300 words on ANALYZING POETRY

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“Words are all we have.” – Samuel Beckett

Instructor: Dr. Tom Ribitzky E-mail: [email protected]

Please use the above email address rather than my Baruch address Office Hour: Wednesdays 12:00pm-1:00pm via Zoom

GREAT WORKS OF LITERATURE II Summer 2020

English 2850 – Section S1BA (8521) Classroom: Online (Blackboard)

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Course Description: In light of the urgent crises we are all facing today, we owe it to ourselves and each other to understand the pain, grief, and trauma in the context of narratives that stretch back centuries. This course is an invitation for you to pay attention to how we can put a language to what is going on today by closely reading and examining the language of formidable artists and thinkers from the past all the way up to the present. Let’s study what they had to say so that we can be more articulate, critical, understanding, empathetic, and socially aware of our own circumstances. Artistic imagination is central to politics because without it, we wouldn’t have the capacity to envision an alternative to what is going on right now. There is no society, no tribe, no civilization that hasn’t been founded on the basis of storytelling, of song, of dance, of art. Only recently, with the advent of capitalism, art has been treated as a frivolous luxury, as extraneous to social activity. And we are now dealing with the deleterious consequences of downplaying artists. So, in this class, let’s turn back to them and see what happens when we take them seriously, when we rigorously examine the language they use to articulate similar situations to those we are contending with today. We will begin in the 17th century with Neoclassical French drama, focusing on a story about the role of silence as an act of injustice. From there we will move on to the values of the Enlightenment, and how this beautiful rhetoric of freedom and reason was hijacked to justify a democracy slipping into tyranny with the French Revolution. The movement of Romanticism emerged as a revolt against Enlightenment values, and the poetry that celebrates nature and landscape was a sharp political critique against the horrors that humans wreak on each other. We will examine questions of how the body is legislated, gendered, understood, misunderstood, politicized, and policed in Gogol, Akutagawa, Andersen, Kafka, Murakami, and Parameswaran. What is the relation between a self and a body? And how are these categories triangulated with social and political authority? Furthermore, how does the economy train us to think of our own identities, and the identities of others? Finally, what recourse do we have in the face of injustice? We will read Marx as offering us the first rigorous critique of modern capital, and of the inherent violence in the capitalist system of economy. We will read Douglass, who reminds us that the foundation of the capitalist system in the United States was slavery. We will read Ibsen as someone who directly contributed to the women’s rights movement of the late 19th and early 20th century with a single play. And we will also be reading the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement.

In texts that are both fictional and non-fictional, I would like to draw your attention to who speaks, who gets to speak, who gets forcefully silenced, who withdraws into silence voluntarily, and why. What kind of space – aesthetic space or political space – does silence represent for expression? What kind of power dynamic is at play? Is there such a thing as a voice for the voiceless? Is voice something that is singular, or is there a multiplicity that reverberates in it? What does it mean for Hughes, a persecuted black, gay Communist, to declare through a poetic speaker, “I, too, sing America”? Or for Akhmatova to answer “Yes, I can” to the terrified woman in the prison line behind her, asking if she could describe the overwhelming horror of totalitarian oppression?

As long as we have language, we have the capacity to remind ourselves of our humanity, even under the most inhumane of circumstances. It may not always be enough, but, as Beckett says, “Words are all we have.” So we must honor them, especially in an age when articulate, sophisticated language has come under attack by a new hieroglyphics of lazy hashtags, emojis, and text-messaging shorthand on autocorrect. Today, social media updates

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and sound-byte slogans are parading as critical thought. Aggressively held prejudices and opinions trump any exposure to facts. We are siphoning off our judgment, along with our personal and valuable information, to technology. With an attenuated critical faculty, it is easier to fall prey to any level of manipulative machinery, from the corporate advertisers who dictate how we must spend our money to the politicians who insist that our health and our education – our bodies and our minds – are luxuries, not rights. Without the rights to our own bodies and our own minds, we are no longer agents, no longer subjects, no longer humans. So in this dehumanized age, it is imperative that we reassess what it means to be human. And for that, we must turn to the humanities.

