Literature Review

Week 9: Literature Review 

Due:  (April 11)

Once you have started your research, you should be able to narrow down your topic to a manageble size. This requires a thoughtful engagement with other approaches to your particular topic. Thus, the literature review.  A literature review shows how  other academics or researchers have approached your particular works and problems. How is your categorization similar or different to current academic research? What is unique to your approach to primary works? You should have already begun this process informally as you wrote your proposal, but this literature review is a clear and lucid explanation of what it is you are doing in relation to other writers who are also engaging your particular categories.  

A literature review is itself a strange activity: you are imagining a conversation with many experts in the field (the books and articles you read) and synthesizing/summarizing this information into a coherent narrative that a reader can follow. The categories we are working on in this class are very broadly defined as “short literature,”  “cities,” and  “geographies,” though you may add or subtract fields depending on your specific topic (material, translation, genre, etc.). You want to be sure that you adequately address these fields in your literature review. If you find you have too many or too few fields to adequately address, come see me for help.

Assignment:

Choose 4-5 academic articles or works to evaluate that are based on your topic. You should write a two-page review (No more than two!) that clearly states the ways editors, writers, academics, or artists have attempted to answer your questions or offer solutions to solving your problem. You can use part of your proposal to frame the texts and your own categories in relation to both positive evaluations of the works you choose. Be aware of your contrasting method of categorization, its benefits, as well as limitations. A literature review is a summary, but NOT a general summary. You will summarize the works in relation to your own research question or problem. 

Format: 

Two pages, Double Spaced, TNR font (not including bibliography of secondary sources)

NOTES:

1) If you notice NO ONE is writing about your topic or constellation of topics, you should probably rethink your paper. 

2) If you notice other people are writing about your topic, this is good! What way is your approach unique?