ENGL
3354: Fundamentals of Literary Criticism
Fall 2006 #92558
Professor Bernice Hausman
PAPER #1
DUE, SEPT. 18, IN CLASS
This assignment will ask you to do 2 things:
(1) Locate yourself (i.e., your critical sensibilities, your past critical experiences, your critical interests) on the chart provided on p. 3 of Contexts for Criticism (Keesey). Remember the extra lines cutting across the chart indicating political forms of criticism (such as postcolonial, feminist, and African-American criticism) that were drawn onto the chart during class. In this part of the paper, discuss what "context" you think is most important in interpreting literary works, using your own experience as a guide (in other words, what have you been interested in when you have written papers before? How do you figure out what to write about? What does it seem most crucial to know about a literary work in order to interpret its meaning[s]?).
(2) Choose one of the three literary works in Contexts for Criticism and outline an approach to interpreting it, based on the first part of your paper. What issues would you address? What information would you want in order to interpret the text? How would you go about the analysis? In this part of the paper, you do not need to provide an analysis, just a discussion of what you think an appropriate analysis for this text should cover. Make sure to say why you think this is the case.
Please note: This assignment is asking you to be self-reflective about your own practices as a literary critic. You may want to get out some old papers to look at, to see what you have been doing in your "career" as a student of literary analysis. The paper will be evaluated according to your presentation of both your past experiences and your anticipated analysis of the literary work. You may wish to read through Keesey's introduction to each section to get a sense of how he defines each of the "contexts for criticism." The argument of the paper concerns your demonstration that the literary text demands attention to certain elements, without which any interpretation would be lacking. Thus, your discussion should demonstrate that the approach you are advocating will produce a plausible interpretation of the text, without which any overall analysis would be lacking. (You don't need to argue that yours is the only way to go.)
Length: 4-6 pages. Please see formatting page for information about words-per-page, margins, and Works Cited style.
See also How to hand in a paper, Tips for writing a successful paper, and Expectations for writing assignments.