Class Notes (9/20)

Mystery Text Assignment

1. THE WORDS (PAY ATTENTION TO THE WORDS)
2. THIS IS NOT AN ESSAY
3. THIS IS ANALYSIS AND ARGUMENT → YOUR TITLE (arguing for/against the title, not about meaning of poem, interpretation, thesis. You are going to give a title and argue for the title - use evidence generated by analysis)
4. Analysis - list of signifiers/map of patterns (how signifiers fit together)
5. Your argument will only be as persuasive as effective as your analysis, value of argument depends on analysis, most of hard work should be on analysis

Example: “burned” (Q: how does the poem define burned?) poem will define it in their particular ways, semiotics shows us how the poem defines this keyword, articulating the meaning of this within a network of similarities and differences to other signifiers; for Phil Levine, “burned” means something very different from Atwood

Must look in poem for: (patterns of signifiers: in terms of similarities and differences)

1. Versions of “burned” (similarities)
2. “Unburned” (differences)

Every poem, text defines its key terms in a different way - must look at the context within which the signifers exist

Connection and disconnection: hands touch, rise heavenward, cross boundaries and dead and alive, knife cutting dress

NOT AN ESSAY

1. List signifiers (“words with semantic juiciness”) - take the signifier literally
2. Look for patterns of signifiers

__________

1. Argument

Stop making meaning for the first two steps, spend more time on 1) and 2)

Out the idea of meaning aside, focus particularly on what is the title and reasoning for this title

NOT WHAT IT MEANS → WHY THIS TITLE