Learning Goals: Through asynchronous online discussions and close-reading assignments in a reading- and writing-intensive format, you will be expected to acquire a scholarly appreciation of literature from the 18th century until the present day. You should be able to provide insightful commentary on an author’s choice of detail, vocabulary, and style while tracing connections that run across genre, period, and nation. You will be equipped with interpretive and analytical strategies that will inform your critical perspective, using these skills to carefully construe any text you may confront both in and out of an academic setting. You will be assessed on the communication of your ideas in a coherent and sophisticated manner. Grade Breakdown: Online discussion Every day, I will write up the equivalent of lecture notes for that day’s texts on the

Discussion Board in Blackboard. You are required to write 2 posts a day (by 12:0opm noon) in response. One post will be your own observation, or reply to one of my prompts, and your other post will be a response to a classmate’s post.

Your post in response to my notes / your reading of that day’s texts: 2% per day Your post in response to a classmate’s post: 1% per day Close Reading Assignments Every week, beginning on 6/15, you will upload your Close Reading Assignment to

Blackboard (the assignments are posted in the Course Documents tab), reflecting on a text from the previous week: 10% each

How does this add up?

o We technically have 20 class sessions (Monday through Thursday) between June 8th and July 9th. This means that the online discussion component of 3% a day adds up to a total of 60%. (Since your first online posts will technically be on June 9th rather than on June 8th, the total reaches 57%, but I will just give you the extra 3% regardless to round it to 60%).

o You will have 5 close reading assignments at 10% each, which add up to 50%. o This comes to a total of 110%. What does that mean? Maybe you did poorly on

one close reading assignment, or could not turn it in on time. You still have a margin of error here to reach 100%. Or maybe there are a few days when you cannot participate in the online discussion. That’s fine. I’m using this buffer in my grade calculation to accommodate you.

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o Because I am accommodating you in this way, I will not accept any late work. If you are late on an assignment, just move on to the next one. Any online posts or close reading assignments that are posted or sent after 12:0opm (noon) on the assigned day will receive a zero.

o There is absolutely no extra credit beyond what I am already giving you. Please do not ask me for additional extra credit. You already have it built into the structure of this course.

Every point you earn on the discussion and close reading assignments amounts to one percentage point of the final grade. At the end of the semester, your total will reflect in the following letter grades: 94-110 A 90-93 A- 87-89 B+ 84-86 B 80-83 B- 77-79 C+ 74-76 C 70-73 C- 67-69 D+ 64-66 D 60-63 D- 0-59 F When it comes to the close reading assignments, I use the 10-point scale: 9.4-10 A 9.0-9.3 A- 8.7-8.9 B+ 8.4-8.6 B 8.0-8.3 B- 7.7-7.9 C+ 7.4-7.6 C 7.0-7.3 C- 6.7-6.9 D+ 6.4-6.6 D 6.0-6.3 D- 0-5.9 F

Required texts:

All texts will be uploaded to Blackboard College Policy on Differently-Abled Students Baruch College is committed to making individuals with disabilities full participants in its programs, services, and activities through compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and

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with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. It is the policy of Baruch College that no otherwise qualified individual with a disability shall be denied access to or participation in any program, service, or activity offered by the university. Individuals with disabilities have a right to request accommodations. If you require any special assistance or accommodation, please let me know as soon as you can, ideally during the first three weeks of the semester. This Classroom is a Safe Space “As an educator, I fully support the rights of undocumented students to an education and to live free from the fear of deportation. If you have any concerns in that regard, feel free to discuss them with me, and I will respect your wishes concerning confidentiality. Furthermore, I am committed to resisting any and all attacks on immigrants including threats of deportation, and will urge CUNY to serve as a sanctuary.”1 My class is a safe space for every demographic that is particularly vulnerable in today’s political climate, including (but not limited to) those ostracized for their national origin, ethnic background, religious affiliation, gender identity, and/or sexual orientation. That said, it is important to note that the literature we will be reading – literature that has shaped our civilization – addresses issues that are the exact opposite of what may be deemed “safe,” which is precisely why I am creating a space for us to reflect on these issues with sensitivity, empathic awareness, and critical alertness. We will be discussing subjects that may be triggering, such as rape, murder, suicide, misogyny, xenophobia, and racist violence. If you are uncomfortable reading or discussing this material, please get in touch with me as soon as possible. Course Requirements:

1. Punctuality. I decided to make this course asynchronous (which means that I am not requiring everyone to be online at the same time and use Zoom or other videoconferencing software) because I understand the limitations to technological accessibility. I have also decided to stick exclusively to Blackboard for the sake of convenience. All texts, discussions, and assignments will be administered through Blackboard. That said, because this is still a fully online class, I do need to establish some parameters, and I cannot be expected to be on-call 24/7. Think of this class as “meeting” every morning for a three-hour session on Monday through Thursday. I would expect everyone to participate in the class. The way you participate online is to write 2 posts a day, one based on an interpretation of the assigned texts for that session that you would like to share with the class (or as a response to something in my lecture notes), and also as a response to someone else’s post. You will have to submit both posts by 12:00pm (noon) sharp on that day. Your close reading assignment is also due at 12:00pm (noon) sharp. My best advice is to get this work done early.

