Othello Essay English 6 Mrs. LaRubio
Directions: Closely read of the FOUR texts provided and write a source-based literary analysis paper on ONE of the topics below. You may use the margins to take notes as you read and scrap paper to plan your response.
Topics:
1. Othello’s real problem is his own jealousy.
2. Iago is not a “motiveless malignity” as he has been called—a devil who does evil for its own sake. He has a thirst for power and the wit to contrive a way to get it. Desdemona’s death is a side effect he does not really intend.
3. Iago’s cleverness is not total. He builds into the intricate structure of his plot a piece of terrible stupidity; he fails to understand his wife.
4. The war between Othello and Iago is fundamentally a dispute between the goodness an evil of the world.
Your Task: Carefully read and use four of the texts provided. Then, using evidence from at least three of the texts (Othello MUST be one of the texts you use), write a well-developed literary analysis. You must use EITHER reader response theory or new historicist theory to critique the work (See the attached guides to writing a Reader Response/New Historicist paper). Clearly establish your thesis (your claim), distinguish your claim from alternate or opposing claims, and use specific, relevant, and sufficient evidence from at least three of the texts to develop your argument. Do not simply summarize each text.
Guidelines:
Be sure to:
• Establish your thesis
• Distinguish your claim from alternate or opposing claims
• Use specific, relevant, and sufficient evidence from at least FOUR of the texts to develop your argument
• Identify each source that you reference by text name and line number(s) or page number
• Organize your ideas in a cohesive and coherent manner
• Maintain a formal style of writing
• Follow the conventions of standard written English
In addition, you must:
· Use MLA citations and MLA heading (Go to the OWL at Purdue for more information!)
· Type your assignment
· Use Times New Roman, 12 point font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins
· Submit a Work Cited List of the works you cite in your paper (use the citations listed on the essays)
· Submit a first draft with edits
· Submit a final draft of at least two FULL typed double spaced pages
· DUE MONDAY, May 2nd, 2016
· Papers that are late go down a half point each day (if it is given after a weekend, it goes down an entire point).
· Students who want me to print it out must email me the DAY BEFORE BY 8PM ONLY. I will NOT print out any late papers.
· Any student who plagiarizes materials—either from class, an outside source, or from another person, will receive a zero for the assignment and face disciplinary action.
Texts:
1. Shakespeare, William. Othello, The Moor of Venice. Folger: New York, 1993.
2. Read 20 #4: Tyson, Lois. “Reader-Response Theory.” Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. Third Edition. Routledge. London, 2015. 161-162.
3. Read 20 #5: Tyson, Lois. “Transactional Reader Response Theory.” Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. Third Edition. Routledge. London, 2015. 165-166.
4. Read 20 #6 Tyson, Lois. “Pyschological Reader Response Theory.” Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. Third Edition. Routledge. London, 2015. 173-176.
5. Read 20 #7: Schapiro, Barbara. “Psychoanalysis and the Problem of Evil: Debating Othello in the Classroom.” American Imago 60. 4 (Winter 2003) 481-499.
6. Read 20 #8: Waude, W.A. "How Carl Jung's Archetypes And Collective Consciousness Affect Our Psyche."Carl Jung: Archetypes and Analytical Psychology. Psychologist World. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.
7. Read 20 #9: Lynn, Steven. “New Historicism.” Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory. 4th Edition. Pearson/Longman: New York, 2005. 141-145.
8. Read 20 #10: "New Historicism."Questia: Trusted Online Research. Questia. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
9. Moryson, Fynes. “An Itinerary.” Othello, the Moor of Venice: Texts and Contexts. Ed. Kim F. Hall. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. 240-42. Print.
10. Parker, Martin.The Married Man's Lesson: Or, A Dissuasion from Jealousy.London, 1624.Othello, the Moor of Venice: Texts and Contexts. Ed. Kim F. Hall. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. 283-85. Print.
11. Hall, Kim F. Ed. The Cuckold’s Haven. Othello, the Moor of Venice: Texts and Contexts. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. 285-87. Print.
12. Bacon, Francis. “The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral.” Othello, the Moor of Venice: Texts and Contexts. Ed. Kim F. Hall. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. 338-340. Print.
HOW TO WRITE A READER RESPONSE PAPER
DO NOT use the standard high school-level approach of just writing:"I liked this book (or article or document or movie) because it is so cool and the ending made me feel happy," or "I hated it because it was stupid, and had nothing at all to do with my life, and was too negative and boring."In writing a response you may assume the reader has already read the text. Thus,do NOT summarize the contents of the text at length. Instead, take a systematic, analytical approach to the text.
---First of all, be sure to mention thetitleof the work to which you are responding, theauthor, and themain thesisof the text, usingcorrect Englishfor the first sentence of your paper!
