Attendance and participation

This course is a seminar, and a high level of responsibility for what happens in class devolves on all participants. You’ll be expected to attend every class having not just read the texts, but read them thoughtfully, so that you can participate fully in discussion. If you’re not prepared you rob not only yourself, but also your classmates, of valuable insights and contributions.

Don’t feel like you have to know all the answers in order to open your mouth: queries, half-formed ideas, etc., are welcome—we’re all in this together, to try to extract meaning. But you need to be an active intellectual participant not only in your own mind (something that is also, admittedly, critical), but also in our community.

Your participation grade will be assessed based on attendance (no more than two absences for the semester, and no egregious pattern of lateness); on evidence of preparation (if necessary, I will resort to quizzes to make sure people keep up with the reading); and on engagement with both the reading and also your classmates’ contributions.As I’ve tried to make clear above, please don’t feel like every time you speak, I’m going to be hovering over your comments with a red pencil, assigning a grade—I’m not! I do care about the quality of what you contribute, but one parameter of quality is quantity: class discussion is like photography—you have to take a lot of exposures to land the one or two perfect shots. No one gets it right on the first try.

Exploratory Essays

Three times during the semester—whenever you choose—you will be expected to write a short (roughly 1500 word) essay on the day’s text(s).These papers may be turned in prior to the class during which we discuss the texts, or within 48 hours after class; if you choose to wait until after class, however, you will be held to a higher standard (and you must be sure to include insights that did not originate in the course of class discussion).One of your papers must be on a film, and one on a novel. The third must be on a secondary essay assigned for class, or another such essay you suggest on your own.

These papers should not depend on (or require) secondary research,although if you find yourself wanting to do a small amount, it’s acceptable. Since you can’t hope to write anything comprehensive in such a short space, you should focus on one particular aspect of the reading (or film), and try to illuminate it for your reader(s). For example, you might write on the role a minor character plays in a narrative, or on a particular use of imagery, or the significance of a scene.Make sure to do some close textual analysis.If you choose to write on a critical or theoretical essay, you may spend a portion of your paper outlining/summarizing the author’s argument, and a portion discussing its implications for other texts we’re reading, or some of the questions it raises for you.

Term Essay

This paper, due in final form at the end of the semester, should be an articulate, intelligent, finely-honed analysis (6000 words, +/- 10%) of one or more of the works or issues we have studied in class—or, with my permission, of another relevant text/set of texts. No matter what your topic, you must meet with me to discuss your ideas, get approval of your topic, and talk about ways to begin researching.Your paper must incorporate scholarly secondary sources—a simple close reading, however perceptive, will not suffice.

In order to allow you to gain feedback on your work and revise it well—and in order to allow you all to learn from one another’s research and thinking—we’ll be spending the last two weeks of class workshopping drafts. You’ll be expected to provide a complete draft of your essay at the end of Thanksgiving Break.Your draft should be paginated, and include a bibliography.

approx. 45% of grade

Essay critiques

For each of your classmates’ seminar papers, you’ll be asked to provide a written critique of approximately a page, turned in by 10:00 a.m. of the day the essay will be workshopped in class.These critiques should not be blandly congratulatory, nor should they be needlessly critical. Think of what kinds of suggestions you might find helpful on your own writing, and try to provide them. What professorial comments have been particularly useful to you in the past? What do you think the writer is trying to say, and does s/he do so? What needs clarification, support, reorganization? Where might the writer take the essay, to make it better?