2. Plagiarism. Plagiarism is “[u]sing someone else’s ideas or phrasing and representing those ideas or phrasing as your own, either on purpose or through carelessness.”2 It is one of the most egregious offenses you can commit – not just in your academic life, but in your future professional endeavors. Plagiarism has ruined entire people’s lives and

1 Language taken from the CUNY Graduate Center Doctoral Student Council Listserv. 2 Humanities Department and Arthur C. Banks Jr. Library, Capital Community College, Hartford, Connecticut. “A Statement on Plagiarism” in “A Guide for Writing Papers Based on Modern Language Association (MLA) Documentation,” May 2004, http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/mla/plagiarism.html (accessed January 4, 2005).

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careers. Whether intentional or not, I have a zero-tolerance policy on plagiarism. Any instance of plagiarism on any assignment will result in an F for the final grade. I have a duty to report it to the English Department, which will result in disciplinary action against you. It is very easy for me to spot plagiarism, and not worth even thinking about trying it. A quick shortcut in the short-term may turn out to severely impact the rest of your life, so make wise decisions when conducting your research and writing your assignments. A failing grade for a written assignment that reflects your own ideas and your own words is worth much more to me than a failing grade that I will give to a well-written assignment that was either entirely or partially plagiarized (just one sentence or one phrase is enough to count as plagiarism). Blackboard has a plagiarism detection function that works automatically, so I will be able to see if any work you submit is not your own. Please familiarize yourself with Baruch College’s policy on plagiarism: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.htm.

3. Email Policy. If you think you might need to email me with a question, please go through the following list of steps first:

a. Re-read the syllabus. Nearly all student emails I’ve received in the past could have been avoided had the students thoroughly followed this step.

b. If your question is still not answered, write it as a reply to my first post on the course website (my post which reads “Address all administrative questions here”).

c. If your question is still not answered, you may send me a formal email identifying your name and your class. Explain the situation in complete sentences, paying attention to grammar and spelling. I will not look over drafts of assignments by email. If you are struggling with an assignment, we can talk about during my office hour via Zoom on Wednesdays between 12:00pm- 1:00pm.

d. I will respond to emails between 9:00am and 5:00pm M-F. I will not answer questions about a Close Reading Assignment in the 24-hour period before it’s due.

Our Itinerary: M 6/8 Introduction Read the syllabus carefully.

If you have any questions, post them as a reply to my Introduction post on the Discussion Board in Blackboard.

Tu 6/9 Gallop, “The Ethics of Reading: Close Encounters”

Stokes, “No, You’re Not Entitled to Your Opinion” Worthen, “Stop Saying ‘I Feel Like’”

Read these articles and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

W 6/10 Racine, Phèdre (Acts I-III)

Read these acts and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

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Th 6/11 Racine, Phèdre (Acts IV-V)

Read these acts and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

M 6/15 Kant, “What is Enlightenment?”

Keats, “Ode on Indolence” Wordsworth, “My Heart Leaps up when I Behold” Dickinson, “Much Madness is Divinest Sense—”

Read these works and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

Close-Reading 1 Due: Racine (10%) Tu 6/16 Blake, “The Sick Rose” Blake, “The Lamb” Blake, “The Tyger” Dickinson, “A Fly Buzzed—When I Died”

Read these poems and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

W 6/17 Hegel, Hölderlin, Schelling, “The Oldest System Programme of German Idealism”

Keats, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” Keats, “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles” Byron, “She Walks in Beauty” Dickinson, “I died for beauty”

Read these works and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

Th 6/18 Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Read this poem and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

M 6/22 Gogol, “The Nose” Akutagawa, “The Nose” Andersen, “The Little Mermaid”

Read these works and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

Close-Reading 2 Due: Romantic Poetry (10%) Tu 6/23 Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”

Read this short story and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

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W 6/24 Murakami, “Samsa in Love” Parameswaran, “The Infamous Bengali Ming”

Read these short stories and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

Th 6/25 Tagore, “Punishment” Tagore, “Kabuliwala”

Read these short stories and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

M 6/29 Marx, Capital (excerpt)

