For your first essay, you will develop an analysis of one of the texts we’ve read during the first four and a half weeks of the semester. To build toward the final version of a fully elaborated analytical essay, you will go through several steps in composing your essay, beginning with a few close readings of different passages to test out different ideas, eventually developing those readings into an organized argument, and finally revising that argument into a nuanced and developed piece of analytic writing. I’m hoping this essay will allow you to explore textual ambiguities we’ve read that you may have glossed over while reading these texts the first time. I’m also hoping you will gain an appreciation for the authors’ meticulous attention to detail across literary genres. Good luck!
While you will use the three close reading pre-writes to experiment with analyzing different texts, you will be eventually required to settle on one focal text from any one from the following:
Ovid’s “Story of Tiresias” OR “Story of Iphis and Ianthe”
Diodorus Sicilus’s Library of History IV.6.5 OR XXXII.10–12
Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene III.vii.1–36
Algernon Charles Swinburne’s “Hermaphroditus” OR “Fragoletta”
Michael Field’s poem LII from Long Ago
Honoré de Balzac’s “Sarrasine” OR “The Girl with the Golden Eyes”
Pedro Lemebel’s “Her Throaty Laugh” OR “Wild Desire” OR “The Million Names of María Chameleon”
As we’ve discussed, the particulars of language are crucial for our interpretations of literary texts. Presuming that the authors of the texts we’re reading had very precise reasons for the inclusion of every phrase and detail in their texts, your assignment for this essay will be the following: analyze a brief passage (or, for the poems and shorter texts, an aspect of the text) of your choosing from any of the above texts that left you feeling perplexed, frustrated, or even bored. You may have glossed over this moment, or may have sighed, or may have felt that it was unimportant—or you may have even skipped it. You may have asked yourself, upon reading, “Why am I reading this? What does this moment add to my experience of this text?” Your task will be precisely to venture an answer to that question.
Make a case for the importance of this passage to your fellow readers, rendering it more compelling and interesting than they likely found it the first time around. Using the strategies of close reading and analysis we’ve experimented with in class, attend to the many nuances of the passage, which may include its mode of narration, its syntax, its use of literary devices and irony, visual elements, and its depiction of the passage of time with respect to more obviously plot-driven elements of the text. We’ve begun to discuss the question of gender variance and its relation what constitutes a human subject, a topic that we will continue to explore throughout this course. This may be a helpful point of entry for selecting and analyzing your passage: What are the strategies for representing gender variance or transness, why would the author of this text even represent it, and why would they do so in the precise way that they do?
Keep in mind that you will are free to cite parts of the text other than the primary one you have selected to drive home your points about the passage’s importance. Ultimately, though, the passage or aspect in question should be at the center of your essay’s focus.
In P1 for this essay, you will try out a short draft (~750 words) dealing with a brief passage of your choosing (or couple of aspects) from Ovid’s “Story of Tiresias” OR Ovid’s “Story of Iphis and Ianthe” OR Diodorus Sicilus’s Library of History IV.6.5 OR Diodorus’s Library of History XXXII.10–12 OR Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene III.vii.1–36. You might think of this short draft as a response, a close reading, an analysis, or an interpretation that communicates to your reader something specific that you find interesting in the piece of text you have chosen. You should work closely with the passage you select, quoting relevant phrases and pointing to specific formal features—and at this point your text need not deal with the text as a whole. (Think in terms of body paragraphs rather than a mini-essay, or as working with a piece of evidence.) Try to approach this piece of writing as a way to try out an idea or a series of possible interpretations, which you might expand into a full draft or change entirely.
(Due: Tuesday, 5 September)
In P2 for this essay, you will try out another short draft (~750) dealing with a different passage or moment from Algernon Charles Swinburne’s “Hermaphroditus” OR Swinburne’s “Fragoletta” OR Michael Field’s poem LII from Long Ago OR Honoré de Balzac’s “Sarrasine.” If you are committed to selecting one of the texts you worked with for P1 for the focal text of your final essay, let me know.
(Due: Tuesday, 12 September)
In P3, you will try out a third and final short draft (~750) dealing with a passage from Balzac’s “The Girl with the Golden Eyes” OR Pedro Lemebel’s “Her Throaty Laugh (Or, The Travesti Streetwalker’s Sweet Deceit)” OR Lemebel’s “Wild Desire” (“Loco afán”) OR Lemebel’s “The Million Names of María Chameleon.” Again, if you are committed to selecting one of the texts you worked with for P1 or P2 as the focal text for your full essay, let me know.
(Due: Tuesday, 19 September)
You will then build off of your close reading work in P1, P2, OR P3 to develop a sustained analytic argument about the passage you have selected (~1800 words). The ideas of your argument should flow logically, should derive from analysis that engages with specific details of the passage, and should contribute to a thesis that you articulate clearly and develop throughout the essay. You are free to cite parts of the focal text you have chosen other than the primary one you have selected to drive home your points about the passage’s importance. Ultimately, though, the passage/moment in question should be at the center of your essay’s focus. I expect you to treat this essay with the same level of thought and engagement that you would bring to a final version.
(Due: Tuesday, 26 September)
You will have a full two weeks to revise your analytic essay. During this time, you will work both with your peers in class and in conferences with me. You will be expected to revisit/reread the text you have chosen, to fine-tune your ideas, and to refine your prose. Importantly, your revisions will involve more than superficial fixes or line edits—it is likely that you will wind up restructuring your entire essay, rewriting whole sections, or elaborating on one point. While the prospect of this kind of editing may be daunting or difficult, it is a crucial part of the writing process and also a chance to experiment with new ways of expressing your ideas. Your final essay will be a polished piece of about 1800 words.
(Due: Tuesday, 10 October)
DUE DATES:
P1 – Tuesday, 5 September
P2 – Tuesday, 12 September
P3 – Tuesday, 19 September
Analytic Essay Draft – Tuesday, 26 September (note: we have peer review on Thursday, 28 September, so the maximum extension granted will be 36 hours)
Analytic Essay – Tuesday, 10 October