Writing as Collage Assignment
As a writing medium, collage has many purposes. One is to expand the writer’s technique and aid in development of their style. Another aim is to stretch the writer’s ideas of possibility by looking at things from a different perspective—through another’s words in conjunction with their own.
col·lage[1]/kəˈlɑʒ, koʊ-/ Pronunciation Key - [kuh-lahzh, koh-]noun, verb, -laged, -lag·ing.
–noun
1. / a technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated with one another, as newspaper clippings, parts of photographs, theater tickets, and fragments of an envelope.2. / a work of art produced by this technique. Compare assemblage(def. 3).
3. / an assemblage or occurrence of diverse elements or fragments in unlikely or unexpected juxtaposition: The experimental play is a collage of sudden scene shifts, long monologues, musical interludes, and slapstick.
4. / a film that presents a series of seemingly unrelated scenes or images or shifts from one scene or image to another suddenly and without transition.
–verb (used with object)
5. / to make a collage of: The artist has collaged old photos, cartoon figures, and telephone numbers into a unique work of art.[Origin: 1915–20; < F, equiv. to colle paste, glue (< Gk kólla) + -age-age]
—Related forms
col·lag·ist, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
You will combine exact quotes from your chosen sources and your own writing to form a unified collage. You will need to cite each and every source in order to avoid plagiarism. The finished product should show your knowledge and interpretation of the major works. This assignment requires you not only to look closely at each work, but to see how the works speak to each other.
You must use three texts and your own words.
Reminders
Novels, plays, and books of non-fiction are underlined or italicized. (author title page number)
Your own text does not need referencing.
Suggested Process
Begin by typing out specific quotes from each work These should be lines/ideas/images that had resonance for you in some way. Do not worry about how they will fit with each other…yet.
Print these quotes so you can easily mix and match them in a physical sense. You may decide that certain quotes have similarities and you’ll want to pile them together somehow.
Begin writing your own commentary/questions/answers about the ideas forming. Write and write and write—you can edit later.
Create a collage of these four sources. It may be poetical, it may be expository, or it may be something new entirely. You will decide which phrases fit together (or argue with each other). You will decide how they should look on the page. You can create the whole thing on the computer, or you can physically cut and paste the quotes onto a page.
Your insights are graded, not your visually artistic talent.
The final product should be between two and four pages and must include all parenthetical references and a separate Works Cited page.
Ideas
Play with different FONTS and S P A C ING.
Mix up the quotes so they are not always in the same order.
Choose phrases that resonate for you, and don’t feel like you need to use the entire line, sentence, et cetera.
Have fun. This is a chance to spread your creative “writing wings”.
The beginning of a collage using the ideas mentioned on the previous page.
“This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen” (Shakespeare King Lear 3.4.77)
“My American life has been such a disappointment”(Hong Kingston Woman Warrior 45).and so,
“…naming and describing are two ways in which language bites on to the world” (Abel Man is the Measure 71)
The words have lives of their own and they darken us.
“The whole world lived inside the gourd” (Hong Kingston Woman Warrior 33)The darkness inside the world…. “To be worst,/The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune… (Shakespeare King Lear 4.1.2,3)
“Is there purpose in nature?” (Abel Man is the Measure 136)
[1]"collage." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 17 Feb. 2007. Dictionary.com