Read this excerpt and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

Close-Reading 3 Due: Fiction (10%) Tu 6/30 Ibsen, A Doll House (Act 1)

Read this act and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

W 7/1 Ibsen, A Doll House (Act 2)

Read this act and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

Th 7/2 Ibsen, A Doll House (Act 3)

Read this act and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

M 7/6 Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

Read this speech and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

Close-Reading 4 Due: Ibsen (10%) Tu 7/7 Akhmatova, “Requiem”

Read this poem and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

W 7/8 Hughes, “Harlem”

Hughes, “I, Too” Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Hughes, “Mother to Son” Hughes, “Let America Be America Again” Vuong, “Surrendering” Rankine, Citizen (excerpts) NourbeSe Philip, Zong! (Excerpt)

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Read these poems and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

Th 7/9 Leonard, “I Want a President”

Read this poem and participate in the online discussion with replies to my post by 12:00pm on this day.

Close-Reading 5 Due: Akhmatova to Leonard (10%) Office Hour If you would like to meet virtually to discuss any assignment, please click on the Zoom link below on Wednesdays at any time between 12:00pm-1:00pm. I will enable a waiting room in case there are multiple people who would like to speak to me – if you happen to be in the waiting room, please just wait patiently until I get to you. I will get to everyone who enters the waiting room before 12:45pm. Don’t forget to include the password provided below to enter the meeting. Tom Ribitzky is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Join Zoom Meeting https://baruch.zoom.us/j/96886686453 Meeting ID: 968 8668 6453 Password: 607490 One tap mobile +13017158592,,96886686453#,,1#,607490# US (Germantown) +13126266799,,96886686453#,,1#,607490# US (Chicago) Dial by your location +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 968 8668 6453 Password: 607490 Find your local number: https://baruch.zoom.us/u/acPnmwbzYu

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Assignment Instructions and Expectations Online Participation—Your First Post of the Day: In around 250 words, analyze any aspect of any of the texts assigned for that day (if there are multiple texts for this day, you may also choose to focus on one aspect that you identify in some or all of them, as long as you are specific). We will be discussing what analysis means in the readings for June 9th. I am not expecting anyone to be an expert on any of these texts. The purpose of this course is to introduce you (or, in some cases, maybe even re-introduce you) to some works of literature and guide you through the necessary tools to analyze any text you may come across, whether it is a play, a poem, a work of fiction, a speech, an excerpt from economic theory, an email, a memo, a billboard, etc. You are required to read all of these texts, then my posts about them on the Discussion Board (which will function as a surrogate for my lectures), and then provide your own responses. I will post my lecture notes at least 24 hours before your responses are due. YOU MAY CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING KINDS OF POSTS:

Ø In your responses, you may want to respond to an interpretation I make, and either add something to it or challenge it. Whatever you do, you must be specific in your observations and quote the particular language of the text you are analyzing.

Ø If you have a question about something in the text, then this is your opportunity to ask it (and either I or someone else in the class may respond to it).

Ø You can also use this opportunity to start fleshing out ideas that you may want to elaborate on in your Close Reading Assignment.

Ø Or, you may want to make an observation that links this text to another text on the syllabus.

Ø If there are multiple texts assigned for a certain day, you may choose either to focus on one of them, or comment on a unifying thread between a few or all of them. I will leave this choice up to you.

DON’T DO THIS…

Ø I’m not looking for any touchy feely responses that dwell in vagueness or generalities. Do not use phrases like, “In general, humans tend to…” or “In society…” or “People are hard-wired to…” or “Back in those times…” You are not here to write sweeping overgeneralizations. Your only task is to try and make sense of some of the specific details of the text at hand, and the different ways they could possibly be interpreted (framed either as your own interpretation, or as a question or series of questions). If you write something like, “Back in those times, women were oppressed,” you are ignoring the fact that women are still oppressed to this day. If you write something vague and general about humans and love, for instance, you will just end up writing a cliché. Avoid this at all costs.

DO THIS INSTEAD…

Ø Instead of writing general, clichéd statements of humans and love, you can write about how Racine, for instance, specifically portrays love in Phèdre. What are the specific

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circumstances of this particular kind of love in this play? How do the characters show it or hide it? What are the consequences of them showing or hiding it, etc.? The more specific you can be in your observations, the better off your writing will be.

