Essay on "Composition Project"

Quoted Instructions for "Composition Project" Assignment:

*****: *****

Composition Project 2: Compare and Contrast, Where is Your History in all of This?

In the beginning of the term I am going to ask you to propose a film for the class to watch that speaks to some aspect of your history. Are you of Chinese ancestry? Greek ancestry? Nordic, Celtic or Russian ancestry? For this project we will use the skills we have developed around close readings to compare and contrast two texts, one from the course and one that grows out of your own heritage. As with project 1, you will be expected to perform a close reading and utilize outside texts in order to gather a greater understanding of the texts. The difference is that you will need to make an argument around how history has influenced these texts to be either similar or different. Some questions I thought of are: How is the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop different from that of Jennifer Chang or Gwendolyn Brooks. How is the poetry of Seamus Heaney different than that of Charles Simic? How does Nabokov deal with history differently than Chris Rock or Spike Lee? What is similar between Paul Auster and Persepolis?

Project Components:

1. Project Proposal: your plan in writing and who you plan to write the text to.

a. A rationale for why you*****ve chosen the original text, and why you want to compare it to a *****¨text from our class.

b. Who is your intended audience?

2. Form

1200-1400 words

At least 4 sources in addition to the two primary sources (the texts you are comparing) *****¨Important note: As your creative genius works on your adaptation, remember to save some of your energy for analysis; you will be evaluated on both the creative project and the rhetorical analysis.

My Family History

My mother*****s ancestors were Spanish Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492

because of refusing to convert to Christianity. Previously, they were under Muslim and Christian rule in Spain. Later, King Ferdinand who took over the government forced both the Muslims and the Jews of Spain to convert to Catholicism. So, they faced with the choice of converting to Christianity or leaving Spain. The Spanish Jews who chose to leave Spain mostly dispersed to other European countries as well as Ottoman Empire. My mother*****s ancestors were the fortunate ones who managed in escaping to Ottoman Empire. Ottoman Sultan welcomed friendly the Spanish Jews who ended up in Turkey. The Jewish community who were compelled to leave in 1492*****s Inquisition known as Sefarad, which is the Hebrew name for Spain.

My father*****s part of the family came from Yugoslavia in the early 1920s. Before the World War I, Yugoslavia was under the reign of the Ottoman Empire. The weakening of the Ottoman Empire and the national movements in Europe accelerated restoring the independence of Yugoslavia. However, the pressure on the Muslim population to convert their religion to Christianity led them to immigrate to Turkey. The weakening of communism and the rise of nationalism after the death of President Tito in 1980 triggered the ethnic tension in Yugoslavia. The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred during the early 1990s. Today, my grandfather*****s birthplace is within the boundaries of Kosovo.

NOTES: This is what I know all about my family history but there are many sources in Google about Jews expelled from Spain, which will help you to extend my family history to compare and to contrast with one of the texts given below according to the explanations, which is given in the first paragraph.

Texts we worked on this semester:

Auster, Paul. *****Invention of Solitude*****. New York: Penguin Books, 2007. ISBN: 978-0143112228

Nabokov, Vladamir. *****Speak, Memory*****. New York: First Vintage International Edition, August 1989. ISBN: 9780375405532

Bishop, Elizabeth. *****Geography III*****. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. ISBN: 978-0374530655

Simic, Charles. *****New and Selected Poems {1962-2012}*****. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. ISBN: 978-0547928289