Sports and Literature

Sports and Literature

Paper instructions:
Task and Topic

Hemingway, Ernest. Death in the Afternoon. Simon and Schuster.

Kennedy, A.L. On Bullfighting. Knopf.

Short Article: “What is Sport?” by Roland Barthes

Select the statement from Barthes which you believe most loudly compels a close comparative reading of Ernest Hemingway’s “Death in the Afternoon” and Kennedy. The Barthes statement ought to be no longer than one or two sentences.

In this three- to four-page synthesis paper you will make a close reading of Hemingway and Kennedy in relation to that Barthes statement.

Be clear: Barthes opens up an area for discussion, but the thesis and body of paper are exclusive to Hemingway and Kennedy.

Overall Requirements for Synthesis

o This is a short thesis-driven paper. As such, it requires everything expected of a thesis: originality, precision, depth, insight, focus. And as with Paper 1, you are asked to make every effort to go beyond the expected when reflecting on Hemingway and Kennedy.

o Your thesis will be closely pursued through the paper. Each paragraph will serve to prove your thesis through a relevant main idea stated clearly in a topic sentence.

o Each piece of evidence from text will be analyzed in terms its significance to your argument. It is not good enough to leave the quotation hanging there; you must react to it.

o Lengthy quotation is not permitted; you must choose wisely and well, selecting that which speaks most directly and succinctly to your thesis.

Paper Organization for Synthesis

1. Place your short Barthes statement at the very beginning of your introductory paragraph. Yes, as the very first thing in the paper.

2. Contextualize: who is writing? what is the title of the piece? Explicate: what is at issue in this statement? This will lead into the topic for your synthesis paper.

3. Begin to set out your synthesis topic clearly, in sentences that show progress of thought: how does Barthes open up a topic area in the literature of bullfighting?

4. And how does that topic play through Hemingway’s and Kennedy’s writing about bullfighting?

5. Now get specific: the Hemingway-Kennedy thesis constructed within that topic. How are your authors connected? Your thesis is your argument within that connection.

6. Each body paragraph will serve to prove your thesis through a relevant main idea stated clearly
in a topic sentence.

7. Within each paragraph: judicious choice of evidence (textual quotations, followed by MLA in-text citation) to support main ideas, followed by measured analysis of that evidence. Each piece of evidence from text will be analyzed in terms its significance to your argument. It is not good enough to leave the quotation hanging there; you must respond to it.
8. Your conclusion should strive for far more than a simple reproduction and summary of the paper’s main ideas. Take the space afforded by that paragraph… and reflect, consider the ramifications of your line of argument, think about returning us to the key quotation, this time recast in different form… in other words, leave the reader both satisfied and curious.

Format Requirements and Professionalism

o MLA presentation of your name, course title, professor’s name and date. Numbered pages.
o A captivating title, with mention of the main authors under synthesis
o Double spacing. Times New Roman size 12 font.
o Flawless MLA in-text citation. Works Cited page with full MLA details for texts used. Works
Cited does not count as one of the paper’s pages.
PERSONAL NOTE:

I was already thinking about the Barthes statement: The last sentence of “Man has made his victory his spectacle, so that it might become the victory of all those watching him and recognizing themselves in him”.

If we decide to choose this statement he could use Hemingway’s chapter 7 and the end section of his book called “Some Reactions”. By doing this we would be talking about the crowd’s reactions and type of people that attend these type of events.