DON’T DO THIS…

Ø I am also not looking for anyone to say whether they agree or disagree with a work or a character in it—you are neither a juror nor a judge, but a reader examining how these texts are constructed. Avoid simplistic, reductive language like the binary of “good” or “bad.” Try instead to articulate instances of ethical ambiguity in the text. Avoid totalizing language like “all” or “every” or “always” or “constantly.” Instead, identify key instances in the text that create a pattern that you may want to comment on. I won’t give any credit to posts that only describe how these works make you “feel.”

DO THIS INSTEAD…

Ø I am looking, instead, to see how you break apart a text and examine some of its individual components, explaining what they are doing there and what they contribute to the overall meaning of the work. Think of each text on this syllabus as a kind of engine with moving parts. Your assignment is to highlight one or two of these parts and explain their function. And there can be many functions! And there can be disagreements about the function—that’s fine. In fact, it’s encouraged! You can make any observation you’d like as long as it is firmly backed up by specific evidence in the text (so make sure you quote from it appropriately).

Posts that do not cite specific evidence from the text will earn zero credit. Posts that either just rehash what I wrote or what any other classmate wrote will get zero credit, as well. This means that you have to read through the full thread of the class discussion so that you don’t end up repeating anyone. Poor grammar and spelling will not earn full credit. The total you can receive for each of these posts is 2 points: 2 points = insightful, excellent observations and/or questions anchored in specific evidence

from the text, using quotes that are not only from my lecture notes or other classmates’ posts; evidence of careful reading of the text; around 250 words

1 point = (any of the following): good observation, but maybe banal; maybe less than 250 words; quotes don’t quite necessarily align with the analysis; occasional grammar or spelling errors

0 points = (any of the following): repetition of what has already been posted without adding anything new; maybe less than 250 words; maybe this is only a summary rather than a focused exploration of a single crucial element in the text and why that element is important; vague generalizations

Online Participation—Your Second Post of the Day: Your second post will be a response to any of your classmates’ posts for that day in around 100 words. Maybe they included a question that you would like to explore. Maybe their ideas make you think about the text in a different way, and you would like to take this line of thought further. Maybe you disagree with an interpretation, and would like to respectfully offer a rebuttal. A simple agreement or disagreement will get zero credit. You need to

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contribute something new to the discussion that had not been touched on before (which means that you have to read the full thread of the replies for that day at the time of your writing). You must be tactful and respectful to your fellow classmates. Think of this as a classroom discussion. If you fulfill the above requirements, you will receive 1 point. If not, you will receive 0 points. Close Reading Assignments (10% each; at least 500 words each; submit your assignment to Blackboard by 12:00pm noon on the assigned day). 5 points = insightful analysis; focused, specific observations and good use of quotes and

evidence to back up assertions 3 points = clear, focused thesis statement followed by clear, logical structure to the

development of ideas 2 points = grammar/spelling

è Total of 10 points

I do not read drafts of Close Reading Assignments. I encourage you to work out your ideas in the online discussion and pose questions about the texts to the class. If you are stuck, we can discuss it over Zoom during my Office Hour. INSTRUCTIONS FOR CLOSE READING ASSIGNMENT 1 (DUE 6/15): Drawing on the online discussion, my lecture notes, and your own reading, write a focused analysis on a particular aspect of Racine’s Phaedra. You may choose to select one passage (either a scene, a few lines, or maybe even just one word that you would like to trace throughout the work) and explain how it contributes to an insightful understanding of the play. Alternatively, you may choose to be more thematic in your approach and explain what the role of a specific motif is in the play, citing specific lines from the dialogue. Here are some possible prompts to choose from (but feel free to come up with prompts of your own):

Ø What is the role of monsters/monstrosity in the play? Without relying on a dictionary, can you come up with a definition of “monster” ONLY in the context of this play? (Don’t get side-tracked by other works of drama or fiction that deal with monsters – make sure to be focused and only stick to this play). What is Racine’s portrayal of monstrosity? Are there are any monsters here? If so, who are they? What makes them monsters? How do they drive the plot? What is the relationship between the monstrous and the beautiful? The monstrous and the human? Is there a difference between the monstrous and the criminal?

Ø What is the role of silence in the play? Can silence be criminal? How? What is the relationship between silence and language? What is the relationship between

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language and action that Racine establishes? Are these characters ever able to take back what they say? Are the punishments meted out by the end justified? Why or why not?

