Writing Homework Help

José Rabasa in “The Nakedness of America?” writes:

”…America is undressed, and a distinction between the real and the fantastic is superimposed on a symbolic play of errant features. These ironic and paradoxical traits we have traced in the readings by the Galles, obviously, should be taken not as a unique representation of America but as a moment in the invention of America where newness is produced by means of discursive arrangements of more or less readily recognized descriptive motifs.” (37)

Consider this quote in relation to Jan van der Straet’s America (1638) and draw on the reading and the image to answer the following questions:

a. What does Rabasa mean by saying that the image “should be taken not as a unique representation of America but as a moment in the invention of America?”

b. Explain the role that the nakedness of the body of America plays to not represent America but invent an idea of America. Start your response with a formal and iconographical analysis of the naked body and situate it in its contextual relation to other features of the image.

(Write a short essay that has a complete structure.)