201 Paper 3:
Essay Comparing Two Theoretical Approaches to One Text:
Requirements:
- A polished ten-twelve page, typed, double-spaced essay that could be read aloud in 15-20 minutes (depending on your reading speed, you may need to edit the essay to fit the time constraints of the presentation).
- You focus on one literary work, examining how it has been (or could be) approached by two or more schools of literary theory or interpretation.
- You display your knowledge of the two chosen methodologies/theories by applying them to the text or by analyzing their application by other critics.
- You summarize and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these different approaches when applied to your one chosen literary text.
- Contact me before you get too far into your project and let me know what you plan to do. Also consult the MLA Style Manual for help with the composition and format.
Suggestions:Objectives:
- You may base your analysis on what critics in the field have already done with this work and the particular approaches that you have chosen or you may create your own application(s) of that methodology. Either way, you must come up with your own original thesis about the efficacy of these various approaches.
- Some of the more obscure or recent texts which you might choose may not have a whole body of criticism out there that includes every possible methodology. In such cases, you may have to come up with your own sample application or examine what critics working in a particular mode have done with similar texts.
- Even if you hate a particular methodology, you will need to choose a strong (rather than weak) example of that form of criticism as your target of critique. "Straw men" examples will only make your own argument less potent.
- You gain experience with writing a conference-length paper.
- You acquire a familiarity with various approaches to literary criticism and scholarship.
- You have a chance to exercise the skills and knowledge you have acquired so far in composition, literary research, interpretation and the analysis of literary theory.