Ø To what extent is _____________________ (choose any character here: Phaedra, Oenone, Hippolytus, Theseus, etc.) responsible for the tragic outcome(s) of the play? N.B. Any time you answer a question that begins with “To what extent…” it is not sufficient to give a black-and-white answer (either “yes” or “no”). You must explore the terrain of ethical ambiguity in a more sophisticated manner. So, for example, if you choose to write about Oenone’s role, you will NOT get high marks if you simply say that she is responsible. Try to think like a lawyer providing both the prosecution and the defense of the character. Don’t be too eager to lay all the blame on one person, and please avoid any totalizing language like “absolutely” or “totally”. I’m less interested in you finding a final verdict than an assessment of what contributing (albeit limited) role the character of your choice plays in the tragic outcome, being well aware that a variety of other circumstances beyond that character’s control are also at work. What are these circumstances? Does this character intend to inflict harm? If so, how much? Does the harm that eventually occurs exceed the character’s intention? Are there situations here in which an intention to help paradoxically ends up creating harm? How much agency does this character actually have? If Oenone is Phaedra’s servant, how much room does she have to act on her own? If Phaedra is being punished by Venus, a deity she cannot outpower, does that mitigate her responsibility?

Ø How does Racine portray shame and guilt in this play? Is there a difference between the two? What crime was ever committed? Without even acting on the initial forbidden desires (Phaedra for Hippolytus, Hippolytus for Aricia), these characters still face severe punishment. Why? Does thinking/articulating desires take the same weight as acting on these desires? How can there ever be any restriction on thought or language? How does Racine balance (or throw out of balance) the scales of justice in this play? Is there any justice here? (Hint: pay careful attention to the final passage. Is that sufficient? Why or why not?)

Ø Who is/are the antagonist(s) in this play? What is the relationship between love and hatred? Enemies and lovers? How does that sharp dichotomy dissolve? Can the self be an antagonist? Which character(s) exemplify this dynamic?

Ø Is every interpretation a misinterpretation in this play? Find specific examples. Are there any exceptions?

Ø What is the role of sight/glances/gazes and visual imagery in this play? Ø Does the sea/water/tears/fluidity take on any symbolic significance? What could

it/they represent? Ø What is the relationship between the human and the divine in this play?

Reminder: Challenge yourself to refrain from using the pronouns “I”, “you”, or “we” (unless, of course, these pronouns appear in quotes from the play). Instead of drawing attention to yourself and your personal beliefs, keep the text alone as the focus. Maybe take this challenge further and try articulating an argument that you may not personally agree with. For instance, if you find someone like Oenone alarmingly reprehensible, try articulating an argument that justifies her actions. If you personally find her completely blameless, try articulating a

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position that would find this stance problematic. I’m less interested in what your personal beliefs are than in how well you can construct a clear, logical argument that is effectively supported by evidence and quotes from the text (and remember that every argument must address its counter-argument). You don’t even have to strictly choose between the argument and the counter-argument, but I’d like to see you pit them together and see what kind of insights emerge from their tension. Feel free to use the online discussion as an impetus for your analysis, but be sure to give proper credit to anyone whose ideas you are drawing from. Tips:

Ø Try stating both the argument and the counter-argument in a sentence or two each before elaborating on them. The initial statement of the argument is your thesis statement and should appear quite early in the introduction (you can make it your first sentence, but it’s not necessary).

Ø By the time you get to your last paragraph, there’s no reason to write, “In conclusion…”. I know it’s your conclusion because there’s no more text following it. Find a smoother transition from the previous paragraph to connect it more tightly.

Ø Make sure that your quotes are properly (and grammatically) incorporated into your own prose. I’ve posted a handout addressing this issue on Blackboard, so make sure to consult it. These are examples of acceptable formats of citation:

Example 1 (Act/Scene/Line #): Racine exemplifies the correlation between sight and destruction when Phaedra tells Oenone, “In his bold gaze my ruin is writ large” (3.3.910).

Example 2 (Page #): Racine exemplifies the correlation between sight and destruction when Phaedra tells Oenone, “In his bold gaze my ruin is writ large” (186).

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CLOSE READING ASSIGNMENT 2 (DUE 6/22) Using one of the poets assigned in the past week, find a short lyrical poem of theirs that is NOT on the syllabus (I recommend poetryfoundation.org) and write an analysis of it. Use the analytical strategies that I will walk you through in the previous week with my lecture notes and the online discussion. Include the full poem with your analysis (the poem does not contribute to your word count). The key here is to properly identify the salient poetic devices that enhance your understanding of the poem. Instead of just listing the poetic devices that you see, explain how these devices contribute to the poem’s meaning. This exercise must demonstrate your understanding of how the form of the poem (its structure) informs its function (its content). Some questions that may help you:

Ø What is the rhythm and meter of the poem? Is there any metrical variation? Where do the breaks in meter occur? Isolate the words that break away from the meter, because the speaker is most likely drawing your attention to them – how do these words or sounds affect your reading of the poem?

