This short paper can be on:
Wednesday, September 16th
Selections from Bhagavad-gita (1282-1301) (Volume A)
Monday, September 28th
Medea, lines 1-680 (pp. 783-803)
OR
Creation stories on the syllabus for 9/21 (you’ll be covering these on the 21st, but you can hand in your short paper on this date).
***
Close reading and argument: When we close read, we “observe facts and details about the text,” looking for patterns (repetitions, contradictions, similarities between characters and other parts of the text) (Kain). To observe and find these patterns, we should focus our attention on short, manageable passages of a longer text and annotate, or write notes on and next to, these shorter passages (annotation is a good way to help us keep track of observations, force ourselves to pay close attention, and to think not just silently, but through our writing itself). We then interpret these observations in order to make an argument (which should be an answer to a question or questions you formed while annotating and close reading the text). An interpretation of a text is an argument for how to understand it AND why that matters. If we start from the assumption that all texts are trying to teach us something, then the interpretation is an argument for what it is trying to teach us, how it does so, and why that lesson matters for the text
Assignment:
- Repeat the process you did for the first short paper: Find a passage that sparks your interest, that you think could have multiple meanings, or that you find ambiguous: in other word, a passage about which you have some questions (remember short paper no 1!).
- Pay attention to the language of the passage: observe the language of the text by annotating it. In other words, underline/highlight key words and phrases–”anything that strikes you as surprising or significant, or that raises questions”–and make notes about the text in the margins (provide a cell phone picture or a copy of your annotations so I can see them) (Kain). As you did for the first short paper, ask questions that arise for you based on the passage (repetitions that strike you as odd, characters whose motivations are unclear to you, questions about whether a passage is celebrating or critiquing a social value presented in the text–see short paper prompt #1).
- After you have attended to the words of the passage and asked your questions, try to pose an argument that answers one of your questions using what you have observed about the text. Note that an argument should be debatable (in other words, another person should be able to disagree with it), so if your question does not lead to a debatable answer, you haven’t found a good enough question for an argument (For example, the answer to the question “Who is Arjuna’s charioteer in Bhagavad Gita?” is “Krishna,” and no one will disagree about that).
Some instruction in how to do a close reading: http://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/how-do-close-reading
Works Cited:
Kain, Patricia. “How to do a close reading.” Harvard College Writing Center. Harvard U, 1998. Web. 21 Sep. 2014.