Greetings Everyone

Final Paper Prposoals

Greetings everyone.

It's time to begin considering topics for your final papers. The final paper is your opportunity to do your own research and examine topics more in depth. With this proposal you get to start thinking formally about what element of the class you would like to study for it. The proposal should be short, really no longer than two pages and includes three paragraphs describing what you would like to study (one establishing the background or significance of the work, one detailing your interest in it and questions you would like to answer, and one outlining your approach and potential conclusions), and a bibliography of at least three initial sources (primary and secondary. Primary sources refer to the texts or works of art you intend to study. Secondary sources are articles or books that discuss those works or contexts). If you have never done an essay proposal before here are some links of descriptions and sample proposals.

Keep in mind these proposals are more for long term projects (theses and such). Your research won't be quite so in depth. For a term paper it is better to do a highly focused topic (one artist for a profile, two or three representative samples for a movement etc. one or two works of art for an analysis etc ) than to make your topic too broad. I did my entire master's thesis on one novel and my doctoral thesis on eight books of poetry. Here are a list of potential topics you might be interested in covering. You may also come up with a topic of your own choosing from any country within the same time period (1970’s-1980’s)

Do a profile of a band, artist, filmmaker or writer discussed in class with reference to multiple works and how they respond to the political climate of his/her country.

Discuss the generational and political differences between Nueva Cancion Canto Nuevo artists and Rock/Punk artists in Chile.

Discuss the relationship between literature and popular music in the Nueva Cancion/Canto Nuevo movement. What does this tell you about the high culture/popular culture divide in Latin America?

Discuss and compare the strategies of women artists/survivors in Chile and Argentina during their respective regimes.

Discuss the political effectiveness of performances such as the CADA interventions and the Cueca Sola in Chile or the Escraches in Argentina. Were these performances merely stunts or did they have some measurable social impact? Discuss the relationship between politics and advertising in the film "No" by Pablo Larrain

Discuss the evolution of Alicia’s character in “La historia oficial”.

Discuss the significance of the ambiguous endings of both “No” and “La historia oficial”.

Compare and contrast similar musical movements in different countries discussed in the course. Canto Nuevo, Nueva Trova, Rock Chileno/Rock Nacional (Argentina) for examples

Compare different covers of the same song by different bands (inti-illimani, Quilqpayun, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Mercedes Sosa and Los Jaivas all cover songs by Violeta Parra and Victor Jara) for example. If you can find rock versions of folklore/nueva cancion even better.

Discuss the relationship between Charles Schultz “Peanuts” comics and Quino’s “Mafalda”. In what way is Mafalda present a more optimistic view of childhood.

Discuss the way in which non documentary cinema interprets or represents real events with reference to two of the films viewed in class. In the transition first to drama and later to the screen how is reality distorted, transformed or revealed?

How do Tina Modotti’s photographs reflect Walter Benjamin’s concept of the photographer as “surgeon” described in “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”

Choose a critical theorist discussed in the first two weeks of the class and apply his theory to an analysis of a piece of art or a movement.