Welcome to the Summer 2020 edition of Composition 2!
Throughout this course, we’ll work toward understanding and applying a select variety of literary theories—all built on one foundational concept of critical analysis: theories do not reside in the text; they reside outside the text as a set or various lenses through which a reader can construct a broader or deeper understand of a text’s meaning.
Directly after this paragraph, you will find a new link posted each week by 10 AM on Tuesday, leading to one or more short YouTube videos in which I discuss critical theories that will specifically help you complete this course and generally help you improve your abilities as an interpretive reader.
Week Eight:
Use this week to continue writing and/or revising the draft of your fourth and final paper. Make Sure you follow (or have followed) the instructions:
1) State your thesis (your argument).
2) Conduct a literary analysis of two artistic works, using a different theory for each work.
3) Explain how each analysis supports your thesis.
4) Format the paper in MLA Style (which includes an entry on the Works Cited page for both artistic works).
5) Email me your paper (which should reach four pages of content) BEFORE Saturday, August 8.
Thank you!
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Week Seven Videos:
Week Six Videos:
In short: You’ll write a thesis. Then you’ll use two theories to analyze two artistic works. For example, you might use Transactional Reader Response Theory to analyze a pop song, and you might use New Historicism to analyze a feature film. Then you’ll explain how both instances of analysis reveal evidence that supports your thesis.
Laughing aside, please understand that the rough draft has no associated point value, as specified on the syllabus. I ask for them only so I can better help you. If I have an opportunity to see your rough draft two weeks before the final deadline, I have an opportunity to help you possibly improve your grade—sometimes by one or two letters.
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Sample Composition 2 Finale:
To Get Me—or To Get Me Not: A Closer Look at the Paradox of Desire
A confluence of artistic factors often creates a more complex meaning than any one individual element of a literary text might suggest. The music video for Dinosaur Jr.’s song “Get Me,” from their 1993 album Where You Been, demonstrates this idea. The lyrical elements of the video, delivered with a type of deadpan despair, focuses on internal conflict and estrangement. The concurrent visual elements of the video, however, revolve around symbols of vision, communication, and knowledge. Through this pairing of visual and lyrical texts, Dinosaur Jr.’s “Get Me” works as an artistic whole to communicate a timeless paradox: people can willfully push away what they actually want most truly.
Mascis mournfully sings, “You’re not going to get me through this, are you?” This repeated lyric seems to assume the form of both a rhetorical question and a self-fulfilling prophecy. As with any rhetorical question, the asker has already formed an understanding of the answer—and the video’s visual elements suggest that the central character actively creates the reality upon which he predicates the projected answer to his own question. In the first verse/last verse, Mascis rather explicitly acknowledges this paradoxical matter of circular causation when he sings, “Is it me, or is it all you?”
The critic can better understand the text’s core paradox through a consideration of the peculiar way that the central character experiences an atypical formation of a panoptical system. In the 1700s, philosopher and architect Jeremy Bentham articulated the meaningful connections between visions, knowledge, and power—especially concerning how the assurance of surveillance gives the surveyor a power inside the surveyed subjects’ minds. Mascis’ text, however, twice subverts the expected direction and spatial orientation of Bentham’s original understanding of panoptical power: the character subjected to surveillance appears in a central location, surrounded by observation points, rather than on the edge of a centralized source of vision and power, and then the would-be subject of surveillance resists and reclaims a certain measure of panoptical power by hiding from view, turning the observed into the observer, and avoiding whatever direction his observers might wish to apply. While in the house, surrounded by fields of vision, the central character—in two senses of the phrase—hides from sight and communication. He even takes the phone off the hook and smashes the television. To resist the influence of the unconventional panopticon in which the central character finds himself, he leverages his own power by obstructing his surveyor’s view, a view he desperately wants—but a view he seems to suspect will ultimately not “get him through this.” The central character appears to recognize the futility when facing and fighting the deepest causal foundation for his sadness.
Analyzing the Lacanian reality of the above situation further supports an understanding of the video as a concerted expression of paradox by allowing the reader a possible rationale behind the central character’s self-defeating behaviors. Lacan’s theories of psychoanalysis suggest that people first experience life without understanding their existence as discrete individuals—or as lone beings unattached in mind and matter to any living entity. When infants realize the truth of their isolation, Lacan theorizes that they will experience a psychological wound that they will then spend the rest of their lives trying to heal—an exercise that Lacan argues will always fall short of full satisfaction. Rather than pursuing a way to compensate for this lingering sense of sadness, the central character in the video seems to recognize the futility of such efforts and accordingly behaves in a way that embraces the inevitability of Lacan’s prognosis: whatever we think will fill the void created by the revelation of singularity will ultimately fall short of assuaging this sadness. So the central character pushes away what he wants most. Disgusted and infuriated with the inevitability of never truly bridging the void around his singularity, he resists even trying to reach for his ultimate aim.
