EH 650 Assignments

Reading-Response Essay

Choose a textual moment/character/term on which to construct a brief reading response (800 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 daisy so worshiped by the narrator in the "Prologue" to the Legend of Good Women. What is its purpose in the poem? Is it merely a prop of love poetry? What if we look at it as a flower, as Kordecki might suggest, by pursuing its floral reality rather than its literary precedent--flower rather than metaphor (a la Romance of the Rose--as a woman)? What does the narrator's reverence for this signifier of nature suggest about the aims of the "Prologue," the plot of which involves the poet-narrator's having to write new poems as penance for his misrepresentation of love (and women) as fickle and dangerous? Does his worship of nature imply his own newfound awareness of love's (of desire's) beholdenness to nature: to the seasons (it's May!), to physiology (hot-blood and other humours), and to all that is not subject to human reason, logic or craft? Does the poem enact the thrusting of man into the ecological mesh discussed by Timothy Morton? Does the "Prologue" set up a series of stories in which man is made to prostrate himself to all that is beyond his own mental capacity or his rational soul? Can we trace such a reading through the Legend's many stories or through earlier dream visions such as Parliament of Fowls? 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 1200-1500 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 the Knight's Tale. Specifically, you might look at the grove of trees where Palamoun and Arcite fight one another and are discovered by Theseus; this is the point at which the two Theban princes become like "lions" and "tigers." Is it this same space that is bulldozed for Theseus' war arena, in which Palamoun and Arcite will fight--via legitimization of the state--a mock war for hand of Emily? And is it the same space in which Arcite's funeral pyre comes to stand at the end? What role does the forest play in the Knight's Tale, then? And how do these layers of "fashioning" (private struggle, public spectacle, faux war, etc.) inform our understanding of environment in the tale (and what about all those foreign fighters with their exotic weapons in this fashioned space?). 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: 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…

In Text A, Character X claims, “…”

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

Character X…

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 …

Such a reading helps us to rethink this old thing …

Critical Review

Write a summary (about 600 words) of criticism on the text(s) you will write about in your seminar essay. A standard component of scholarly essays, the critical review provides a synopsis of extant literary criticism on the text(s) on which you will focus. Some texts have a rich critical history dating back to the advent of English studies in the nineteenth century, while others exhibit a dearth of articles, essays, books, and chapters. If the critical pool is deep, then you must carefully choose the most appropriate critical literature not only for your text but for your reading methodology (are you reading through a Marxist lens; through a deconstructionist lens?) and/or the detail in the text to which you are attracted (a particular character, scene, word, etc.). If the pool is shallow, then you must attend to all the critical literature that you can get your hands on to demonstrate that you've "done your homework" and to conclude that "critics have failed to notice the significance of this text..." This will ultimately wind up in your seminar essay, though perhaps in a condensed version. E-mail your critical review in a document (docx, .doc, or rtf file) to me.

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 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 4500-5000 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.