9/12 Copy of Essay One handout: Unfolding a space for critique

essay one file for download

Eng 379: Feminist Theory, First Essay Assignment –

Unfolding a Space for Critique

Draft Due: WED, Sept 19th (9/19) [BRING 2 COPIES!!!! HARD COPIES!!]
Final Draft Due: WED, Sept 26th (9/26)
Length: Minimum 4 pages, maximum 5 pages
Percentage: 20%
Text(s): Literary, Antigone; Theoretical, choose from all theory texts so far

***If there is something in particular you would like to write about, please let me know – YOU SHOULD CONTACT ME FIRST IN OFFICE HOURS OR ON EMAIL

Assignment:

Option 1: Theoretical premise unfolding a literary event: First, choose a scene from Antigone that richly exemplifies in some way one of the contexts/themes/issues we have addressed in class. Some examples of appropriate foci include, “the Law/law”; “incest”; “the figure of Tiresias” (however, you are not limited to these examples). Then, select one theoretical text that we have spent time with – the Butler pieces are an obvious choice, but Freud and the Barry chapters would work here as well. You should read through the theory text several times in order to identify one fairly short passage to work from in performing your argument. You will then construct and argue for a strong claim about how the theoretical passage you’ve chosen helps unfold another layer of meaning to the Antigone passage. For a paper this length, you will have to be very selective!

Option 2: Literary event unfolding a theoretical premise: Same thing as above, only the other way around. Select a theoretical premise from a short passage we have worked with in one of the theory texts. Then, locate a scene form Antigone that enacts a performance or demonstration of this theoretical idea. For example, how does the scene between Creon and Haemon provided a living, spatialized demonstration of Butler’s notion of the “non-place” as “not sites of enunciation, but shifts in the topography from which a questionably audible claim emerges: the claim of the not-yet-subject and the nearly recognizable” (108). Note that in this instance you shouldn’t rely on Butler’s words to do the work for you; you have to use the literary event to define precisely what you glean from this quote.

Some things to consider

***You should spend quite a bit of time before you begin writing reading over and taking notes on two fairly short passages, one from Antigone and one from the theory text. In other words, you need to be incredibly attentive to the specific details of two short passages in order to formulate your claim and your essay.

***Think carefully about the structure of your paper (we have demonstrated how important embodied efforts are in creating different levels of meaning – mapping out a performance space in Antigone, for example – so use this to your advantage!) Draw, discuss, map, record a paragraph onto your I Pod and listen to it during a run….Make use of alternative spaces in performing your argument onto the page.

***Create a small drama comprised of two personas: Theory and Antigone Passage. What might they say to one another in this drama? What is each trying to convince the other of? Is there something the “audience” can see about Theory while it’s mouthing off on stage that Theory is blind to? This may be a place to enact your critique.

*** First, write out a detailed list of the characteristics of your audience (us!). This may seem silly at one level, but it is important that you create a declarative space for your audience. Writing is in one sense about power, and it is important that you empower yourself and your audience. Identifying whom you’re writing for and what they expect from you helps you overcome the “silence of expectation” (more on this in class during workshop)

*** Try writing the first essay draft without the introduction. In a paper of this length, you have to limit and constrain your prefatory comments. You should spend the majority of your words on making claims and backing those claims with demonstrations. Try this instead: pick two quotes (one from each text) that you will use to formulate your claim, and then write an opening draft paragraph that sets forth how the theoretical quote allows us to see another level of significance or meaning to your focus from the literary text.

For example, I might sketch out a map for a first paragraph that introduces the Freudian concept of repression from Barry’s chapter (I’ll want to incorporate close attention to definitions here), and then go on to argue that “repression involves the effacement of desires outside the law (have to define what I mean by law here too), and with these definitions in mind we can see how, in the scene between Creon and Tiresias, the chorus functions as space that speaks for the collective, unspoken (forgotten?) desires of the city.” The nice thing here is that this creates almost an intuitive logic for what comes next:

*I need to show “how”: How exactly does the chorus articulate repressed desires? What words, images, exchanges, spaces etc reveal as much?

*Then, the “what”: If the chorus functions as space for repressed collective desire, what in the world is it saying about what these desires are?

*If I wanted to show off a bit, I might pick up on the word “effacement” and actually use this figure in my claim – effacement is a term that allows me to point to the absence of certain desires, but it also has this wonderful spatial/affective texture (how many literal faces turn away from one another in Antigone?).
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General Guidelines/Requirements:

1) Meeting with me in office hours is a great way to get help with your papers.
2) Make sure I am not the first person to read your essay.
3) You must have a strong claim that organizes and guides the essay (like the boy leading Tiresisas!) Avoid summary description.
4) All of your arguments must be supported with the text (words, images, spaces, gestures…). Avoid openings like “Since the beginning of time…” or “Incest is something we all fear….”
5) Define your terms; think of the text as your friend and your foe.