gender criticism

Your goal is to create an essay that spans between 2,000 and 2,250 words and establishes a critique of one body of work in response to at least ONE theoretical lens. To achieve this goal, select from the following options to create a focus for your writing project:

REQUIRED PRIMARY TEXT FOR RESEARCH PROJECT (select ONE)

•Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
•Quiara Alégria Hudes’s Water by the Spoonful
•Brian Turner’s Here, Bullet [you’ll need access to the full collection]
•Mai Der Vang’s Afterland [you’ll need access to the full collection]

REQUIRED SECONDARY TEXTS FOR WP3 (5 total secondary sources)

All secondary sources should be taken from the RCC Databases/Library Catalog OR another University/College Library OR Google Scholar. (Note: regular Google searches will not necessarily result in scholarly sources)

1 scholarly journal and/or chapter from an academic book that directly connects to your text
1 scholarly journal and/or chapter from an academic book that directly connects to your theoretical lens
3 credible sources that directly connect to your essay ideas

CHOOSE ONE THEORETICAL FOCUS:

1) New Historical & Cultural Criticism: What does [text] suggest about the experience of groups of people who have been ignored, under-represented, or misrepresented by traditional history (for example, laborers, prisoners, women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ folx, etc.)?

OR

2) Postcolonial Criticism: How does [text] explicitly or symbolically examine colonial oppression and/or anti-colonialist resistance?

OR

3) Gender/Queer Criticism: How does [text] critique heteronormative values and/or celebrate notions of queer values?

You should identify a theoretical question that helps you to develop an interpretation about ONE text we’ve read for this semester. You should include analysis of the texts to help explain and show how this theoretical lens is working deeply in the text. As you identify your primary claim, you should be able to distinguish this apart from the topic or subject of the the texts and from the plot of what happens in the story. Once you’ve identified your theoretical perspective and you’ve created your statement (thesis for this essay), you should then plan to 1) analyze how the theoretical lens works across across your text, 2) include significant lines and quotes from the texts to help support your analysis, 3) use at least 4 different literary elements to support your analysis, and 4) uses at least five secondary sources to also support your ideas in the texts.

Thesis

Put together a statement that best states how your text answers the questions driven by your theoretical lens:
Example: Brian Turner’s Here, Bullet is about masculinity and violence.
Issues? – Too vague, too broad, and doesn’t really make an argument for why masculinity is a dominant social norm and how Turner is addressing it. What does Turner’s work think about it?
Issues? – An observation about the topic/subject rather than establishing a theoretical perspective.
The thesis should include some reasoning (the So What?, How So?)

Organization

Introduction paragraphs should include a lead-in to the thesis, discussion of concepts, introduction of significant texts
Body Paragraphs need to incorporate:
Controlling Ideas (topic sentences/supporting arguments)
Evidence
Explanation & Analysis
Conclusion paragraphs should include a synthesis of what was said in the essay – not just a 2-sentence summary, but rather, a broader implication for why the argument you’re making can have lasting effects on a broader scope of inquiry.
Audience & Style

Write so that someone in our class could understand it
Write in your natural voice, but also consider who you want to most address with this essay.
Assume your audience has not read our class texts
Write in 3rd person (1st person only when appropriate)
Avoid using “you,” “yourself,” or “your” in your response to develop stronger clarity with your writing.
Avoid major grammatical and mechanical errors including but not limited to: fragments, run-ons, capitalization errors, misspelled words and awkward phrasing.

Final Project Should:

Land between 2,000 and 2,250 words (not including the Works Cited page)
Include direct and indirect citations from your primary text (depending on which you chose)
Include direct and indirect citations from your five secondary texts
Include all primary (1) and secondary sources (5) on a Works Cited page at the end of the project
Include a creative title that relates to YOUR project specifically
Include MLA formatting and Headers (for a review, take a look at MLA Format Basics III)
Include a short WRC report at the end of the writing project

This is the work of critiquing a piece of literature: we want to see how it is working in a specific context and what it might be trying to tell us.