Paper #4 Topics: Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis
(Research Paper)
Your five-to-seven-page paper is due Monday, May 5 by 1:00pm (Hahne & Co. Bldg., Rm. 250)
This research paper is designed to teach you the following skills: to gain a broader understanding of the novella The Metamorphosis by referring to outside sources that explore a theme or concept relevant to the text, to learn to incorporate your own voice/analysis alongside those of the research, and to practice employing MLA guidelines of citation and documentation. Keep in mind: you are writing an argumentative, not an informative, research paper.
Most of your quotations will come from our primary source, Kafka’s novella. In addition, you are to provide at least four quotations (total) from the two outside secondary sources. Whether or not you mention the secondary sources in the introduction depends upon whether or not they inform you reading of the story or merely support or enhance your reading of the story. Either way, citations from the secondary text should appear in all body paragraphs. Most importantly, your own voice should be the central one.
RESEARCH COMPONENT:
You must use TWO secondary sources:
1. ONE will be your choice from one of the scholarly articles I've provided (see below)
2. The second one can be a scholarly article or a book chapter, which you can find
through one of Rutgers’ library’s databases.
SECONDARY SOURCES:
Barash, David P. “Evolutionary Existentialism, Sociobiology, and the Meaning of Life.”
BioScience Vol., 50, No. 11 (Nov. 2000): 1012-17.
Han, Hyemin. “Purpose as a Moral Virtue for Flourishing.” Journal of Moral Education Vol. 44,
No. 3 (2015): 391-309.
Tubbs, Nigel. “Existentialism and Humanism: Humanity—Know Thyself!” Studies in Philosophy
& Education,Vol. 32 Issue 5 (Sept. 2013): 477-90.
Include your two secondary texts in your Works Cited page along with the primary text, the novella itself. We will review how to find the scholarly sources when we visit the Dana Library on Thursday 4/24.
Your first step is to decide on a topic that interests you (there’s nothing worse than doing a research paper on a topic you find boring). Perhaps you can choose from a discipline that you are pursuing academically (i.e., your major). The key is to be creative in your intellectual approach to this; Kafka provides many philosophical, cultural, psychological, and literary ideas with which to work, so take advantage of them.
PROMPTS:
1. The surprisingly optimistic ending of Kafka’s dreary tale suggests that purpose in life is important to one’s well-being and general sense of happiness. Explore the connections between morality, purpose, and happiness as they apply to the characters in The Metamorphosis as well as to Heymin Han’s theories in his article “Purpose as a Moral Virtue for Flourishing,” in which he complicates the idea of happiness being the primary goal of life without consideration of what’s “right” or moral.
2. In his article “Evolutionary Existentialism, Sociobiology, and the Meaning of Life,” David P. Barash argues that, from a purely sociobiological perspective, living creatures’ main purpose is “to project their genes into further generations” (1012), and that this “individual and gene-centered perspective has given rise to criticism that sociobiology is inherently cynical” (1013), much like the philosophy of existentialism, in which people question the inherent meaningless and absurdity of a world in which anything is possible and in which man’s purpose remains elusive.
How do Barash’s ideas support, refute, or complicate Kafka’s portrayal of the metamorphosis of a man into an insect? When framing your analysis remember to draw upon Kafka’s literary techniques as well the themes he presents.
3. In “Existentialism and Humanism: Humanity—Know Thyself!” by Nigel Tubbs, the author makes a connection between power, choice, and humanity, stating that “[o]ne’s humanity is always in question in systems where those with power meet those without” (479). Drawing upon Tubbs’ theories, explore the “abused” and “abuser” characters in Kafka’s story and make conclusions about how their actions do and/or do not affect humanity in larger, philosophical ways.
If you're stuck creating a thesis, you can work your way backwards by identifying your overall topic then looking closely at the text's symbols, scenes, ironies, imagery, or motifs, finding ones that resonated with you. From there, see if you can create a unifying argument to connect them.
DUE DATES:
Tues., April 22: Proposal and Outline are due (one typed copy of each document)
The one-page, typed proposal should have two paragraphs:
1. describe your main topic/theme, explain why you chose it, state how it is argumentative (present your thesis in rough-draft form), detail subtopics.
2. lay out significant questions you will need to answer and say how you will go about researching the topic.
The outline should feature thesis, topic sentences, and two-to-three quotes from the novel
per body paragraph.
Thurs., April 24: RD1 is due (one typed copy, 2 page's worth)
Tues., April 29: Annotated bibliography (one typed copy) and RD2 (one typed copy) are due
- I will provide a sample Annotated Bibliography on our Canvas site.
- Rough Draft 2 should include the intro paragraph plus the first two body paragraphs,
including quotes from secondary sources.
Thurs., May 1: Take a break from the research to prep for Final In-Class Essay
Mon., May 5: Research paper and Portfolio are due
Place final draft of Paper 4 (typed) in with your portfolio docs; include all rough drafts
for this paper as well as peer review docs.
**Note: In order to fulfill all the requirements of this research assignment, you MUST complete each one of the steps described above. If you submit your paper in on May 5 without having completed all of the previous steps, your grade will go down one full letter. Moreover, your grade will be lowered half a letter for incorrect MLA citation formatting (see "technical guidelines" below)
General Notes:
Technical Guidelines:
Quote of the Day:
Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.
--Anais Nin