Assignment Guidelines

Presentation—15 minutes followed by Q and A.

Choose one of the assigned texts and sign up for a presentation day for the work you have chosen. Identify one moment in the work when the character makes an important ethical decision. Analyze the options available to this character and apply an ethical framework to the character's ultimate decision. How has the author signaled her or his judgment of this character's decision?

Final Paper—15-20 pages

Use the information from your presentation as a starting point for a more substantive inquiry into the ethical choices that this character faces, the presuppositions underlying these choices, and the wider-ranging consequences of this character's actions. How does the character's decision within the work in question contribute to the work's overall meaning and the way it influences (or is meant to influence) the actions of the work's readers?

Consider also the response to the work by readers and critics. How has resulting controversy or discussion altered our understanding of the work in question? How do contemporary political discussions provide the context for and respond to ideas in the work in question?

Follow the paper format indicated on the handout that you will receive in class.

Writing the Paper

Choose the book from the reading list that most interests you or relates to topics that interest you. Then, focus on a topic pertaining to this book that is in some way arguable. The goal of literary analysis is to take a stand and to challenge your reader's expectations in order to offer something new to their reading experience. Plot summary is a tremendous pitfall in this process, because mere plot summary fails to reward the reader who is already familiar with the literary work in question. For this reason, the arguable thesis statement will be a key element at the outset of any literary analysis.

Organize your argument along the lines of subtopics that are themselves arguable and that contribute to a portion of the thesis statement in some way. Make use of quotations from your chosen work or other works, but be sure to prioritize the elaboration of your own ideas in your own words. Working with an outline at some point in the process is a good way to develop an understanding of the structure of you paper. Based on this understanding, you can then develop transitional sentences that make the relationships between paragraphs clear. Transitions can indicate an intensification of an idea, change in direction, expansion of scope, reduction of scope, contradiction, or even signal consideration of a counter argument. At each step, this process will help you avoid writing a mere plot summary.

You should support most of your claims with quotations from the text. This is how you prove that the book says what you say it says. When including quotations, spend some time explicating them. Explication, also known as close reading, means examining the writer's use of word choice, imagery, parallel structures, contrasts, comparisons, or any other detail in the passage that is worthy of comment and that will be of interest to your reader.

When grading papers, I consider the originality of insights about the chosen topic as well as the coherence of the argument. None of the writers we have examined in this course is above criticism, and each book includes details worthy of elaboration that no previous writer has considered before. In addition to the clarity and persuasive power of the argument, I will consider how you use quotations and also mechanical issues such as grammar and spelling. Include a list of works cited at the end of the paper with an entry for each work that you cite in the paper.

Do not hesitate to consult with me about a draft before turning the paper in.

Grading Standards

In grading papers for this class, I will use the following criteria: