Analysis #1 Assignment

• DueFeb 6by11:59am
• Points25
• Submittinga file upload
• File Typesdoc and docx
• Availableuntil Mar 6 at 11:59pm

Winter 2022 ENGL 162 First Analysis

Purpose

To argue for a queer interpretation ofTwelfth Night, The Color Purpleor "Brokeback Mountain"

Task

• Write a focusedanalysisusing aqueer lens
  
• The analysis must be bothoriginalandinsightful
  
  • Provide your own original analysis of the work
• If you use outside sources, use them to build your points.Defend your position by responding to their ideas
  
  • Disagree and explain why
  • Agree and add more of your reasoned conclusions
  • Agree and disagree with outside sources and explain your position
  • Explain how the ideas in the sources inform your reading/interpretation of the play

• Use thetext as evidenceand examples
  • Focus on the elements of literature we've learned this quarter: character and characterization, narrator, setting, plot, theme, etc.
  • Use specific examples, scenes, etc.
  • Use concrete, descriptive language
  • Keep the evidence focused. Edit quotes to focus only on your point
• Make sure yourargument reflects the complexityof the issues the text deals with or suggests
  • Consider the context surrounding the literature (time period and culture, historical events, themes, topics, etc.)
  • Add complexity to your topic and points by not focusing on obvious claims or by giving easy solutions to complex ideas. Instead, consider the richness in the themes.
  • Read between the lines.
  • Include more than your perspective on the issue. Enter the academic conversation!
    
• Focus onHOW and WHYrather than merely on describing or summarizing. Consider the thesis statements that follow. While the first anticipates description or a (disconnected) list, the second takes a stand on the issue which is both richer and arguable:
  
  • There are many instances of discrimination and racism in Alice Walker'sThe Color Purple.
  • Though at first Celie is passive about her husband's sexual and emotional abuse, her sexual awakening with Shug helps her find self-value and grow to confront her abuser.
    

Thesis

Include a well-articulated statement that encapsulates your argument. Thesis must be:arguable and innovative.Help us see the text in a new way.

Length and Format

• About750 words (about 3 double-spaced pages), not including the Works Cited page
  
• Use MLA format: have a title (the same font as the rest of the paper), double-space your writing, 1” margins, 12-point standard font size, include a Works Cited page

Sources

You can use sources if you choose to, but they're not required. If you do, ensure that:

• The sources you choose are authoritative and credible. Sources that are edited by the public, for instance, are not authoritative. The best example is probably wikipedia.
• Sources are not student guide, such an schmoop or others. These sources are informational and don't necessarily make arguable claims about the works. You are supposed to engage with others' arguments.
• It is advisable to consult sources that present background on your text, author, time period, and other relevant background information you can use in the introduction or body of your essay.

Quoting

Whenwriting literary analyses, youhave to follow guidelines set by the Modern Language Association or MLA. According to the MLA, this is how we format:

Title of the Work

• Use italics with titles of long works, such as titles of novels, plays, short story collections, films:The Color Purple, Twelfth Night, Close Range: Wyoming StoriesorMoonlight
• Use quotation marks with shorter works or those contained in larger sources, such as short stories, a chapter in a book, etc: "Brokeback Mountain" (a short story inside a collection

Quoting or Paraphrasing

After quoting or paraphrasing material, type a parenthetical citation that includes:

• the time marker in hours, minutes, and seconds if referring to the movie or a recorded lecture.Ex: Orsino is overjoyed to see that Cesario is actually Viola(2:15:41).
• the author's last name and page number if referring to a printed source: reading. Ex: Celie opens her first letter to God by saying: "Dear God, I am have always been a good girl"(Walker 3).
  • If it's not a printed source, you can either type the paragraph number, as in(Walker para. 2)or type last name only:(Walker).

When quoting 1-3 lines of a text, do so within the paragraph:

• Poem: Ex: In her poem "Still I Rise," the speaker expresses her strength by saying, "Out of the huts of history’s shame / I rise" (Angelou XXXXXXXXXXThe numbers refer to the lines in the poem.
• Ex:In the short story "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," the narrator seems hopeful for Victor, "Victor waved his arms to let Thomas know that the deal was good. It was a fair trade, and that was all Victor had ever wanted from his whole life" (Alexie 75).

