustafa. Your task in this assignment is twofold: 1. select and carefully examine/research an artifact from your own life, and then 2. narrate that artifact’s relation to your own conception of racial/ethnic identity or a particular political history.
Your “research” may take very different forms depending on the object. Here is an example of an artifact:
Personal/Familial artifact: my grandfather’s copy of Marx’s Das Kapital in Farsi
-Examine the artifact: pay attention to everything: the cover of the book is yellowed due to age, there are some pages dog-eared, some passages are underlined, there are news clippings between some pages, etc.
-Research the artifact: this could mean EITHER an interview with my grandfather about his relationship to the book, why he underlined certain passages, etc. OR looking at secondary sources, what it meant to be a Marxist in Iran in the 1950s, the legality of owning such a book post Revolution, etc. OR BOTH.
-Narrate the artifact: I may choose to write a short story about talking to my grandfather about Marx or how I got to acquire his copy and how it shaped how I understood a particular political history. Or I may decide to create a multiple panel graphic story, or make a zine, or…
The narrative part of this assignment can be either written or visual but the examination and research part of this assignment should be 2-4 written pages.
Your narrative can take many forms, but all narratives should in some way address how your chosen artifact shaped your understanding of a particular history or racial/ethnic identity. Your narrative may also refer to the texts from the course, but this is not required.
I am NOT evaluating your “identity” through this assignment; your narratives will be evaluated based on the depth of research, level of analysis, and engagement with topics from the course.