In the final paper, your job is to pretend that you’re a literary scholar, writing an essay that you plan to submit to an academic journal.
In this essay, you will use one (or more) of the three lenses we have learned this semester (i.e. the aspirational class/ leisure class, Freud’s model of the mind [see pages 60-64 of the hyperlined chapter for information on Freud’s model of the mind], and/or critical sleep studies) to interpret one (or more) of the following three literary texts: (1) Chapter 1 of My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2017) by Otessa Moshfegh, (2) "Sleeping" (2002) by Katharine Weber, and/or (3) "The City That Didn’t Sleep" (2019) by Alice Franklin.
See the attached file for a rough, unfinished example of what this essay should look like at the end of this assignment.
To complete this assignment, pleas follow the following six steps:
Step 1: Choose the text(s) that you want to write about and the lens(es) that you want to use to interpret them. The first step in completeing this assignment is to choose the text(s) and lens(es) that you want to write about. Ideally, the text(s) and lens(es) that you choose will be a reflection of what you personally found the most interesting (or the least uninteresting) this semester. So if you found the text "Sleeping" by Katharine Weber interesting and if you found Freud’s model of the mind interesting, then you could choose that text and that lens, and you could present a psychoanalytic interpretation of "Sleeping" in your essay.
With that said, you also want to make sure that the lens and text that you choose will give you something to write about. It can be hard to develop interepretations about some texts using some lenses. Therefore, start by choosing the text and the lens that you found the most interesting, and then ask yourself: Will it be somewhat easy to develop an interpretation of this text using this lens? If some ideas are coming to mind about what your interpretation of the text will be, then you’ve probably got a good idea. If you start drawing a real blank, then you might want to consider choosing another lens and/or another text.
Once you’ve chosen the text(s) you will be interpreting and the lens(es) you will be using to interpet them, then you’re ready for Step 2…
Step 2: Start to plan your essay by developing your interpretation of the text(s) you’ve chosen using the lens(es) you’ve chosen. Now that you’ve chosen the text(s) you will be interpreting and the lens(es) you will be using to interpret them, it’s time to develop your interpretation(s).
To do this, you should use our old friend IODDENO. So (a) identify the obvious meaning of the text, (b) dig deeper by using RIM–i.e. read the text with the ideas from your lens in mind–and (c) explain the not obvious meaning of the text.
Some reminders about the second step of IODDENO:
- If you chose Currid-Halkett’s work on the aspirational class as a lens, then you want to read your chosen text(s) with these ideas in mind: the aspirational class, the leisure class, and conspicuous consumption. (And remember that both the aspirational class and the leisure class engage in conspicuous consumption. They just do it for different reasons. The leisure class does it to show off their wealth, while the aspirational class does it to show off their knowledge and their aspirations.)
- If you chose Freud’s model of the mind, then you want to read your chosen text(s) with these ideas in mind: the id, the ego, the super-ego, the ego-ideal, and (maybe) the external world.
- If you chose critical sleep studies, then you want to read your chosen texts with these ideas in mind: politics/ culture/ power, dominant representations, and sleep-negative/ sleep-positive/ critical-reflexive agendas.
Some reminders about third step of IODDENO:
- When you’re explaining the not-obvious meaning of the text, you want to use one of the two following arguments:
- The lens reveals something about the meaning of the text.
- The text reveals something about the lens.
*Note: It’s especially important that you complete the second and third steps of IODDENO because you will need to quote from the text in your essay and because you will need to present your interpretation of your text. The second step of IODDENO will give you some stuff you quote, and the third step of IODDENO will help you to develop the main point of your essay.
Now that you’ve developed your interpretation of the text, it’s time to plan the rest of the essay.
Step 3: Continue to plan your essay by considering how literary scholars write essays. The interpretation you developed in Step 2 is going to be the heart of the essay you’re going to write, but there are some other important things to plan in your essay. So in this step, we’re going to consider one of the main formulas that literary scholars use to write essays, which I call ILIC.
The essays that literary scholars write can follow a bunch of different formulas, but one of the main formulas is something that I call ILIC. ILIC stands for introduction, lens, interpretation, and conclusion. In other words, these essays contain an introduction (which contains the thesis statement or a short summary of your interepretation), an explanation of the lens that the literary scholar is using, a longer discussion of your interpretation of the text using your lens (in which you’ll present evidence from the text/ lens in order to support your argument, and a conlcusion in which you’ll summarize the main points of the essay and (perhaps) refer back to introduction in order to give a sense of completeness.
In the essay you’re going to write, you are going to have four sections which correspond to the four sections of ILIC. Therefore, in this step, you’re going to make some rough plans about what you’re going to say in each of these sections. To do this, let’s explore each of these sections in greater depth:
The Introduction Section: In this section, literary scholars attempt to answer the questions, "Why am I writing this essay?" and "What am I going to say in it?" You are writing this essay because you’re being asked to for the completion of the course, but remember that you are pretending that you’re a literary scholar as you are writing this essay. Therefore, you should not say, "I’m writing this essay because Connor wants me to." Rather, you should pretend that you are writing this essay for one of the reasons that literary scholars write essays. So why do literary scholars write essays? They write them for a bunch of reasons, actually. But I would like you to pretend that you are writing this essay because you want to help other literary scholars to better understand the text you’re writing about.