A consideration of the music video’s gender dynamics further supports the presence of the central paradox in “Get Me.” The concept of Gender Performance argues that people learn to act their genders through a pervasive and persistent network of socializing forces—and if they don’t comply with performing the gender associated with their biological sex, they may experience any number of sociological or psychological difficulties. In “Get Me,” the central figures occupies a traditional feminine situation and within the video’s short narrative. He appears in need of emotional or even physical rescue—perhaps in terms of an implied addiction. And he is cloistered, alone, in a house that feels gently evocative of Snow White’s glass coffin or Rapunzel’s tower in the forest. Accepting the woman’s rescue—being got—would then only extend and clarify this analogy, and thus cognitively pull on the male character’s sense of gender performance: he should not need rescued, she should need rescued, and he should rescue her. This potential could cause any male character, deeply subscribed to his gender identity, to actively resist excepting the help he most earnestly wants and even outwardly solicits.
The lyrics also imply a shade of indifference, sexual or otherwise, rarely associated with feminine behavior and masculine experience. Mascis sings, “Anytime I’m there to show you / But if it takes too long I know you / Out the door just leavin’ me screwed.” These lines suggest that the central character has deeply invested his emotions in this relationship, while his other half has maintained a more detached and opportunistic emotional state—a condition not traditionally attributed to feminine gender performance and, conversely, often expected from masculine gender performance. Occupying this non-conventional emotional space places the central character in vulnerable territory. He can, however, restore a more expected masculine dynamic and more comfortably perform his gender if he reacts to this imbalance of emotional investment by retracting even further than the women in an a reactionary attempt to underbid her level of attachment—and to do this, he needs to push away the attachment he actually wants. He needs to care less then her. He needs to push her away. Then he will feel comfortable with his gender performance.
Perhaps some measure of a more essential paradox resides in all art, an inevitable condition caught in the mental space of inspired representations—representations that provoke a feeling of a sensory experiences without being that experience. The art is and it is not what the consumer associates with the experience it provokes. Dinosaur Jr’s “Get Me,” however, proposes a less sweeping and a more specific paradox, a concept less concerned with the link between substance and experience and more interested in the peculiarities of human behavior. When viewed through the focusing framework of three different theoretical lenses, the text’s visual and lyrical elements suggest and support the idea that the lyric’s first-person protagonist and the video’s central character, one-in-the-same, actively resist what they want most—rescue.
Week Five Video:
Week Four Videos:
Week Three Videos:
Remember to include a Works Cited page, after your 1-page analysis, documenting the content under consideration—per the MLA requirement on the Rubric. If you didn’t include such a page last week, please don’t worry. It’s okay. I’ll excuse this omission on the first paper. Just make sure you have on this week. Thank you!
Helpful Tip: Again, I’ve found that the simplest and clearest way to complete these 1-page analysis papers involves writing three short paragraphs, each with just two or three sentences—the first paragraph explains your understanding of the assigned theory, the second paragraph briefly outlines the art you’ll analyze, and the third paragraph offers your analysis of that art (explained in paragraph two) using the assigned theory (explained in paragraph one).
Week Two Videos:
Helpful Tip: I’ve found that the simplest and clearest way to complete these 1-page analysis papers involves writing three short paragraphs, each with just two or three sentences—the first paragraph explains your understanding of the assigned theory, the second paragraph briefly outlines the art you’ll analyze, and the third paragraph offers your analysis of that art (explained in paragraph two) using the assigned theory (explained in paragraph one).
Week One Videos:
On this page you will also find the simple syllabus and schedule that this course will follow over the next eight weeks.
To successfully complete this course, each writer must complete three 1-page papers and one 3-page final. Each of the three 1-page papers, graded according the 20-point rubric at the bottom of this page, should demonstrate your understanding and application of the corresponding week’s theory. The 3-page final paper will require you to develop a thesis statement and then use two of the three theories to find meaning in a text that supports that thesis.
Here’s our schedule, with each of the four papers completed and sent to allenrob@easternflorida.edu before the end of Friday on the week listed:
Week One: Introduction to the Concept of Critical Theory
Week Two: Transactional Reader Response Theory, 1-page Paper #1
Week Three: New Historical Theory, 1-page Paper #2
Week Four: Panoptical Theory, 1-page Paper #3
Week Five: Thesis Development Discussion
Week Six: Rough Draft for Final Paper
Week Seven: Write & Revise!
Week Eight: Final Paper, Paper #4
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I will use the following rubric to grade all four papers, with point values simply doubled for the final:
Does the paper address the assigned objective (correctly explain the theory and demonstrate its use)?
No (0 points) – – In some ways (2 point) – – Yes (4 points)
Does the paper include fewer than five major mechanical errors? Major mechanical errors include sentence fragments, comma splices, subject/verb disagreements, and antecedent/pronoun disagreements.
No (0 points) – – Yes (4 points)
Is the paper free of unclear and/or ambiguous language? Ambiguous language includes misplace modifiers, unidentifiable pronouns, and inconsistent tense or perspective.
No (0 points) – – In all but one or two sections (2 points) – – Yes (4 point)
Does the paper employ a discernible and systematic structure?
No (0 points) – – Yes—but an ineffective one (2 points) – – Yes (4 point)
Does the paper follow the assigned formatting (MLA Style)?
