Essay 3 - Assignment - ENGL 3300
Revision 4/23 (Wednesday - 5pm, MB 403)

Choose your prefered method: Psychoanalysis or Gender/Feminism. Your task is to demonstrate both your knowledge of and ability to apply theoretical concepts.

A. Write a brief precis that summarizes the aims and procedures associated with the method. Key concepts and terms should be defined, to be applied in the essay to follow. (A selective summary of less than 1 page, it should focus on the aspect of the theory you will use). Cite sources if you quote or paraphrase.

B. Compose a 2-3 page, typed essay reading a a text of your choice in light of your selected critical perspective.  Your interpretation ought to be clear, organized, and persuasive; it must also be shaped by the critical method you choose; it must cite Eagleton and Lynn each at least once.  I suggest using a either a Grimm's tale, or one of the following poems:

Oread - H.D.      
Whirl up, sea--- 
whirl your pointed pines, 
splash your great pines 
on our rocks, 
hurl your green over us, 
cover us with your pools of fir.

 

 The Warning - Robert Creeley

For love--I would
split open your head and put
a candle in
behind the eyes.

Love is dead in us
if we forget
the virtues of an amulet
and quick surprise.

 
I SHALL forget you - Edna St. Vincent Millay
I SHALL forget you presently, my dear,
So make the most of this, your little day, 
Your little month, your little half a year,
Ere I forget, or die, or move away,
And we are done forever; by and by
I shall forget you, as I said, but now,
If you entreat me with your loveliest lie
I will protest you with my favorite vow. 
I would indeed that love were longer-lived,
And vows were not so brittle as they are, 
But so it is, and nature has contrived
To struggle on without a break thus far,–
Whether or not we find what we are seeking
Is idle, biologically speaking.
Danse Russe - William Carlos Williams
If I when my wife is sleeping 
and the baby and Kathleen 
are sleeping 
and the sun is a flame-white disc 
in silken mists 
above shining trees,-- 
if I in my north room 
dance naked, grotesquely 
before my mirror 
waving my shirt round my head 
and singing softly to myself: 
"I am lonely, lonely. 
I was born to be lonely, 
I am best so!" 
If I admire my arms, my face, 
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks 
again the yellow drawn shades,--      
Who shall say I am not 
the happy genius of my household?

 

 

Psychoanalysis

  1. ought to demonstrate a clear choice to analyze author, characters, or implied reader;
  2. attend to a complex issue or dynamic that seems to require an unravelling of contradictions or hidden motivations
  3. consider fundamental issues such as repression and the unconcious;
  4. avoid trivializing identifications of the Oedipus complex or reflexive translations of 'hidden' Freudian symbols
  5. demonstrate comprehension of how the mechanisms by which the psyche manages desire/repression have literary equivalents (see Eagleton).

Gender/Feminism

  1. attend to author, speaker, characters, or themes in the text where gender roles are expressed or contested;
  2. show an awareness of and make some use of such central feminist concepts as the "constructedness" of gender;
  3. organize an analysis as either a discussion of : a) the way the representations within a text reflect or contest instances in society; or b) how the text itself explores or expands gendered boundaries of language use (cf. Cixous, Woolf, Kristeva, l'ecriture feminine);
  4. show awareness of "situatedness," the notion Moi credits to feminists that the making or interpretating of any text is always done from within a specific social-historical context rather than from a neutral, universal perspective (i.e. the position traditional humanism is accused of taking).

 

___________

 

Use a readable 12-point font; double-spaced; 1-inch magins. Keep your precis separate. Fasten simply with a staple. Beginning on the second page, place your last name and page number in the upper-right corner. Indent paragraphs 5 spaces/half-inch and block quotations 10-spaces (anything over three-lines in length). Use MLA in-text citation format to attribute quotations and paraphrased material. Your paper should conclude with a Works Cited page that includes any class texts utilized as well as the source information for the object of your interpretation. Do not plagiarize. (Check out the MLA Guide in the library or handouts from our Writing Center for citation format questions.)

Use the following layout:

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 Student Name
ENGL 3300 Spring 2003
[Date]
Draft, Essay 1
[Name of Method]

 

Original and Informative Title

 

     The body of the essay begins here. Make it a captivating introduction and the battle

is already half yours. If you have a short quote, it may be introduced "like this" (Sherwood

1). But quotations longer than three lines are always set in "block quotation" format, which

would look something like this:

<10-spaces>

Students are expected to be above reproach in all scholastic activities.

Students who engage in scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary

penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and dismissal

from the university. 'Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to

cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or

materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking

an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage

to a student or the attempt to commit such acts.' Regents' Rules and

Regulations, Part One, Chapter VI, Section 3, Subsection 3.2, Subdivision

3.22. Since scholastic dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the

integrity of the university, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be

strictly enforced. (Student Discipline 28)

 

 

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