Second Paper Assignment:

Due in class, Tuesday, October 7
 

For this 5-page paper, first choose any work on the syllabus that you would like to explore further, and then select one published criticism of that work.It may be in print or online, but it needs to be from no earlier than 1993.Evaluate the chosen critical essay.You willneed to do several things before you can write your paper: be able to summarize the critic’s argument; weigh the argument against your own interpretation of that primary text.Also consider the following issues: how to structure your paper; whether to include an explicit summary of the critical piece or not; how to evaluate the author’s assumptions, claims, theoretical stance, evidence etc.; how to evaluate style and readability.Be critical but also respectful of other peoples’ ideas. Criticism need not be synonymous with attack.

Along with your critical review, please turn in a Xerox or other copy of the published criticism if it is a short essay or book chapter, or turn in a copy of the journal number or the book if it is too long to copy easily.

Some sources for criticism:

Print Journals 

PMLA   

Online journals/series

Any book in the Cambridge Studies in Romanticism series

Some Scholars of Note

Byron: Jerome McGann, Jerome Christensen, Andrew Elfenbein, Terrence Hoagwood

Keats: Jack Stillinger, Helen Vendler, Nicholas Roe, Thomas Pfau

Shelley: Stuart Curran, Kim Wheatley, Jerrold Hogle, William Keach

Romanticism: M. H. Abrams, Marilyn Butler, Paul DeMan, Jerome McGann, James Chandler, Kenneth Johnson, Orrin N. C. Wang, Theresa Kelley