Due Tuesday, October 3rd by 4:10pm
4-5 pages double-spaced
Write a 4-5 page essay about either Ben Lerner’s 10:04 or Jarett Kobek’s I Hate the Internet that uses specific textual evidence and particular moments to make a compelling argument about one of the following prompts:
*How and why does the author incorporate nonfictional elements into the novel? How do the nonfictional elements obscure or self-consciously draw attention to the construction of the fiction, and to what effect? How does this mixture reflect or comment upon the role of the novel in contemporary society?
*How does the text represent the relationship between an individual and a collective body? Focus on one or two specific examples. What are the challenges and difficulties inherent in this relationship? What are the potentials and possibilities? How is this relationship represented as being different, if at all, from the kind of individual/collectivity that came before? Why?
*How does the novel represent attitudes toward women and minorities in post-2010 American society? How does the novel conceptualize the diversity, fluidity, and possibility of identity online and offline? Choose one or two specific characters. How are the social horizons for this character shown to be the same or different, more expanded or more constricted than earlier eras, and why?
* A prompt of your own design. If you choose this option, please discuss it with me (via email or in person) by 9/26.
Please submit a Microsoft Word Document via Blackboard by 4:10pm on Tuesday, October 3rd with the file name saved as “First_Paper_YourLastName”
American Fiction in the Social Media Age 