You have thus far written two substantial essays, each of which may well have had to do with your postcolonial authors country or culture, an issue relating to the novels themes, or some other critical issue. Now, you will research the postcolonial author, his or her works, and, in particular, the critical reception of the primary source that you selected to read in depth (novel). Below I will outline the nature of this project.
You know a bit about this author, having read an important work by him or her; however, one needs to probe further.
Include in your investigation at least two different books or articles treating the country from which the author comes originally; I say this because occasionally an author will be from, say, India, but find himself or herself writing actively in, say, Britain. So, what is your authors country in that sense; from what postcolonial setting does he or she hail? Naturally your use of these sources will be geared toward revealing the context in which the author works; youre looking into roots here; this is part of your concern with postcoloniality. You might use this information to orient your reader, to offer political, geographical, cultural, social, historical, and literary contexts.
Explore, as much as you can, critical discussions of the authors other works; try to gather a sense of the authors range of literary production: what other works present topics or themes similar to the work that you read so thoroughly? How have these disparate works been received? As much as possible, try to sample from these other works; that is, as time permits, read into the body of your writers oeuvre. Become familiar with his or her most notable contributions to so-called postcolonial literature. For this exploration, make use of any number of secondary sources treating your authors work; furthermore, use, as much as you are able to, the authors other primary sources in this section of the essay.
Finally, do a review of the reviews of that primary source on which you focused; translation: find, read, and summarize (in brief) as many articles and books discussing that one work as you can; explore the critical reception of the postcolonial piece that you now know so well.
Your conclusion presents, then, your assessment of the author, overall: what have you learned in the process? Do you recommend the writer to others? What has he or she contributed to the world of literature (or to the world, period)? Reflect on your experience of exploring the authors works, as well as the critical reception of those works.
Overall, your essay should run 10 pages in length; a separate but related document will consist of your Annotated Bibliography; your research will engage you in the use and citation of at least 10 sources.
