The Ecstasy of Plagiarism Assignment

As we’ve been working our way through modernism/modernist literature, I’ve been asking you to collect fragments.  Now, let’s use these fragments to create your own modernist poem.  Here’s the recipe:

First, take your two fragments from “The Waste Land” (here are the instructions for plagiarizing “The Waste Land”) and paste them into a google doc.  Use the “comment” function in google docs to add your explanation of how these two images are similar and different. How does the second fragment amplify features and meanings in the first fragment?  How are both fragments about the same “problem” or conflict? How does the second fragment add new meanings or dimensions to the first fragment, etc.  For this assignment, you’ll use the commenting function to explain how your plagiarized poem works.

Add two new images – – not from “The Waste Land” to your “Waste Land” lines/phrases.  (Again see the instructions for plagiarizing.). Again, use the commenting function to explain the connections between these images and Eliot’s. Hyperlink these new images to their original sources, like this. [If you’ve been keeping up with things, you should already have this first fragment collage to hand.]

Add two related moments from Hemingway’s In Our Time.  These should be quotations (not summaries or paraphrases) that seem to echo or repeat your original Eliot material.  The quotations can be a sentence or a couple of sentences or a paragraph.  Again, use the comment function to explain the connections.

Again, add two new images – – not from “The Waste Land” or In Our Time – – that seem to echo the concerns or problems or ideas in your “Waste Land”/In Our Time fragments.  Use the comment function to explain these connections and hyperlink to their original location.

You now have eight fragments/pieces in your poem.  You can either keep them in the order outlined above or re-arrange them in a new order.  If you re-arrange your fragments – – be sure to keep the explanatory comments linked to the fragments.  Proofread your comments and the fragments.

Share your final modernist poem/google doc with me (at profhanley@gmail.com).

Due date: April 15, 5 p.m.