Then, try to answer ALL of the questions below.
a.What does the text have to do with you, personally, and with your life (past, present or future)? It is not acceptable to write that the text has NOTHING to do with you, since just about everything humans can write has to do in some way with every other human.
b. How much does the text agree or clash with your view of the world, and what you consider right and wrong?Use several quotes as examples of how it agrees with and supports what you think about the world, about right and wrong, and about what you think it is to be human. Use quotes and examples to discuss how the text disagrees with what you think about the world and about right and wrong.
cHow did you learn, and how much were your views and opinions challenged or changed by this text, if at all? Did the text communicate with you? Why or why not? Give examples of how your views might have changed or been strengthened (or perhaps, of why the text failed to convince you, the way it is). Please do not write "I agree with everything the author wrote," since everybody disagrees about something, even if it is a tiny point. Use quotes to illustrate your points of challenge, or where you were persuaded, or where it left you cold.
d. How well does it address things that you, personally, care about and consider important to the world?How does it address things that are important to your family, your community, your ethnic group, to people of your economic or social class or background, or your faith tradition?If not, who does or did the text serve? Did it pass the "Who cares?" test? Use quotes to illustrate.
e.Reading and writing "critically" does not mean the same thing as "criticizing," in everyday language (complaining or griping, fault-finding, nit-picking).Your "critique" can and should be positive and praise the text if possible,as well as pointing out problems, disagreements and shortcomings.
f. How well did you enjoy the text (or not) as entertainment or as a work of art?Use quotes or examples to illustrate the quality of the text as art or entertainment. Of course, be aware that some texts are not meant to be entertainment or art--a news report or textbook, for instance, may be neither entertaining or artistic, but may still be important and successful.
g.To sum up,what is your overall reaction to the text?Would you read something else like this, or by this author, in the future or not? Why or why not? To whom would you recommend this text?
The goal is to present a coherent essay with a clear argument....[Y]ou should state your general argument (your thesis) in an introductory paragraph and then use the rest of the essay to support your position, making sure that you deal carefully with each of the issues the questions raise somewhere in the paper.
1.) You don’t need to use footnotes. When quoting or citing from the documents or your textbook, simply put author and page numbers in parenthesis. Ex. (Gorn, 52) or (Jones, 167).
2.) Be very careful to avoid plagiarism. Do not use words or ideas from the internet, from any publication, or from the work of another student without citing the source. Also, if you use more than three words in a row from any source, including the document you’re writing about, those words must be enclosed in quotation marks.
3.) Please just staple your papers in the upper left hand corner.
4.) Your essay should be based primarily on evidence drawn from a close, careful reading of the documents. You can also use appropriate background information from the text and lectures, but you should use most of your space to discuss the documents.
5.) Writing style counts. You need to edit your paper multiple times to be a successful writer.
http://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/engl0310link/readerresponse.htm
HOW TO WRITE A NEW HISTORICIST PAPER:
Historical criticism explores the historical, social, political, and cultural contexts surrounding the creation and reception of a work of literature; it uses history as a means of understanding a literary work more clearly. Historicists aim simultaneously to understand the work through its historical context and to understand cultural and intellectual history through literature. Two premises of historical criticism are that the social, political, and cultural contexts (the historical influences) affect the creation of works of literature and that the meaning of literature changes over time as these same contexts change. Historical criticism examines both the time period within the story and the time period in which the story was written. The responses of the original audience are of interest to the historical critic, as are the meanings and implications of specific words, symbols, images, and characters through time. We can hardly understand characters' lives without some sense of the time and place in which they lived, and we can hardly understand the author's purpose without understanding the cultural norms and events during the writing of the work. For example, in Sense and Sensibility, written by Jane Austen in 1795, when Margaret is talking about a man of no profession it contains a different meaning than it would today. During Austen's time in England, the man without a profession would have been a gentleman, a man of wealth. In addition, knowing the English laws regarding women owning property at the time the novel was written not only is imperative to understanding why the women in the story are impoverished even though their father died very rich, but the knowledge also allows the reader to recognize themes throughout the text relating to the treatment of women.
Literary works are born out of very specific moments in history. The work is infused with the values and events of that time, and, conversely, a powerful piece of literature can effectively influence the thinking and actions of its body of readers. As such, considering the time period in which a literary work was created and the context of the story itself is an important analytical task.
Strategies for historical criticism:
1. Research the author's time (the political history, literary period, economic history, cultural climate, philosophers of the time, and social environment).
2. Relate that information to the work. How was the work influenced by the time period? How does the work make statements about events or conditions of the time?
3. Examine the work for references, attitudes, and relationships that may be better understood through research.
4. Look for changes in language connotations.
5. Research the time in which the story takes place.
6. Research the characteristics of the literary period.
7. Relate all information to the inferential and evaluative levels of the story.
Questions to ask oneself when doing historical criticism:
How does the work reflect the period in which it is written?
What literary or historical influences helped to shape the work?
What were the common themes and motifs in the literature of the time period?
What philosophers/philosophies were important to the time period?
How important is the historical context to interpreting the work?
How do the specifics of the time period elucidate the meaning of the work?
What position is the author taking regarding the events or conditions of the time?
What are some of the situations and references in the work that are specific to its time period?
Typical questions (from the OWL at Purdue University)
· What language/characters/events present in the work reflect the current events of the author’s day?
· Are there words in the text that have changed their meaning from the time of the writing?
· How are such events interpreted and presented?
· How are events' interpretation and presentation a product of the culture of the author?
· Does the work's presentation support or condemn the event?