Readings Responses must be handed in both to Turnitin and as a paper copy in class.
For this Reading Response, write 2 pages minimum, based on the reading Edward Berenson, The Trial of Madame Caillaux, and a newspaper article taken from the Rutgers Library Proquest database (ARTICLE ATTACHED) You can write more if you want, but 2 pages is the minimum.
In one page or more, summarize Berenson’s text about The Trial of Madame Caillaux and specifically the gender language and codes used to depict Madame Caillaux in her trial and in the press.
In another page or more, compare that to how Madame Caillaux was depicted in an American newspaper article from the year 1914. Do you find the same gender language and codes that Berenson describes later, as a historian, in that 1914 newspaper article?
You must analyze the newspaper article in the following way:
1. The article must come from the Rutgers Library Proquest newspaper database – I will not accept articles from any other sources or databases. Instructions for how to access the Rutgers Library Proquest database are up on Blackboard, under the Assignments menu.
2. Follow the instructions to find one article from a US newspaper about Madame Caillaux. The article has to be from the year 1914.
3. Specifically, when you write about your 1914 article, you should address the following elements:
— How is Madame Caillaux depicted?
— What kinds of language, terms and descriptions are used?
— What are the implicit assessments of her character and her rationality?
Tip: in order to do a good job at analyzing the newspaper article, you need to have an article that is good for analysis. In other words, it has to be long enough, with enough material about Madame Caillaux, to be analyzed – if it’s too short, or has too little on Madame Caillaux as a person, you won’t be able to do a good job. In other words, choose your article wisely – don’t necessarily take the first one that comes up. You might need to look at several articles to decide which one you want to use.
Please remember: you may only use the texts assigned in this syllabus to complete the assignments. Resist the urge to cut and paste, either literally or figuratively by using other people’s ideas. If I find that you have used other people’s ideas (ex: Wikipedia, Amazon reviews, book jacket descriptions, etc.), I will not accept the assignment because I will not be able to consider it your own work. You will get a failing grade (0 points) for that assignment and will not be able to make it up.
