How do you close read a psychologist?

Freud's status as the founder of psychoanalysis is assured, even if many of the specifics of his theories now seem questionable at best. The continued influence of his metapsychology - his map of the psyche, even down to its specifics, remains remarkable. I would argue that he owes much of this to the rhetorical power of his writing. In fact, Freud has frequently been studied as literature. This famous article by the French feminist Helene Cixous may give you an idea about how to look at "the Viennese witch doctor" as a writer. Here is a better link to "The Uncanny" (easier to print out).

end of semester assignments

11/30: Excerpt from Douglass and "The Two Drovers" by Sir Walter Scott. Written only about 15 years about in the mid-1800s, these texts are a study in cultural and class distinctions. But that's rather obvious, isn't it?
12/2: Back to nonfiction: Sigmund Freud's essay, discussed in our Conrad class, on "The Uncanny." Read parts 1-3.
12/7: Widely considered America's best living novelist, Philip Roth has won more literary awards than any U.S. writer - ever. Consider the beginning of his Pulitzer novel, American Pastoral. Also, read and post on the texts for Presentation 8.
12/9: Jean Toomer is an example of a difficult and poetic modernist writer and one of the most exceptional examples of the Harlem Renaissance of the '20s. His collection of vignettes, Cane, is loose-knit and impressionistic in the extreme. Therefore, it can be fruitfully read in excerpt. Also, please consider the texts for Presentation 9.
12/14: Leftover texts; review; finishing touches on papers / exams.
12/16: Final due.

for Monday the 23rd of November, 2009

Close read either Frederick Douglass's most famous chapter from his famous autobiography or the excerpt from Woody Allen's collection Mere Anarchy. Read both.

Close read this, m*#@!

If you were a politician never described as "gifted" yet valued for being accessible and unaffected, how would you present yourself in a widescreen autobiography? How would you use style to do it? Hm.

Update: upcoming week

We probably won't get to Conrad's story till Wednesday, so you could save your post till then.

Assignments 11/16-11/18

for 11/16: read Barthes excerpts; and read Conrad's "The Secret Sharer." Conrad wrote: "by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel... before all, to make you see. That — and no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm — all you demand — and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth." In your post, analyze the language especially, and also look for Conrad's use of parallelisms. How does Conrad build his style on the mix of different types of words (see the post, below, on language classifications)? Pick 2 or 3 passages.

for 11/18: Read our last Lanham, chapter 9. No post is due for this day. In class we will review the tools of close reading, appplying them to a selection of excerpts.

High, Low, and Middle?

Erin found this helpful chart from the gossipy New York magazine that explains it all.

Please print out assignment

Thanks to Lucina, who asked for clarification. Please print out 2 copies of the assignment in which you use Montaigne's rhetorical strategies. Also, please bring the Montaigne text to class; we will continue with this if there's time.

Assignments 11/09-11/11

for 11/09: read Henry James' "Paste." Pick a passage and approach it with the varied techniques of close reading, as discussed in class. In addition, write a 1-2 page argument pertaining to the election of Bloomberg. (Or any other subject you find suitable.) In this prose piece, you should try to use Montaigne's rhetorical strategies. That is, you don't have to write like Montaigne; just use his method of argument. Remember: he employs i) personification; ii) argument based on abstract dualities; iii) multiplication of examples for his case; iv) the appeal to common sense; v) a concomitant skepticism about excessively lofty ideals. You may not use all of these, but try to experiment with classical rhetorical strategies.

for 11/11: consider the texts for the presentation. Also, read and analyzing two examples of contemporary political polemic on the same subject. They are from different sides of the political spectrum, and both on the topic of Islam. "The European Dilemma" - a review of two books; and "The Future Belongs to Islam" - an article by the widely read Canadian columnist Mark Steyn. Each writer packages his opinion for an audience with a predictable viewpoint; how is this reflected in the style? How does each commentator "sell" his viewpoint? Is each writer stylistically typical of his political group?

Summary of Marx's Brilliant Style

This is the passage Alisha picked out, or part of it:

The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part.

The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his "natural superiors", and has left no other nexus between people than naked self-interest, than callous "cash payment". It has drowned out the most heavenly ecstacies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom -- Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers.

• Note Marx & Engels' use of special terminology, little-used at the time of publication: bourgeoisie, reactionary, exploitation, patriarchal; these words, like Freud's special language, added an air of technical knowledge.
• In addition, they use traditional words of contempt: philistine, sentimental, unconscionable, egotisitical. This language is from the playbook of traditional, Christian morality.
• They also make liberal use of emotive words, words intended to inspire outrage: callous, naked, shameless, brutal, etc. However, these words are embedded in their lofty writing style, and do not come across as overly manipulative.
• Marx & Engels walk on both sides of the street when accusing their opponents of being oopposed to progress ("reactionaries") but also accuse them of destroying traditional values ("the bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored," reduced the family to a business arrangement, etc.)
• M&E make good use of sarcasm, a technique that serves as a bond with their audience. You see this in the "specter" passage that starts the manifesto. Communism is seen as a dangerous specter by others, not by we, the revolutionary ones. In the passage above, expressions like "most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor" are sarcastic and also play on anti-Catholic sentiment. They suggest a sort of religious madness, the opposite of the Communist's "scientific" viewpoint.
• Needless to say, there is no conventional action to be found here. No person or specific group does anything in this type of high style. (Communism is in part a reaction to the highly personal and subjective romanticism of Goethe and others.) The subject of these action-oriented sesntences is usually an abstraction, such as "communism" or "the proletariat."
• Instead of one abstraction, often the subject or object is a series of abstractions. These lists of abstract nouns give the ideas a sweeping scope. The theory appears to apply to everything.