PROJECT 4: WRITING AS A CRITIC
So far this semester, you have written a paper that took a position on one problem that came up for you while reading a literary work. You substantiated your position with a series of interrelated analyses of textual evidence. Without necessarily knowing it, you were doing critical work. Critics are people whose love of books, music, politics, art, and other works of culture inspires them to share their experiences with others — often in ways that provide certain point of view on a work or a way in which it can be understood. Critics also help others to more fully appreciate the complexity of a work of art by putting it into some sort of context. The possibilities of context are probably infinite, but it includes the kinds of texts we have been reading alongside literary works all semester. A critic’s context could comprise the work of another critic; a theory about art or about the medium of which a work of art is made (such as language); other texts by the artist whose work is under discussion; work by a different artist; and the list goes on. Context can be the ground of a critic’s writing by providing a foundation of knowledge for understanding something the critic deems important about the work; context is also the background against which the work is seen to matter — the way in which it is significant.
The final assignment challenges you to become a more fully fledged critic. It requires the same skills as the first assignment: the ability to communicate a problem, to illustrate a thought process in relation to the problem, and to substantiate your thought process by performing close readings of passages from the text or film. The assignment adds the additional step of putting your ideas about the literary or filmic work into conversation with at least one other text.
You will have the option to write about Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zitkala Ša’s “The Soft-hearted Sioux,” Howard Hawks’s The Big Sleep, or Carl Franklin’s Devil in a Blue Dress. To give yourself adequate space to engage meaningfully with an artistic work and a contextualizing work, aim to achieve between 2,500 and 3,500 words. The paper should use MLA in-text citation guidelines and have a properly formatted Works Cited page that includes information on the literary text or film and any other texts used. You will have about six weeks to work on this project. The following provides intermediate deadlines and important dates leading up to the final assignment due date.
The final assignment challenges you to become a more fully fledged critic. It requires the same skills as the first assignment: the ability to communicate a problem, to illustrate a thought process in relation to the problem, and to substantiate your thought process by performing close readings of passages from the text or film. The assignment adds the additional step of putting your ideas about the literary or filmic work into conversation with at least one other text.
You will have the option to write about Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zitkala Ša’s “The Soft-hearted Sioux,” Howard Hawks’s The Big Sleep, or Carl Franklin’s Devil in a Blue Dress. To give yourself adequate space to engage meaningfully with an artistic work and a contextualizing work, aim to achieve between 2,500 and 3,500 words. The paper should use MLA in-text citation guidelines and have a properly formatted Works Cited page that includes information on the literary text or film and any other texts used. You will have about six weeks to work on this project. The following provides intermediate deadlines and important dates leading up to the final assignment due date.
- Tuesday, November 7: One page (double-spaced) project proposal due in class
- Tuesday, November 7: In-Class workshop on finding and selecting contextual material
- Thursday, November 16: Annotated bibliography due in class
- Tuesday, November 28: First Draft Due in class and Peer Review
- Tuesday, December 5 – Thursday, December 7: Conferences
- Friday, December 15: Final Draft to be dropped off at my office by 5:30pm