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Ø How do end-stopped or enjambed lines affect your reading of the poem? Are there any uses of caesura? Can you make any parallels between the sound devices and the thematic meaning of the poem?

Ø What is the rhyme scheme, if any? Words that rhyme strike an association in sound; are there any associations you can draw between the meanings of these rhymed words?

Ø Every single word in every language has a denotation and a connotation, but sometimes poets like to play on ambiguous interpretations (connotations) of some words. Are there multiple meanings that are packed into single words in the poem? What is the effect of this ambiguity?

Ø Describe the imagery. How do these images appeal to the senses? Do they operate on a figurative level?

Ø What figures of speech can you identify, and how do they add levels of meaning? Watch out for metaphor / simile / personification / apostrophe / metonymy / symbol / allegory, and identify these devices correctly.

Ø Are there any allusions to other works of art and literature in the poem? How can these allusions/references deepen your understanding of the poem?

Ø What is the tone of the poem? What words are used that establish this tone? Ø Are there any instances of incongruity, such as irony or paradox? Ø Are there any instances of understatement or hyperbole? What are the effects of using

both, or either? INSTRUCTIONS FOR CLOSE READING ASSIGNMENT 3 (DUE 6/29) Write an analysis of any element you would like to discuss in the texts assigned over the previous week. Feel free to use the online discussion as an impetus for your analysis, but be sure to give proper credit to anyone whose ideas you are drawing from. INSTRUCTIONS FOR CLOSE READING ASSIGNMENT 4 (DUE 7/6) Write an analysis of any element you would like to discuss in A Doll House. Feel free to use the online discussion as an impetus for your analysis, but be sure to give proper credit to anyone whose ideas you are drawing from. INSTRUCTIONS FOR CLOSE READING ASSIGNMENT 5 (DUE 7/9) Write an analysis of any element you would like to discuss in the texts assigned this week. Feel free to use the online discussion as an impetus for your analysis, but be sure to give proper credit to anyone whose ideas you are drawing from.

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GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR WRITING SUCCESSFUL PAPERS IN THE HUMANITIES (Adapted from Strunk, W., Jr. and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. Needham Heights: Pearson, 2000. Print.) • BE CLEAR. Avoid being pretentious by inflating your sentences with endless SAT vocabulary.

You must use an elevated register, but appropriately. Otherwise, you only demonstrate that you do not have a proper command of the language (and of your own thoughts that you would like to express). Find the balance between restrained, simple prose and elegant, sophisticated ideas.

• Be focused. Pick a particular, specific topic that you would like to analyze in a text and stick to it. Think of the text as an engine with moving parts. For each assignment, just select one part (or two) and explain what it contributes to the overall whole. For example, a paper that broadly tackles “tragedy” will not be as successful as a paper that explains the role of one single element of tragedy (such as a reversal of fortune, recognition, or a character flaw), and how this one element is central to the text you are analyzing.

• Analyze – don’t summarize. Since I’ve read all the works on the syllabus, I don’t need you to tell me what happens plot-wise. I also don’t need you to write me a book review. Analysis, as opposed to summary, is the process of breaking down a complex text into its simpler parts, and explaining how these parts (or just one or two of them) contribute to your understanding of the whole. For example, what is the role that clothing plays in Macbeth? Or blindness in Oedipus the King? Or teeth in Death in Venice? Analytical essays would aim to answer these kinds of questions.

• Cite passages effectively. Good papers mount strong arguments based on close observations of the text(s) at hand. You should cite these observations and provide just enough context for them without excessive summarizing. Citations for page numbers should ONLY appear in parentheses at the end of the quote or passage alluded to, as per MLA guidelines, NOT in the middle of the sentence. Instead of saying, On page 125, Aschenbach “had a terrifying dream,” you need to provide more context. This sentence would be more appropriate: After finding out that a dangerous illness is spreading throughout Venice, Aschenbach suffers from a fever dream (125).

• Use definite, specific, concrete language. Be conscious of how you distribute your parts of speech across your sentences. Good, strong sentences are predominantly composed of verbs and nouns. Words like “rather”, “very”, “really,” “little”, or “pretty” are useless qualifiers that dilute a good sentence. “Truly” is also a problematic and empty term because this course challenges the philosophical category of Truth to begin with. Elegant writing is not a list of endless adjectives or adverbs. Elegance is a perfect harmony of the parts of speech that translates sophisticated thought into limpid language.

