EH 450 Assignments

Reading-Response Essay

Choose a textual moment/character/term on which to construct a brief reading response (900-1000 words, double-spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman). What you should aim for here are some exploratory thoughts and questions that look forward to a more sophisticated reading beyond the surface level of the text. For example, I might look at the arena that Theseus builds to house the mock-war between Palamoun and Arcite in the Knight's Tale. What is the purpose of this war-arena? It comes to house significantly foreign armies, men from far away wielding exotic weapons and fighting for the cause of foreign princes. Yet, all these aliens are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Athenian citizens, Theseus' subjects, who are entertained by these armies "performing war." What does this arena suggest about the tale's larger statements about the foreign and the domestic, about both war and love as spectacle, and about Theseus operations as the sovereign figure (always domesticating the foreign)? E-mail your reading response in a document (docx, .doc, or rtf file) to me.

Close-Reading Essay

Choose a textual moment/character/term on which to construct a more developed reading than you performed in the reading response essay (about 1800-2000 words, double-spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman). What you should aim for here is a tight close-reading/critical analysis of that moment/character/term. For example, you might analyze the end of the Prioress's Tale, in which local Jews, murderers of the boy, Hugh, are punished for the crime by the town's Christian hordes. How does this scene depict justice in this strangely foreign space (Chaucer sets the tale not in Lincoln--where the story usually takes place--but in Asia minor)? Read "justice" out from this punitive moment. In a tale that repeatedly invokes the laws, a local lawman gruesomely executes every Jew "That of this mordre wiste, and that anon" (630). Executed "on the spot" (anon), the implicated Jews problematize justice without trial between these displaced communities (Christians and Jews) living in Asia. You should gesture towards some of the larger implications of reading this specific "thing" in a few introductory and conclusion sentences. This assignment aims for you to anticipate your seminar essay topic, which I hope will develop/emerge from your early work on this close-reading essay. For this essay, you should incorporate two scholarly sources (book chapters, journal articles, introductions to editions--this would exclude material in your course texts; for example, you could use but not count as a source any material from your course books, though you can use that as well). E-mail your close-reading essay in a document (docx, .doc, or rtf file) to me.

Argument Abstract

Abstract length: 300-500 words

Begin your abstract with the title of your proposed paper. In writing the abstract itself, be as succinct as possible. Abstracts come in various forms, but like any short yet very important document, you want to begin with a catchy opening that will interest the reader, offer a middle section that demonstrates your competence and gestures towards interesting, new information on or reading of the text/topic, and close with a quick summary of what you offer with your forthcoming paper, or where the paper fits in a larger interpretive network of literary criticism.

For your opening, you might offer a catchy sentence on your topic and a thesis, or at least a phrase suggesting what you will offer in your paper, why the paper matters—for instance, a new reading of a literary work or literary character. In the body or middle-part of the abstract, you will want to put together a small amount of support information that intrigues the organizer without giving away too much. Offering quotes from other relevant critics on your topic is not necessary, but some demonstration of your competency on the topic will go a long way (again, a quick reference to a scene or textual moment, a quote from one character relevant to your topic, etc.). For your conclusion you may offer some notion of the relevance or importance your paper holds for the topic or relative field: why is it important for critics to take notice of your new reading?

The following formula is a good way to think about putting an argument abstract together, though organization may differ from one author (that’s you) to the next:

1) The Text Introduction: In Text A, scene X happens…

OR

In Text A, Character X claims, “…”

OR

The Critical Introduction: Critics have for years puzzled over the peculiar words/actions of

Character X…

OR

Text A (or Character X) is most often read by critics as…

2) BUT what such readings fail to take into account is …

3) In this paper I will address this failure by examining …

4) This paper, then, argues that …

5) Such a reading allows us to see this new thing …

OR

Such a reading helps us to rethink this old thing …

Annotated Bibliography

Write annotations for 6 scholarly sources related to your research for your seminar paper. Annotations should be roughly 1 paragraph in length (about 200-300 words) and adequately summarize the source. Include for each source a proper bibliographic citation (in MLA, APA, or Chicago-Manual style). You should seek out books, book chapters, and scholarly articles. While you may inform yourself informally with blog discussions by reputable scholars, you may not use these posts as sources. Nor should you cite scholarly or other editions of the poem(s) or prose text(s) on which you will write your seminar essay. Introductions to scholarly editions are certainly useful and can offer a great deal of information (and I encourage to use them), but for this assignment I want you to seek out essay on your text(s) beyond prefatory or introductory material in editions. You should use the MLA International Bibliography (available as an online database through the library), as well as bibliographies in articles, chapters, books, and editions that you read. You may also use JSTOR but since our library does not maintain a full JSTOR license, this tool will be limited. So I would use MLA first and then use JSTOR to locate further materials. You might also use GOOGLE Scholar, but you should understand the limitations of this kind of searching. E-mail your annotations in a document (docx, .doc, or rtf file) to me.

Seminar Essay

Write a 3000-3500 word essay that makes a critical argument concerning one or more of the text we've covered this semester in class. You may also examine other related texts that we did not read as well, but your focus needs to be on a course text. You may build upon the Close-Reading Essay you wrote earlier in the semester. As with any scholarly paper, I expect the typical components: A clearly stated thesis; an overview of extant criticism on the topic/text; an engagement with extant criticism on the text(s); a thorough demonstration of close-reading and analysis of one or more literary texts; and an explanation of the payoff that your new reading of the text(s) offers. Your essay should be accompanied by a works cited page and, if you find them necessary, discursive footnotes or endnotes (not included in the word count). You may use MLA citation style for your in-text parenthetical citations, endnotes, and works cited. Or you may use Chicago-Manual Style for your footnotes (both citations and discursive notes) and your works cited page. E-mail your critical essay in a document (docx, .doc, or rtf file) to me.