Assignment:
Select a group of protest texts (listed below, you can add another one) and discuss them in an analytical paper, with a clearly articulated argument and textual evidence supporting your argument, referring to the terms and questions below. The paper should be 5 pages singled spaced.
• Letters From an American Farmer : Letter IX - Description of Charles-Town; Thoughts on Slavery; On Physical Evil; A Melancholy Scene.
• Shawnee Chief Tecumseh (Address to General William Henry Harrison)
• 1669: The Exaggeration of Despair | Sherman Alexie
What is protest writing? What connects protest writers and what makes them part of the lineage? Why does subtext in protest writing abound? What types of messages are being sent and who are they for? And what background is necessary to fully understand this kind of protest literature?
If we were to say that protest authors use their writing to challenge injustices, inequalities, and the secondary status faced by a marginalized collective, in order to provoke change-from the earliest literary efforts to present day-what are some examples?
If we were to identify some through-lines across protest literature, they might include: challenging inequality of education, disenfranchisement, state-sanctioned violence, discrimination, prejudice, cultural appropriation, claims of minority inferiority, or addressing theft of labor, freedom and self-determination, the overarching connection is the protest of wrongs committed upon a people, and the call to rectify those injustices. What are some examples?