Your first full length assignment for this course is to write a formal analysis of a local history "text." This assignment will require you to identify a "text" which you will read carefully, place in context, and critique in terms of a specific useful framework.
We have discussed analysis in class, and the journals you have (or will have) written up to this point have been designed to get you working on analysis already. The essay you read for class, "Ideology" was also connected to the process of analysis as it suggests that all interpretations, all texts, and all readings of "texts" (meaning traditional written texts to popular media, etc) are influenced by ideologies, and ideological assumptions often conflict.
Considering what we have discussed and you have read, you will want to look at the best way to frame your analysis of the text you choose. Here are some suggestions for possible approaches:
• All representations of history have some appeal to authority.
The author somehow establishes her/his credibility or authority in presenting
the history. How does the author do this in your text? Does the author
attempt to present her/his authority on the historical material through
tone, direct appeals? Or is the author's credibility questionable? How
does the author's position affect your reception of the material?
• Does the history attempt to represent itself as "the Truth" or as
a "a possible truth"? That is, does the history appear to try to convince
the reader that it represents things as they are, or does it suggest that
it provides one possible perspective of events. How can you determine
that from what the text says/does and the context in which it was produced?
What textual or contextual features indicate the author's position on "truth"?
• What is the reason this text was produced? What's its claim
to significance? Does the type of representation or technology used for
the representation contribute to the reason for its production? For example,
the library web exhibits you looked at (Through Our Parents' Eyes) were
produced for the web with the intention of providing local, unpublished
histories a wide audience. They were put on the World Wide Web and
are accessible free. This technology has something to do with its purpose.
Look at your text and determine how its medium affects its purpose.
• What are the implications of the text beyond, perhaps, its purpose.
Does the text have affects that may or may not have been intended? How
do you determine those affects? What are the contexts in which that text
could be read that it has those affects? For example, the impact of the
Sonnichsen text's portrayal of Apaches as "raiders" might be offensive
to some, downright harmful to others. One of the implications of
that portrayal is to perpetuate the notion that native people's in this
region had no rights to this land and had no right to retaliate against
the takeover of that land. We can see that in his referring to the
Spanish as "settlers." Look at your own text and see what the implications
and affects of its representation of history might be. (Note: it doesn't
necessarily have to be negative.)
• Does the text attempt to take a specific incident and draw larger
generalizations about a culture based on that? Is the text trying
to objectify a whole culture based on a perspective on a single incident?
What is the culture being represented? Is the culture conextualized? Does
the author qualify her/his representation of that culture? Identify textual
features that demonstrate the nature of the representation, and provide
some additional context about that culture. That is, find another
source that represents the culture and see if there are differences/discrepancies
or similarities and patterns.
Any of these frameworks will allow you to analyze your text. Choose a text (or texts if you prefer) wisely. Pick something that you will be able to write about extensively and will lend itself to the type of analysis necessary. You might choose something like a traditional historical textbook (something like Sonnichsen, or even a chapter of Sonnichsen), or you might choose something less traditional like an exhibit at the Arizona State Museum. You might look at a collection of historical photographs, or you might listen to an oral history. You might view a local documentary or go to an organization in town and read their historical representation (for example, the Tucson Trolley Volunteer organization has an extensive "magazine" type publication about the history of transportation here). You might look at a neighborhood history project, or visit a historical building and gather the historical material put together about that site. You might even look at a short literary piece about local history (such as Patricia Precidio Martin's Days of Plenty, Days of Want). You can use a chapter or a section of something. Just make sure you have plenty to write about.
This essay should:
• be well organized.
• have a clear point of analysis (that is a thesis you are supporting
consistently throughout).
• have significant examples from the original text.
• incorporate context and have a framework from which you are critiquing
the text.
• include enough summary to familiarize your reader with the text in
question.
• be about 5 pages in length.