Literary Theory

Applied Theory Paper (35%)

Requirements:

· 20 pages total; about 5,000 words, not including “Works Cited.”  

· MLA Format.  See MLA Handbook or English Department’s online “Research Web” links for more information. 

· Due in class on April 28 or sooner. 

Purpose/Outcomes:

“Introduction to Literary Theory” is a 400-level, capstone course for English majors.  Consequently, it has a relatively ambitious paper assignment that serves several purposes: it challenges you to learn how to apply one to four methods of literary analysis in a rigorous manner (either as a specialist or a generalist of varying breadth); it prepares you for more advanced learning, writing, and/or teaching experiences; and, when completed, the paper/papers serve as examples of your seriousness and ability as an English major—and, as such, they may be useful for you in applications to graduate and professional programs. 

Approaches:

As you know, this course is a fast-paced survey of many of the major critical approaches to literature during the past century.  The approaches include the following: Liberal Humanism, Formalism, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Postmodernism, Psychoanalytic Criticism, Feminist Criticism, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Marxist Criticism, New Historicism, Postcolonial Criticism, and Ecocriticism.  Because there is so much to cover, the course only offers “the basics” on any of these approaches; however, this paper should give you an opportunity to develop your critical skills in one to four of these approaches with varying degrees of depth and complementarity. 

This paper will involve applying one to four methods of analysis (Feminism, New Historicism) learned in this seminar to a single “text.” You may, for example, write four five-page analyses using different methods for each or two ten-page analyses using two methods, and so on.  (If you are considering graduate school, I recommend that you use only one or two approaches and make them as up-to-date as possible—not just demonstrations of basic knowledge.)   You should be careful to read more widely in the approach than we have in the course (in proportion to the scope of the section of the essay—more reading for more pages), and you should demonstrate an awareness of the relevant terminology in your analysis.  Think about the essays in Postmodern Pooh as examples, but your essays should not be parodies unless you are very good at it—and still manage to demonstrate your knowledge of the methods in doing so. 

The reason for selecting a single “text” is to foreground the methods rather than to have you expend effort at getting to know a variety of “texts.”  By “text,” I mean any object of study that your methodologies can conceivably define as a “text.”  A “text,” for example, could be a television program, a J. Crew catalogue, a Dr. Seuss story, a poem by John Donne, a photo essay, an advertisement, a short story, and so on.  Please be sure to submit the text (or a videotape, cd, photograph) with your paper so I know what you are writing about.  Of course a single text could possess different kinds of textuality that are more readily subject to different approaches (visual, printed text, sounds, material). 

I am not against the possibility that you could, in lieu of a completely written assignment, create some kind of multi-media presentation (texts, images, recordings, etc.) that is roughly the equivalent of a 20-page paper in terms of work involved.  Check with me first.