Research Paper
Our final paper brings together all of the techniques we have developed over the course of the semester, as well as a few new ones that will help us to use everything effectively: summary, synthesis, close reading, theoretical application, and the flawless execution of MLA style.
The key to this paper is research. Research means not only learning to find critical articles but discerning the best of those. Reading those articles and really coming to understand how the critics are making sense of the literary work is the heart of this project. Critical arguments are a record of serious reading, and they can transform your sense of the work, helping you develop a far deeper relationship to it. In essence, you have the opportunity to encounter the work of dedicated readers who have spent years reading and thinking about a text.
As you read the critics, you will notice that they too are reading the work of other readers. They summarize what has been said, and then they explain how that leads to another question. Their essays will ask the text this new question. So in essence, you too are entering into an ongoing conversation. Your goal is to join this conversation, but just as in our everyday conversations, you first need to understand what is being said, and then you need to formulate a question you want to ask of the text that will make some sense in the context of this conversation.
To answer that question, you will write your own close reading and theoretical application. Depending on the question you want to ask, you will need a particular technique or theory. The success of your paper will depend on using the techniques we have learned to to formulate your question and through analysis of the text answer that question.
Assignment: Using the MLA Bibliography research a work of literature we have read together this semester. From your research, choose two articles, one of which must be published within the past ten years. In the first section of your paper, write summary of these critical arguments. In the second section of your paper, synthesize what you have learned from your research and articulate a question that makes sense for this context. In the third section of your paper, write a detailed close reading and theoretical application that will create an answer to your question.
Summary: Here, your task is to condense and highlight the most important elements of your critic's arguments. This involves some difficult judgments, for you must decide on those points and present them to your audience as clearly as possible.
Articulate a question: Synthesize what these critics say, and then combine this with your own interests in the text to articulate a question you want to ask about the literary work.
Close reading: Close read either a figurative or narrative trope.
Theoretical application: Take what the close reading reveals about the literary text, but now interpret your own analysis through the lens of the theory. In essence, develop an account of what the close reading revealed by using the theoretical concept to answer the bigger questions of meaning that close reading alone could not. Be sure to make links back to the question you are asking the the critics you have summarized.
Introductory Paragraph: When you have finished all of the above, write an introductory paragraph that beautifully sums up all you have done in the paper. In a single paragraph, explain to your reader how the literary text, the two critics, the close reading, and the theory you have chosen all come together to reveal the meaning of the text. Let your introductory paragraph be a perfect synecdoche for your whole paper, reflecting in a single paragraph all you have already done.
Format: Your paper must be no less than 1,500 double-spaced words set in a plain font (preferably Times New Roman) with one-inch margins all around. Your paper should rigorously follow MLA style guidelines.
Research Requirements: The ambition of your research will count in the final evaluation of your paper. Both of your articles must be high quality, peer-reviewed scholarship published in major academic journals or books, and they must be listed in the MLA Bibliography. Short notes, brief readings, and book reviews and articles from The Explicator are all unacceptable. The quality of your research will be a serious consideration in the final grade. Also, be sure to include a photocopy of both the articles along with your paper when you hand in the final draft.
Due Dates: See the course calendar on the website.