When quoting 4 or more lines, set up the quote from the rest of the paragraph and include the parenthetical citation:

• Ex:In her poem "Still I Rise," the speaker explores her feelings this way,

• Ex:At the end of "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," the narrator seems hopefulfor Victor,

Victor waved his arms to let Thomas know that the deal was good. It was a fair trade,

and that was all Victor had ever wanted from his whole life. So Victor drove his father’s pickup

toward home while Thomas went into his house, closed the door behind him, and heard a new

story come to him in the silence afterwards. (Alexie 75)

Due Date

By 11:59pm on Sunday, February 6

Structure

Introduction: 1 paragraph

• Introduce relevantbackgroundinformation (author, year of publication, protagonists, etc.)
• Give relevant information about your paper's topic.
• What the text is about--very briefsummary of plot and theme
  
• End with your thesis
• Underline the thesis.

Body

• Develop your analysis
• Make logical claims
• Prove your points with ample and appropriate evidence from the text, your sources if any is used, and your reasoned conclusions
• Don't include plot summary in the body
  

Conclusion: 1 paragraph

• • End your analysis by restating your thesis
  • Don't just mechanically repeat the points made in the essay
  • Reflect on the relevance of the topic. This is a good place to give your argument a larger context and answer the so what? question.

Criteria of Evaluation

• Essay includes a creative title that reflects your interpretation of the texts.
• Paper is formatted according to MLA guidelines.
• Writer doesn't quote quote from Wikipedia, standard dictionaries, purchased/prewritten essays, nor literature summary websites such as Shmoop, SparkNotes, Cliff’s Notes, About.com, Infoplease, GraderSaver, or generic study guides, etc.
• Avoid overusing the first and second persons point of view in order to maintain stronger objectivity.
  
• Use the present tense to refer to events that happen during the time frame of the work.
• Effective use of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics produce clear ideas and ease in reading
• Essay effectively presents a complex, innovative argument
• Writer incorporates outside sources effectively in their argument
• Writer uses the text to prove points
• Writer provides relevant and enough examples and analysis

Topic Suggestion--You don't have to select from this list unless you chose to. These are just suggestions

• The ways in which disguise is both a blessing and a curse for Cesario inTwelfth Night
  
• Orsino's hidden bisexuality inTwelfth Night
  
• Compare Cesario's selfless love to Sebastian's selfless inTwelfth Night0
  
• Argue for Antonio exhibiting the most selfless kind of love inTwelfth Night
  
• Gender role reversals inTwelfth Night
• How doesTwelfth Nightchallenge (or promote) heteronormativity? Analyze specific examples.
• The psychological relationship between the audience and the actors in Elizabethan times, especially when it comes to men playing women. Focus on one or two specific characters inTwelfth Night
  
• How the film version ofTwelfth Night,directed by Trevor Nunn, deals with queer elements in the play or adds a queer interpretation of the play to the film
• The way Shug influences Celie's survival inThe Color Purple
• How queerness gives gives Celie and/or Shug a voice not otherwise heard or freedom to be...
  
• How Sofia and Harpo defy gender expectations and the price they pay for it inThe Color Purple
• Internal vs. societal conflict in Ennis or Jack in "Brokeback Mountain"
  
• Internalized homophobia in "Brokeback Mountain"
• Parallels between Brokeback Mountain, the place, and Ennis and Jack's story
• Societal expectations of masculinity and sexual orientation in Brokeback Mountain
• Unearth queer subtext in any of the works we read
• Go back to page 114 in the queer theory handout and read the questions you find there. Any of those could lead you to a good topic for your paper

Resources

We will have a peer review session in class, but in addition, you can also have a zoom session with a tutor in the Writing and Reading Center (WRC) or send the WRC your essay online and get feedback that way. Schedule your appointment at the WRC by clicking this link:greenriver.mywconline.com.