No (0 points) – – In some ways (2 point) – – Yes (4 points)
Was a digital copy sent to allenrob@easternflorida.edu before the designated deadline?
No (0 points) – – Yes (4 point)
Additional College-wide Information (required in every course syllabus)
Religious Observations:
When the observance of a student’s religious holiday(s) interferes with attendance in class, class work assignments, examinations, or class activities, the student must notify the instructor in writing within the first week of class. Students are held responsible for material covered during their absence. The instructor should provide alternative arrangements for students to complete the work for the missed session. Students excused for religious observances will be expected to meet the class requirements for those days without undue delay. Students who believe they have been unreasonably denied educational benefits due to their religious beliefs or practices may seek redress through the student appeal procedure. [FS 1001.64, 1002.21, 1006.53] Nationally recognized religious holidays shall be acknowledged plus any significant day of religious observance as recognized by the highest governing body of that particular religious faith. Students may be required to provide information or proof the religious holiday if such holiday is not generally known.
Academic Dishonesty:
EFSC Policy: Any form of academic dishonesty is subject to the disciplinary actions set forth in the Student Code of Conduct. Cheating, plagiarism and any other misrepresentation of work are prohibited. Students who are found to be in violation of this standard may receive severe sanctions, including a failing grade in their respective course and depending on the circumstances, possible expulsion from Eastern Florida State College.
In general terms, plagiarism is the adoption or incorporation of another’s ideas without proper attribution of the source. It is more simply defined as taking the writings of another person or people and representing them to be one’s own. Please note that access to or obtaining information/copying assignments provided from sources like CHEGG, Course Hero, Accounting Tutor, or any other online applications that purport to offer the answers to exercises or instructor materials for courses, may be considered CHEATING, and any instances that can be substantiated will be treated as such.
To avoid plagiarism, you should always credit the sources used when writing as essay, research paper, or other assignment in accordance with the appropriate style manual or format required in your course. Confirm with your instructor the appropriate format to use.
Types of actions defined as plagiarism include but may not be limited to:
- Cutting and pasting to create a written document from a single or various sources.
- Citing a source with false or inaccurate information. (Bibliographical or URL).
- Quoting less than all the words copied or paraphrasing a source without proper citation or notation the document has been altered.
- Submitting papers, assignments, exams, or forums that were completed by someone other than yourself.
- Working in a group or otherwise colluding with other students to prepare and submit work without prior acknowledgment and approval from the instructor.
- Receiving or giving outside help without prior written faculty consent, this includes assistance from tutors, websites, or other online resources.
- Sharing assignments, exams, or discussions with other students.
- Selling or purchasing (or copying) papers, assignments, or exams from any website that buys or sells them and submitting them as your work in whole or in part.
- Using a quotation without proper quotation marks and citation.
- Preparing a draft for final paper for another student.
- Submitting a paper, assignment, quiz or exam that you submitted in a previous and/or concurrent class without requesting and receiving in writing prior permission from your instructor(s). This could also apply to “revising” papers, assignments, quizzes or exams that were previously submitted in any course.
- Copying a non-text material such as: image, audio, video, spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation, etc., without proper citation and reference.
- Altering any information on forms, electronic attachments or emails after the original has been submitted.
- Presenting statistics, facts, or ideas that are not your own, or is not common factual knowledge either by the general population, or commonly known within the particular discipline, without citation, even if you view them as common knowledge in your own educational background.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding plagiarism, ask your instructor or Associate Provost for assistance before a plagiarism problem arises. For more information about plagiarism and proper citations please visit the campus learning lab and/or writing center.
Sexual Misconduct:
Eastern Florida State College is committed to providing a safe and productive learning environment. Title IX and our school policy prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. Sexual Misconduct—in any form, including sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking—is prohibited at EFSC. Our school encourages anyone experiencing Sexual Misconduct to talk to someone about what happened, so they can get the support they need and our school can respond appropriately. For more information about your options, please visit easternflorida.edu/our-campuses/campus-security/titleix-sexual-misconduct. Our school is legally obligated to investigate reports of Sexual Misconduct, and therefore it cannot guarantee the confidentiality of a report, but it will consider a request for confidentiality and respect it to the extent possible. As an instructor, I am also required by our school to report incidents of Sexual Misconduct and thus cannot guarantee confidentiality. I must provide other EFSC officials with any relevant information reported to me.
Sail:
Faculty at EFSC are innovative and may utilize additional resources and technology (including recording devices) above and beyond the required course materials to enhance the instructional experience. EFSC strives to provide equitable access at the same academic and instructional level for all students and is committed to ensuring access for students with documented disabilities. A person with a disability may qualify for reasonable accommodations. SAIL (Student Access for Improved Learning) ensures that reasonable accommodations are provided for students with documented disabilities that significantly impact major life functions While personal services and personal aides cannot be provided, reasonable accommodations will be arranged to assist a student with a disability based on documentation provided by the student. For more information about accommodations and the resources available to students with disabilities, students are encouraged to go to the website or visit a SAIL office on any campus
Related Links:
Thoughts, Revised & Refined 