Sample (Soviet) Citations

Image One: "Workers use old-fashioned brooms to gather grain into a large pile for cleaning." Kazhakstan, circa 1950. Photograph.

"Workers use old-fashioned brooms to gather grain into a large pile for cleaning." Marxist Internet Archive. "History Archive." Ed. Brian Basgen. 2001. 20 February 2008. <http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/art/photography/farming/index.htm>.

[headnote (200 words) goes here].

Image Two: Vladimir Malagis. Steel Workers. 1950. Oil on Canvas. 162 cm x 200 cm.

Malagis, Vladimir. Steel Workers. The Marxist Internet Archive. "Painting with the Hand and Eye of Marxism" Ed. Brian Bagsen. 2007. 20 February 2008. <http://www.marxists.org/subject/art/visual_arts/painting/index.htm>.

This painting reveals that socialist realism, the official aesthetic of the communist part, is surprisingly not like a photograph. Socialist Realism was founded in part by Maxim Gorky, who began his work as an abstract expressionist (Yedlin 26). In this image, the most prominant feature is the smoke from the steel factory. The workers, immersed and enveloped in this smoke are also somewhat obscured by it. Yet this image, a prototype of socialist realism, offers some insight into what constituted this seemingly straightforward (and yet far too strict) aesthetic sensibility. Since the workers can hardly be seen as individual figures, emphasis is immediately placed upon the imposing environment of the workplace. One of the central efforts of the Soviet regime during the late 40's and early 50's was to deal with the growing disillusionment of the ideal worker and the failure of many communist ideals. Socialist Realism remained as one of the few channels for promoting such values. Without idealizing labor, Malagis manages nonetheless to depict the human strength necessary to overcome such conditions. This combination of the banal and "beautiful" is perhaps one of socialist realism's defining features--the creation of "poetical and at the same time mundane" art ("Soviet Painting" 1).

(end of sample caption)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT ESSAY:

• single space captions (so that they can fit on one page)
• include alphabetized works cited page at end (for all works used in all 5 images, not separate works cited pages)
• on the introductory page, please include the references to the HCC reader pages. the easiest format for this would be to make a "List of Images," something like the list of illustrations at the beginning of a book, or a table of contexts. It might look like this (this is a sample):

List of Images

Hannah Hoch. "Untitled." Insert above "Beyond the Bauhaus, painters..." HCC Reader, page 41.

Bertolt Brecht. Kuhle Wampe (film still). Insert after "probed for disturbing truths behind the surface appearances of reality." HCC Reader, page 41.

"Kristallnacht." (photograph). Insert above the paragraph which mentions the "Jewish Problem" and "Night of Broken Glass," HCC Reader, page 87.

....and so on...

Beyond the Five Paragraph Essay

The Five Paragraph Burger, adaptations mine.

From Cal State LA: Going beyond the 5-paragraph essay (which is not a bad thing in itself, but perhaps just time to think differently):
http://www.calstatela.edu/centers/write_cn/fivepara.htm


So, what to do then?

1. Begin with your thesis.

Example: i will use Pr.Lupton's from class today, that the violence in Botticelli's Primavera (she was talking about the rape of Chloris by Zephyr, the wind god) leads to consent.

2. Ask yourself: what is the first thing I need to show in order to start?

Example: that there is violence

3. What is the next step in the argument that i need to show?

Example: that then there is consent

4. What do I need to show next in order to demonstrate my interpretation?

Example: that in some way (and showing how might be several other sub-steps) violence has caused or changed into consent

AND SO ON.....
last you might consider: (What in the text challenges or presents a problem for my interpretation? What other passages/aspects of staging or interpretation do I need to consider in order to develop and complexitize my interpretation? ) ThIS step is somewhat arbitrary--could be conclusion, etc...

Example: that consent also involves "agreeing" or giving into the violence (this might redefine violence, etc....)

2 important notes:

• the STEPS, as I am calling them, are logical steps--certain parts of the argument might take more space, more text, more evidence to demonstrate, and therefore might take more than one paragraphs. so there might be SUB-steps, or something of the like. Steps do not have to equal paragraphs, but they also can.
• Along the way, you will need to consider how you have developed and been able to draw new conclusions about the thesis idea with which you began. These developments will lead to the conclusion.

Please post your thesis statements below as comments with questions, if you have them.