English 258.04, Literature of Western Civilization II, Spring 1999

Writing Assignment: Critical Response 1 on Tartuffe or The Princess de Clèves

Due: in class on Tuesday February 2

Length/format: Typed or word-processed, single-spaced, approximately 450 words (one full page with 1 inch margins). Remember to title the response, but do not use a title page or enclose the response in a folder.

I suggest that you consider some of the problems, premises, and questions posed during our discussions and readings as a guide in helping you to develop a specific focus and issue to address in the response (see handouts/study questions on these texts). You might think of the response as a scaled down, succinct, and sharply focused critical essay, or conversely, as an underdeveloped yet selectively supported kernel of a hypothesis and topic that might serve as the cornerstone, the shaping idea for a longer essay.

It will be important for you to quote, summarize, or paraphrase, though quite briefly, to provide a context and some support for the topic you are exploring. Assume your audience (me/peers) is familiar with your main text(s), but take care to explain your understanding and interpretation of the material under consideration. Also keep in mind that responses should supplement or build upon our reading and discussion; in short, don't simply repeat an argument we have already substantially discussed unless you were engaged substantially in that discussion.

Some writers, for example, use the first paragraph to describe an interpretative problem that arises in a specific passage or in understanding a character (and the relations of that character to others or to a particular cultural context), or in explaining a conflict of ideas/ideologies--or you might analyze the text's rhetorical use of figurative language or other stylistic and literary strategies. You might link your approach with some specific critical concern (social, economic, gender relations, etc.) or thematic focus that you explain briefly then test or illustrate in relation to another.

Here are several general suggestions though you may devise your own topic.

In what ways, for example, does the literary text represent a particular cultural (social, political, economic, class, religion, gender) perspective that may be peculiar to its historical context?

What kinds of solutions does the text offer to the problems it articulates, and why?

Is there something about your own cultural/personal position and history that you want to explore in relation to your response (a perspective or experience that shapes your reading, your interpretation and evaluation of the text at hand)? Keep your analysis focused on specific aspects of the text in relation to how your values and experience structure your response and understanding of what the text represents and achieves.

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