History 371

Devine

Fall 2010

Essay Assignment #2 (Option B)

INSTRUCTIONS

This essay is due November 30 by 11:59 pm. If you do not wish to do this paper, you can write your second paper on MacDonald’s All Souls. If I do not receive your paper by 11:59 pm on November 30th, I will assume you are doing Option C. You may email your essay to me as an attachment, turn it in to the History Department office (Sierra Tower 610) during business hours, or hand it to me in person. I am willing to read and go over drafts with you.

I prefer you email the paper to me since this is the best way to ensure that your paper does not get lost. When emailing, send a copy to yourself on the “cc” line. If you receive the email, it’s likely I did as well. I will send you a confirmation email when I receive your paper, however, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY (and not the email server’s) that I get it. (“But I sent it to you – didn’t you get it?” will not be a legitimate excuse for a late paper.) Please “cc” Shirley as well.

How Long?

Papers MUST be 1500 words. If you use MS Word 2003, you can check number of words by pulling down the FILE menu, selecting PROPERTIES, and then clicking on the STATISTICS tab.

Format?

• Typed, double-spaced, 12-point font with one-inch margins all around. Margins can be set by using the FILE menu in MS Word and choosing “Page set up.”

• Please number your pages (use the INSERT menu on MS Word and choose “Page numbers…”)

• Give your essay a title that reflects what the paper is about. (Something more revealing than “Essay #2” or “Janis Joplin Paper”) Clever titles will be duly noted.

How to cite?

If you are quoting directly from the book, cite the author and page number in parentheses within the body of the text, i.e. (Echols, 47). All direct quotes from the book MUST be in quotation marks and must be cited. Paraphrases of ideas drawn from the book MUST also be cited.

If you have any questions or are in any way unsure about what you are being asked to do, be sure to speak with me or the teaching assistant via email or in person.

Answer ONE of the following four questions:

1. Echols states that Janis was always insecure about how she looked, and at times, felt “ugly.”  Some of the media and even her contemporaries seemed to express this view.  Given the social and cultural standards of her time, why did Janis feel this way? By being “ugly” and yet incredibly popular, how did she shift the parameters of what it meant to be an American woman?  

2. Growing up in Port Arthur, Janis Joplin hardly seemed destined for fame and celebrity, yet, for a time, she was one of the most recognizable and well-known women in America. What accounts for her fame – Janis’s personality, talent, and behavior or the nature of the times in which she lived? A combination of both?

3. How did Janis’s performances bring together various American musical and cultural traditions? How did she mediate between past and present? Black and white? Men and women? Texas and San Francisco?

4. “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” To what extent – if at all – does this lyric capture the essence of Janis Joplin’s life?