You will write a total of four approximately 500-600 word formal analyses of assigned critical readings. You choose which texts you want to write on, but each essay should only focus on one or two readings. I encourage you to write an essay on the text you do your presentation on. Essays should include approximately 250 words that clearly summarize the main argument of the text(s) you choose in your own words (i.e. without quoting the text beyond precise terminology and without simply repeating materials from lecture). The remainder of the essay should analyze the text(s) in a productive manner. Options include: close reading a particular section of the text to unpack its meaning beyond your summary; relating the text to another theoretical text we’ve read; explaining how the reading helps you to answer a question you have about literary studies or how it contradicts or complicates how you traditionally read literature; analyzing a section of The Great Gatsby, or another literary or cultural text, through the lens of the theory. These are formal writing assignments and are evaluated for form and content.

I can send the readings in the pictures below from whichever text you’d find easiest. The main reading you should pick to analyze on using readings from week 6 which is the last picture.