Introductions

Professor: Dr. Silva (she/her)

Students (pronouns; major (grad school aspirations?); what you want from this class; the last text you’ve read; something about yourself)

• Our readings (available at Akemos):
  • Frankenstein (free online)
  • Theory into Practice (due ASAP)
  • Destroyer (you can buy this one in a few weeks)
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• Blackboard: use it to upload assignments
• Our Website: use it to keep track of schedule/assignments, see lecture notes, get readings outside our textbook
  • You will need an account to use this site. Check your email!
• Some basics–> get in the habit of using the OED online

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• Hybrid Requirement
• Group-Led Discussions

• Before you leave today: Reading Habits Survey

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Next Week:

• Hypothesis annotation basics
• Weekly Online Assignment instructions
• TiP Chapter 1, “The Relationship of Reading and Writing”
• Eliot, “Tradition and the Individual Talent” 
• Wimsatt & Beardsley, “The Intentional Fallacy”

How does Destroyer adapt Shelley’s text to covey its argument?

In 450-500 words, consider one or more ways in which Destroyer employs and modifies themes or recurring tropes from Shelley’s Frankenstein. You can look at the narrative structure, setting, individual characters, or larger themes. Is Shelley’s narrative a productive fit for the story Victor LaValle is trying to tell? Be sure to have a specific thesis statement orienting your analysis and references to specific pages from the graphic novel to support your argument.

Short papers should be formatted according to MLA format and are due to Blackboard by midnight on Sunday (February 19). Please be sure to proofread your work carefully and check its formatting before submitting.

Your response should be original and carefully crafted–you should not consult any external sources for this assignment. Any paper found with materials consulted or paraphrased will be returned ungraded.

How might we analyze the presence and significance of Safie as Other?

After reading through the chapter of Post-Colonialism, write a 450-500 word analysis that considers the role of Safie in Volume II of Frakenstein. What do you make of how Safie is described, how she behaves, and what the other characters (especially the Creature) are meant to learn from her? Is she an interesting Other or a problematic view of non-European characters? Your paper should have a clear thesis and make use of specific textual evidence from both the novel and the TiP chapter when referring to specific concepts or terminology. Papers that use outside evidence without citation will not be accepted. Papers without textual evidence from the novel will also be returned for revision.

Your paper must have a clear thesis and make use of specific textual evidence.

Short papers should be formatted according to MLA format and are due to Blackboard by midnight on Sunday (March 26). Please be sure to proofread your work carefully and check its formatting before submitting.

Your response should be original and carefully crafted–you should not consult any external sources for this assignment. Any paper found with materials consulted or paraphrased will be returned ungraded.

What kinds of psychological issues does “Story of an Hour’ explore?

After reading Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” and reflecting on our course materials around Psychoanalysis criticism, compose a 500-word  analysis of this short story reflecting on Mrs. Mallard’s state of mind and what the story reveals and withholds about it. You may use one of these questions to get started: how do Mrs. Mallard’s relationships (with her sister, her husband, even with Richards) impact how she perceives herself? What kinds of commentary does the story make on the psychological pressure of heteronormative relationships? Is there more than one way to interpret this story? Does this text require us to read it “as women”? In other words, does it rely on an understanding of women’s social and gender oppression? You don’t need to answer all of these questions — these are potential avenues, from which you might pick one.

Your goal is to make a persuasive argument about the text using textual evidence (i.e. quotes and passage references) and drawing on at least one concept from Chapter 4 (Dobie). Your paper should try, as much as you can in two pages, to engage with these issues using textual evidence and critical analysis. Showcase your ability to formulate a complex thesis and discuss it with at least one thoughtfully analyzed example. 

Short papers should be formatted according to MLA format and are due to Blackboard before midnight on Sunday, March 12. Please be sure to proofread your work carefully and check its formatting before submitting. Trust your ideas! Your response should be original and carefully crafted – you should not consult any external sources for this assignment.

What is the significance of the themes and metaphors in The Flea and how to they contribute to the overall argument of the poem?

This is your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a new critic! Using the concepts we learned in class, the TiP chapter on Formalism, and this website offered by Blank and Kay (esp. chaps 2, 3, and 4), compose a  350-500 word analysis of John Donne’s “The Flea.” Your analysis should seek to offer a close-reading interpretation of the poem in regards to its metaphors, themes, and unity (think about how the poem functions as a whole and what it is trying to convey). Your paper should make a clear argument and employ at least one or two of the specific terms introduced in Blank+Kay. Keep in mind that the practice of New Criticism does not involve your feelings, personal opinions, or expressions– it is about trying to discover the text’s meaning by decoding its internal logic. Similarly, this paper is not about explaining or paraphrasing the poem, but rather making an argument that analyzes its use of poetic devices to covey its message.

Your paper should try, as much as you can in two pages, to engage with these issues using textual evidence (quotes with line number references) and critical analysis. Showcase your ability to formulate a complex thesis and discuss it with at least one thoughtfully analyzed example.

Short papers should be formatted according to MLA format and are due to Blackboard by midnight on Sunday (February 19). Please be sure to proofread your work carefully and check its formatting before submitting.

Your response should be original and carefully crafted–you should not consult any external sources for this assignment. Any paper found with materials consulted or paraphrased will be returned ungraded.