Texts are places where power and weakness become visible and discussable, where learning and ignorance manifest themselves, where the structures that enable and constrain our thoughts and actions become palpable.
– Robert Scholes, Textual Power (New Haven: Yale UP, 1985), p. xi.
General Guidelines
- Focus on a reading of a specific text
- Take a critical stance toward the text
- Incorporate some scholarship on postmodern theory and show awareness of issues relevant to "postmodernism"
- Includes proper MLA citations in the paper and a Works Cited page
- 6-8 pages long
- Due in class Tuesday, October 18
Specific Suggestions
- Use any one of the texts we have encountered so far this semester (Lot 49, Lathe, Intuitionist, Memento, Female Man)
- By "critical stance" I mean producing a reading of the text that goes beyond the obvious or simply describing the text and avoids personal judgments (e.g. "this sucked" or some more sophisticated version of the same idea)
- Consider the text on its own terms, putting aside what others (including the author) think the text "ought" to do or "ought" to be
- It often helps to begin with an aspect of the text that troubles you, or with a question you have of the text
- If you know what you’re going to write before you write it, you probably shouldn’t write it.
- For critical sources, you may want to refer to Jameson, Harvey, hooks, Haraway, as well as books I’ve placed on reserve and the MLA Index (available online)
- I will be happy to discuss essay topics with you, and I encourage you to run your ideas by me
- Late papers are unacceptable, or, only acceptable to the point that for every day a paper is late, the grade for that paper will automatically drop one step (A becomes A-, A- becomes B+, and so on)