The simplest formula for writing this kind of introduction would be to introduce the text you’ll be interpreting (who wrote it, where it was first published, the main themes of the text, etc.), to discuss the obvious meaning of the text, and to briefly summarize the lens you’ll be using to interpret the text and your interpretation of it. To plan the introduction, therefore, you should do some work answering the following questions:
- What text will you be interpreting? (In other words, who wrote the text? Is there anything interesting or noteworthy about that author? Where was the text first published? In what country? In what culture? In what year? Is the text important in some way? If so, why? How was it received by readers/ critics? Is there anything else noteworthy about the text? *Note: To answer these questions, you might want to do a few Google searches.)
- What’s the obvious meaning of the text? (You might want to give a brief summary of the text. What happens in it? What are the main themes it addresses? What is main "point" of the piece?)
- What lens will you be using and why did you choose it? (*Note: You’ll be discussing your lens at greater length in the next section of the essay. So in this section, simply be prepared to mention your lens.)
- What is your thesis about the text? (In other words, what it a brief, two- or three-sentence summary of your interpretation of the text?)
The Lens Section: In this section of the essay, literary scholars expand upon the lens they are using and define the main ideas they are using. This is important because scholars will sometimes use the same term but define them different ways. For example, what one scholar means when they say "the super-ego" can be somewhat different from what another scholars means when they say "the super-ego." So in this section you are going to briefly discuss your lens and you will define the main ideas that you will be using in your interpretation. To plan for this section, therefore, you should answer the following two questions:
- What lens will you be using? (In other words, where did the lens come from? Who developed the lens? How will the lens useful for interpreting the text?)
- How will I define the main ideas that I’ll be using? (*Note: It would probably be a good idea to quote from the work of Currid-Halkett, Anthony Storr/ Freud, and/or Paul Huebener to define your main ideas, so you probably want to pull some quotes from those chapters/ articles.)
The Interpretation Section: In this section of the essay, you are going to present your interpretation of the text. If you completed Step 2, then you already know how you will be interpreting your text, and your job here is simply to present that interpretation. However, you need to provide evidence from the text in order to support your interptetation. So if you haven’t already, it would be a smart idea to make sure that you know what parts of the text you will quote in order to provide this evidence.
The Conclusion Section: In this section, you will conclude your essay. Your job is simply to summarize the main points you have made throughout the previous section. Likewise, a useful strategy can be to refer back to introduction somehow. So to plan your concluding section, you might want to ask yourself the following questions:
- What are the main points I am going to summarize in my conclusion?
- How am I going to refer back to the introduction in order to help give my essay a sense of completeness?
Now that you have planned your essay. It’s time to write it! Move on to Step 4…
Step 4: Writing the Essay. Your job in Step 4 is to write the essay. If you completed Step 3, then you’ve got a good plan, so let’s put that plan into action! You essay is going follow ILIC, so it’s going to have four subections: an introduction section, a lens section, an interpretation section, and a conlcuding section.
In the essay, you will give each of these sections a title. The introduction and conclusion can simply be titled "Introduction" and "Conclusion." But your lens and interpretation sections should not be called "lens" an "interpretation." Rather, the lens section should be named after the lens you are using (e.g. "The Aspirational Class," "Freud’s Model of the Mind," "Critical Sleep Studies"). Likewise, the interpetation section should be a reflection of your interpretation. So if you’re doing a psychoanalytic interpetation of Chapter 1 of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, for example, you might title this section, "The Id and the Super-Ego in Chapter 1 of My Year of Rest and Relaxation").
Now that you have titles for each of your sections, it’s time to write each of the sections:
Introduction: In this section, please introduce the text you’ll be interpreting, discuss the obvious meaning of the text, and then briefly summarize the lens you’ll be using and your interpretation of the text.
Lens: In this section, please introduce the lens you’ll be using, and please define the main ideas from that lens that you’ll be using in your interpetions.
Interpretation: In this section, please discuss your interpretation of the text by quoting directly from it.
Conlcusion: In this section, please summarize the main points of your essay and refer back to something you wrote in your introduction to give your essay a sense of completeness.
Okay, now that we’ve done that, we have an rough draft of our paper. Only three short steps left!
Step 5: Give you essay a title. In this step, you’re going to give your essay a title. The simplest way to title your paper would be simply to refer to the lens and the text you’re interpreting: e.g. "An Aspirational-Class Interpretation of Chapter 1 of My Year of Rest and Relaxation," "A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of ‘Sleeping,’ etc. With that said, you can feel free to have some fun with the title, so long as you are referring both to the text and to the lens.
Step 6: Edit and proofread your essay. Now that your paper has a title, it’s time to go back through the essay and to make sure that it is as clear and typo-free as possible.
Step 7: Hand it in! Once your paper has been proofread, it’s time to hand it in! So go ahead and click "Attach Files" and attach the final version of your paper!
How will I be grading this paper? Well so long as your paper meets the following minumum requirements, you’re going to get all 25 points:
- You are clearly trying to pretend to be a literary scholar.
- The paper has four subsections: an introduction, an explanation of the lens you’re using, a section in which you present your interpretation of the text, and a conclusion.
- The introduction subsection includes at least three or four paragraphs which clearly introduces the text, discusses the obvious meaning of it, and briefly summarizes your interpretation of it.
- The lens subsection includes at least two paragraphs which clearly introduces the lens and defines the main ideas you’ll be using in your interpetation.
- The interpretation subsection includes at least three or four paragraphs which clearly presents your interpretation of the text and quotes directly from it in order to provide evidence of your interpretation.
- The conclusion subsection includes at least one paragraph which clearly summarizes the main points you have made.
- Each of these subsections has a title.
- Your paper has a title.
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