Essay 2 – Critical Approach: Genre Interpretation
Task
Gabriel Garcia Marquez once said, “The interpretation of our reality through patterns not our own, serves only to make us ever more unknown, ever less free, ever more solitary” (1982 Nobel Lecture), meaning that we limit our own freedom and experience of the world if we only rely on the worldview or interpretations of others. In this light, creating your own interpretations of texts increases the realm of possibility and enriches your own experience of reading and engaging texts. By the end of this semester, we will have discussed several critical approaches used in literary theory to further understand and interpret texts. With these discussions in mind (and referenced in the back section of the textbook), please write a formal essay in which you analyze and interpret one (or two maximum) work(s) through the lens of one of those critical approaches. You should anchor your essay with one of the various critical approaches used for studying literature by finding one or more critics writing in that genre (note that critical approaches can stand in contrast the one you choose to analyze, as a way of developing external, or oppositional, context). Be sure to focus your argument with a strong, clear thesis, and support your claim with ample evidence from the fiction. The best essays will follow the conventions of academic papers as given in the “Writing Tips” section of our Blackboard page. Outside research for this assignment is required, to help provide critical background for your own interpretation.
Critical Approaches/Theories:
Formalist approach (New Historicism)
Structuralist approach
Poststructuralism/Deconstruction Approach
Biographical Approach
Historicist Approach
Marxist Approach
Feminist or Gender Approach
Psychoanalytical Approach
Postcolonialism
Process
Be sure that you follow the standards of academic writing. Your paper will require a brief introduction, a concise and focused claim (or thesis statement), two to three main points you will address, solid reasoning, and textual evidence along with an explanation of its significance.

Because you are using a particular critical approach, your background information should explain the important components of that style of criticism –or– summarize the moves made by a critic who has used that critical approach to analyze a work of literature
After providing that background as the framework, you should then attempt your own interpretation of one of the readings we have discussed this semester.

Criteria
This is both a reading and a writing course, designed to sharpen your skills of textual analysis, argumentative writing, and critical thinking. To that end, your essays will be graded using the following criteria:
Presentation

Proofreading; style and readability; proper documentation (Modern Language Association Style)
A clear and specific title
Clear context for someone who hasn’t read the work
Effective introduction and conclusion
Proper format

Organization

Thesis
Topic and closing sentences
Relevant, focused, organized and developed paragraphs
Effective sentence and paragraph transitions
Clear and understandable overall organization

Evidence/support

Specific, accurate, convincing details
effective and relevant quotations

Analysis

Clear interpretation
Added insight into the literary work
Overall coherence of argument

A grade of A is difficult (but not impossible) to receive. A grade of B indicates that the submitted work is above average but not exemplary in quality. A grade of C suggests that the requirements of the assignment have been met but have not gone further than the average; the effort was adequate but not remarkable. A grade of D means that the writing is below-average because some of the assignment requirements have not been met; grammatical, mechanical, or punctuation errors are prevalent; or the writing is unclear and disorganized. A grade of F means that the essay doesn’t meet the assignment requirements, doesn’t answer the written assignment question, or includes an excessive number of errors.
Requirements

1250-1750 words (5-7 pages)
Double-spaced
Times New Roman 12-point font
All citations will be MLA parenthetical citation (incl. a “Works Cited” page)

Due
See course schedule
Purpose
Learn basic literary terms

Use the standard terms of plot development
Use the standard terms that describe figurative language
Identify varieties of point of view
Understand and apply a vocabulary of basic formal conventions

Recognize the conventions of genre

Recognize the development of traditional themes and their variations in numerous examples of one genre

Use interpretive methods

Engage in classroom exercises that illustrate different ways of reading and interpreting literature
Recognize the validity of different perspectives as representing human diversity and universal themes
Write analyses based on some or all of these perspectives

Writing Skills

Write a minimum of 3,500 words of graded text, including at least two formal essays (this is one)
Engage in all phases of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and reflecting
Use a clear focus that guides choice of evidence, language, and organization
Effectively apply organizational strategies to open and close texts and to move the reader between and within main ideas, paragraphs, and sentences
Use textual evidence
Appropriately use grammatical and mechanical conventions in the preparation of readable manuscripts

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