Please read the following excerpt from Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition. Here is the link: Arendt Human Condition excerpt. (As always print this out or have it available on your device for our discussion.)

Some concepts you’ll need to be aware of: “vita active” means active life, literally. You’ll want to try to understand the particular way Arendt develops this concept.

She also mentions Augustine, the philosopher and Christian theologian (354-430 CE) and his famous comment (in Latin): Quaestio mihi factus sum. (I am become a question to myself.) Some intellectual historians would argue that this statement marks a change in human consciousness; that up until Augustine, a person might live in ignorance but a person who thought about his life could readily understand it through the use of reason. Augustine may have been the first to recognize that in looking at ourselves, in trying to understand ourselves, we face uncertainty—that is, questions about ourselves that may not be easily answered.

Additionally, she mentions the Archimedean point. This is a concept first attributed to the Greek philosopher and mathematician Archimedes, which posits the possibility of examining a problem from a vantage point outside it that allows a complete view. Looking at the world from outer space would be a physical example of an Archimedean point.

Finally, be aware of how Arendt refers to Aristotle’s concept of bios, which means life. How does Arendt discuss this concept and why is it important in understanding her conception of the human condition?

And so here are the two chapters I’d like you to read for Wednesday. Please print them out for class or have them available on your device as a pdf. The first chapter is titled “The Exegesis.” Here it is:  Kraus The Exegesis Chapter.

The second is titled “Monsters.” Here it is: Kraus Monsters Chapter.

Please come to class ready to discuss the following: What value system is implied through Krause’s actions? (I.e., what is her belief system?) How do her beliefs (as you conceive them) contrast with your own? And: how is our theme (formation/appropriation of self) expressed in the text?

We’re moving on to our final segment. Please read Roberto Bolaño’s short story, “Gomez Palacio.” I’d like you to think a bit about how the story raises doubts about the meaning of life, or at least the quest for meaning in life. Does the story propose a way out of the problems it presents? Come to class ready to discuss these matters. A pdf can be found here: Gomez Palacio – Bolaño.

The research essay is the principal assignment of the semester.

For this essay you will choose a topic broadly related to our theme of formation of self, do extensive research on the topic (at least four credible, challenging articles from journals or serious general interest publications), and then write an essay in which you synthesize and analyze the research you’ve examined, and develop your own argument that makes a case for a new interpretation, perspective, or idea regarding the topic at hand.

Your argument should grapple with and speculate how the topic is important or significant specifically in its effects upon the formation of self. This clearly allows you a good deal of leeway to speculate and develop your own ideas, as well as where appropriate to reference personal experience. But the essay is, importantly, not a personal reflection, nor should it be a regurgitation of the ideas you discovered in your research, or a polemic or jeremiad. This essay needs to deeply analyze the topic, taking into account where elements of the problem you’re examining do not admit of easy solutions, where there is uncertainty, and where viewpoints in opposition to your view have potential merit.

This essay will be a minimum of eight pages long (2,400 words), standard formatting.

Rough draft due: Monday, November 23

Final essay due: Wednesday, December 2

Reminder: This paper accounts for 40 percent of your grade.

Does the essay:

• Effectively present the topic, the basic terms of the argument, and develop a thesis that is coherent, logical, and well-supported?
• Make arguments whose logic is evident, and link together arguments in comprehensible and convincing ways?
• Employ transitions and explanations in a manner that shows how sentences link to one another in paragraphs and how paragraphs connect to the essay’s overall thesis?
• Use evidence successfully (and cite sources correctly while presenting a bibliography that follows the MLA format)?
• Cite sources that are appropriate?
• Raise questions about and engage with the topic meaningfully about how the social forces being analyzed play a part in the formation/appropriation of self? (Ideally, this discussion should be integrated throughout the essay.)
• Use rhetoric in an effective way to enhance the essay’s persuasiveness?
• Take account of areas where there is uncertainty or where either/or analysis fails to reflect the topic’s complexity?
• Employ a structure that is logical, effective, and striking?
• Use language in an original and powerful way, creating in readers a sense of surprise and delight?
• Adhere to the standards of written English, while additionally demonstrating an impressive understanding of audience and verbal register?
• Speak with authority to readers through the evident intensity of the writer’s engagement with the subject?

In the Lish novel read chapters 38-41 (to the end of Part 2) and read the article, “The Churn,” by Katherine Boo from The New Yorker, link is here. Print the article out and annotate with special focus on 1) examples of using “therefore” and “but” transitions and 2) other examples of transitions and how you might use similar techniques in your own work.

Read and annotate the article here from the New York Times for class on Wednesday.