Thesis-Seeking/Problem-Posing Exploratory Essay (1500 words, double-spaced, titled, due in class October 12, 2004, or if you have a 1200 word or longer draft to share for Tuesday Oct. 12, you may have the deadline extended to Thursday Oct. 14). The primary aim of this essay assignment is to engage with literary theory by identifying problems, developing claims and arguments, and enriching your literary understanding, interests, and commitments—this focused pursuit occurs via particular theoretical perspectives and specific interpretative practices and questions. You may choose, for example, to iillustrate your intellectual quest via a literary work (poem short story, novel, play); the primary emphasis and focus of your essay, however, should remain 'theoretical'--thoughtful and reflective and questioning. That is, unlike the explication, this assigment explicitly takes up or keeps in view, one or more of the theoretical premises that underlies interpretive practice, so that even as you may illustrate such issues via your hypothetical analyses and theses about a work of literature (let me know what you have in mind), the essay's provisional 'thesis' is likely to be about the nature of a problem of theory, or it may be about an interpretation of a literary work, and its method of exploring that thesis will reflect on the problem of interpretation itself, or of some other aspect of 'theory' that we have been considering
We'll brainstorm about such topics/problems individually and collectively to share and discuss further this week. Plan to come prepared to class on Thursday October 7 with at least a paragraph length draft of your topic/issue/essay/thesis.
Additional comments/exchange regarding this essay: Got this query from a student
on behalf of several, and thought I would share my response with everyone.
---
We feel like need a few more specifics regarding our up coming essay.
We're just not sure where you what direction you want us to take. Does
the essay have to concern the Turn of the Screw? If you could narrow our
focus a little bit, it would be very helpful.
Thank you for your time.
--
[my reply, though first see prior message further below]:
First, no, need not write about The Turn of the Screw.
I can understand your concern and request, and I have a mixed response, because
while I would like you to determine/propose/pursue along the general guidelines
offered in the assignment and as was stated in addition below, you would like
more focus and direction--the very things that I hesitate to determine for you.
I could say, for another example, "write an essay that explains whether
and why the desire for a particular interpration or meaning is always bound
up with problems of determining which contexts and oppositions and hierarchies
of value are in play or relevant to the text under discussion; support and develop
your explanation, arguments, and analyses from multiple (several) different
discussions of 'theory' in LTB, LCT, and TS, and also illustrate--briefly or
at length--with reference to a specific work of literature. You may think of
Bennett and Royle's chapters as models for the kinds of thesis-seeking and problem-posing
activity that this essay requires, and Bertens and
Beidler as well as the other literary critics we've read also pause to reflect
specifically on their critical methods and premises, so that even when they
are offering an extended analysis of a specific text they also take time to
explain and explore the ideas and premises that underlie and support their interpretative
practice."
Yet while generally helpful, you and others could fulfill the assignment in
other ways, with another focus or problem (for example, focus on the nature
of gender/sexual difference and reading and writing, or the way ideology works,
or why the legacy of liberal humanism's promotion of the autonomous subject
of reading is so problematic for contemporary theorists, or why/how language
is inescapably figurative, or explore if or how concepts of the text and the
world/history are related --do texts represent the world, represent history,
or ?--or explain/follow-up on the five points regarding narrative in LCT (52),
or consider my interpretation always supposes some latent or hidden context
that needs to be discovered--can this be linked to the ratio or relation between
what is stated or apparently explicit to what is left unstated or repressed
or left in the background (effect of ideology/unconscious)?
Might be best to forge ahead with an idea/focus, then check back with me and
your peers to learn how it sounds or seems to hold up. In addition, the class
might be able to help one another out by posting thesis ideas/topics for this
essay on WebCt--share your preliminary notion--if you don't mind--and see what
feedback you receive. Perhaps someone will cite a passage or question that sharpens
or clarifies or supports/develops the concept or approach or problem that you
find of interest.
I've received several emails from you and look forward to more.
Thanks.
Stephan
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Hello everyone,
I would like to check in with each of you about your ideas/approach to the essay
due next week.
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~sflores/210essay1f04.html
Please send a paragraph length email to me (sflores@uidaho.edu) with your provisional
thoughts/thesis/focus for this essay. The reading to date for LCT includes 18
chapters--you might think back to explore what premises and ideas seem most
productive, useful, problematic to you to assemble an essay, for example, that
begins to review/summarize/consolidate key notions/ideas about literature and
theory; we've covered four chapters in LTB--keep those in mind, plus if possible,
you could read a bit ahead now for next Tuesday's class on chapter 5: the poststructuralist
revolution; as noted in the assignment, you can refer to/illustrate from a literary
work as point of leverage and departure and example--perhaps one of the poems
that I've handed out; a short story (see various anthologies of literature on
reserve for this class if you want to browse; or you could use some of the key
dilemmas and materials from our edition of The Turn of the Screw, either very
focused on a particul!ar issue
e.g. how can we assess the reliability of the governess's narrative) and/or
start out with a broader question (for example, what have I started to learn/consider/sort
through about the nature of literature/reading/writing/interpretation by working
through this novel and the various critical essays and introductions to theory
included in this critical edition (and our other texts)?
Important in all this is trying to explain why some concept or issue has significance.
When Bennett and Royle, for instance, argue that "The idea of the 'I' or
'me,' in other words, is not unchanging and unchangeable. It is in many
respects historically and ideologically determined" (127), what has this
to do with understanding literature, language, culture, and identity? How would
you explain their claim/idea, not only from the chapter entitled "me"
but from other materials and theories that we have read?
On a related note: I hope you read the last section in The Turn of the Screw
carefully, esp. Teahan's essay--what did you find most useful, interesting in
her essay? Perhaps that could form a webct post.
I look forward to your thoughts.
Stephan