Close Reading: Assignment 10/26

Oct 22, 2009

Assignment 10/26 - 10/28

10/26: Mid-term paper due. Also: read article for presentation.

10/28: Read "Parker's Back." O'Connor is a classic, ironic, gothic, southern short story writer. Can you see any of those putative labels reflected in her style? What's gothic here? What's southern? Again: how is her view of the world embodied in her style? Also: read article for presentation and post briefly on this: reactions.

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Final paper / exam

For your final event, due 12/16, you may write a 7+-page paper or opt for a take-home exam which you will receive on 12/9.

Either way this final puts the emphasis on close analysis. It should be an inductive exercise - that is, beginning with the text and working outwards. Any conclusions you draw should derive from your work with the text; context is important but secondary.

Don't be afraid to leave common sense behind and read your text with the obsessiveness of a medieval Biblical commentator. This final is meant as an analytic workout, to help you remember the techniques we've discussed in this class.

The final will involve choosing three of five excerpts from dense modernist texts. It will be a mix of fiction and nonfiction. I will pick authors that are (hopefully) familiar enough so that you will know the necessary contextual information.

For a summary of rhetorical issues to bear in mind when analyzing prose, refer to my other blog.

Lowdown on presentations

Since there are 21 people in the class; erm, more than I expected, I'll be adding a couple presentations. They will be done in pairs, and here's what you'll do: pick a text (pick something juicy, creative, cool, unusual, stylistically instructive and interesting), distribute copies to the whole class two class days before your presention (as on the syllabus). You can use a small work, that is, a complete text, but you can use an excerpt too. If you do, you'll have to explain the whole thing enough so that your close reading makes sense. The two presenters will have to agree on a text - that might be the hard part. Better talk to the person you're paired with. The presentation should be about half the class (45 mins. or a bit less), some of which is discussion or questions.

Here are the groups:
1. James / Ashley 10/5
2. Lucina / Sara G. 10/7
3. Rachel / Erin 10/14
3.5 Drew / Julio 10/19 (txts due 10/12)
4. Sam / Asha 10/26
4.5 Miranda / Knox 10/28 (txts 10/21)
5. Ben 11/2
6. Natasha / Alisha 11/11
7. Alana / Lindsey 11/23
8. Sara-Beth / Berlice 12/7
9. Anthony / Clay 12/9

Close Reading

Oct 22, 2009

Assignment 10/26 - 10/28

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Final paper / exam

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