English 345.01

Flores

 

Assignment: Paraphrase/Explication of Passage from The Merchant of Venice

Due date: Tuesday February 17, hard copy due in-class, double-spaced, titled

 

Paraphrase/Explication (600 words total, titled) of a short passage (fifteen lines or so) from The Merchant of Venice. I encourage you to select a passage that you consider important, and one that you think may be useful to explore further through this assignment, perhaps in part because its meanings seem to demand some interpretation and "unpacking" or "excavation."

 

The paraphrase (approximately 175 words--this depends on length of selected passage) restates and translates the passage to provide the gist of the original, though this exercise may not only explain but inevitably distort meaning. You may find some aspects of the passage difficult to paraphrase--this may be something to explore in your explication. The process of paraphrase may also lead to discovering depths and possibilities that did not occur to you initially.

 

The explication (approximately 425 words) aims to construct a meticulous and systematic close reading (annotation) or unfolding of the passage's meanings line by line, presenting your questioning sense of the passage's importance, literary and rhetorical methods, and conceptual implications. The explication is not only explanatory or expository but implicitly argumentative: an occasion for you to discover, clarify, and account for your understanding and interpretative analysis of the passage and its function, including its significance to the play as a whole as well as in relation to its immediate context, and perhaps in relation to larger cultural contexts. This is a chance to share your perceptions, enthusiasms, and even your doubts as you delve into the play's significance and purpose.

 

Advice: Review McEvoy's chapters on Shakespeare's language so that you are prepared to analyze words (also review text's footnotes and perhaps a dictionary), structural patterns (such as use of balance and contrast), figurative language (comparison, images, analogies), and other rhetorical effects.

 

No secondary criticism in support of your reading is expected, but if you choose to draw upon another critic's discussion (even McEvoy's comments or headnote comments on the play), be sure to cite your source appropriately, both in the body of your commentary and in a Works Cited bibliography: see, for example, "casebooks" of essays on MV on reserve, ed. Coyle (1998) and Mahon & Mahon (2002).

 

Note again: Sean McEvoy engages in paraphrase and explication frequently in Shakespeare: The Basics--remember to consider carefully what you may learn from his commentary and examples, as well as from our discussions and assigned work.