• Make strong arguments. A strong argument marshals sufficient evidence from the text(s) in question, making economical use of direct quotations and citations to back up your claims. A strong argument also addresses the counter-argument, and demonstrates why the counter-argument is weaker. Since you are writing for the humanities, and not the sciences or mathematics, avoid the vocabulary of “proof”. Proofs shut arguments down – your purpose is to open them up, and to acknowledge that your arguments can be argued against. Your arguments will not “prove” anything; rather, they aim to provide formidable evidence in support of a claim.

• Do NOT use the personal pronouns “I,” “you,” or “we”. In your close reading assignments, there is no need for you to indulge the impulse in writing “I think…” or “I claim…” or anything else that makes direct reference to you. Since you have your name on the top left-hand corner of every written assignment, I know you are the one doing the thinking and the writing – to draw extra attention to this fact is redundant, tacky, and distractingly narcissistic. The emphasis should not be on you; it should be on the text you are analyzing. If you write “we,” you are automatically making assumptions (liable to be false) about a community of like-minded thinkers, thereby alienating anyone who differs from your ideas. You must avoid this presumptuous behavior at all costs. Similarly, you don’t have to remind the audience who they are by saying “you”. Good writing will attract a perceptive, intelligent audience without directly addressing them.

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• Avoid a self-righteous tone. Speaking of narcissism, any interpretation of a text that adopts excessive moralizing says more about your own dull, inflated sense of self than it does about the text you are supposed to be analyzing. There is nothing intriguing about saying that characters like Medea and Raskolnikov are evil and ought to be punished. When writing about fiction, try to shift your language away from the simplistic binary of good vs. evil. If you do intend to write about ethics in fiction, a more compelling paper would chart how the author(s) in question paint a sophisticated vision of moral ambiguity. It takes more skill to explain what could possibly motivate a character to make questionable choices than it does to dismiss them.

• Omit needless words and avoid a succession of loose sentences. Don’t just fill up space. Every sentence and every word should be absolutely necessary in your compositions.

• Do NOT use clichés. Clichés are indicative of lazy thinking. They are empty phrases that do not belong anywhere in the vicinity of critical thought. If you are tempted to use a cliché or a familiar figure of speech, re-think what it is you are trying to say and then come up with a more precise manner of articulating it.

• Do not cite dictionary definitions. If you do not understand a word in the text you are reading, you MUST look it up. However, this is just a preliminary – albeit necessary – aid to your understanding. Show me that you understand these words ONLY by using them correctly. By the time you write your analysis, the level of comprehension you should demonstrate must surpass the initial phase of understanding the literal meanings of words, rendering any dictionary citation superfluous. If dictionary definitions were somehow sufficient, it wouldn’t have taken Plato an entire book to define (or try to define) “justice”. If you would like to focus on a particular word that the author uses (which I recommend you do), then explain what that word means ONLY in the context of the work. For example, the word “hope” in Oedipus the King has a far more sinister and even contradictory ring to it than anything you may find in the dictionary definition of that term.

• Always write about literature in the present tense. It may feel counterintuitive to write about a text in the present tense if it had been written hundreds of years ago, but think of the text as something that exists in a continuous present. Any time you pick up a book, the action unravels before you at that moment. This rule also applies to poetry.

• Use the active voice. Nothing is more boring than reading papers in the passive voice. Writing in the active voice forces you to apply some vigor to your analysis. Also, be cognizant of how often you repeat “to be” and “to have” verbs – try to pick more specific, active verbs instead.

• Cite passages effectively. • Do NOT use contractions. “Couldn’t” is an informal construction; use “could not” instead. • Do NOT use demonstrative pronouns that are immediately followed by a verb. Instead of writing

“this demonstrates,” “this elucidates,” etc., remind the reader what “this” or “that” refers to. “This passage” or “this image” instead forces you to be more specific.

• Prefer the standard to the offbeat. This course is not a course in creative writing. I am training you to write to a formal, academic audience. Avoid any eccentricities in your writing, and familiarize yourself with the style of scholarly journals such as PMLA.

• Use orthodox spelling. I will mark down if you write “2” instead of “to”, “too”, or even “two”. The same applies for words like “thru” instead of “through”. Write out the full words; otherwise, your writing will look lazy.

• Revise and rewrite. In your revisions, go through this list again and make sure you are adhering as closely as you can to these style guidelines.