SA3: Critical Lens Analysis
Due: 2:00 p.m. (to Canvas) on Thursday 2/1 Sunday 2/4
Purpose & Ultimate Goal
Common Moves in Critical Lens Analyses
You are essentially writing a brief analytical essay. If this is an unfamiliar genre to you, here are some moves that writers commonly make in “critical lens” analyses:
Format
Plan ahead and start early. Send any questions my way in advance.
Purpose & Ultimate Goal
For the past four weeks, I've seen you consider some key some questions about authorship and interpretability: How much does an author control the final product of his or her work? Are there intrinsic features of "text" that should distinguish it from "work"? Do our interpretive expectations change when we change perspectives from one culture to another? What kinds of forces make up that "community of practice" underlying textual interpretation? How are discourse communities governed or formed? What determines the interpretive rules that certain discourse communities follow? What additional factors guide textual interpretation in human-rights contexts?
For your third Short Assignment (SA3) of the semester, I will ask you to compose a “critical lens” text inspired by any of these questions.
When you apply one text to another as a “critical lens,” you are trying to complicate or extend it -- trying to help us notice something nuanced in it, and maybe even agreeing to be distant from it long enough to write about it. For that reason, an authentic “critical lens” relationship is different from a restatement of fact, a promotion of personal taste, an informal meandering of thoughts, or an articulation of belief. It requires that you select a key concept from one text to illustrate, deconstruct, push the boundaries on, and complicate an idea from another text. Think of it as a massive unpacking of one concept using another concept to help you “see” something concrete.
For your third Short Assignment (SA3) of the semester, I will ask you to compose a “critical lens” text inspired by any of these questions.
When you apply one text to another as a “critical lens,” you are trying to complicate or extend it -- trying to help us notice something nuanced in it, and maybe even agreeing to be distant from it long enough to write about it. For that reason, an authentic “critical lens” relationship is different from a restatement of fact, a promotion of personal taste, an informal meandering of thoughts, or an articulation of belief. It requires that you select a key concept from one text to illustrate, deconstruct, push the boundaries on, and complicate an idea from another text. Think of it as a massive unpacking of one concept using another concept to help you “see” something concrete.
Assignment
Please use one key concept from LuMing Mao's essay as a “critical lens” onto either Michel Foucault's or Roland Barthes's essays. (Or, if you'd like, you can conceive of this assignment the other way around, using one key concept from either Foucault or Barthes in order to unpack something in Mao. Your choice. The important thing is that you focus.)
Please use one key concept from LuMing Mao's essay as a “critical lens” onto either Michel Foucault's or Roland Barthes's essays. (Or, if you'd like, you can conceive of this assignment the other way around, using one key concept from either Foucault or Barthes in order to unpack something in Mao. Your choice. The important thing is that you focus.)
Common Moves in Critical Lens Analyses
You are essentially writing a brief analytical essay. If this is an unfamiliar genre to you, here are some moves that writers commonly make in “critical lens” analyses:
- Offering the lens claim fairly early in the writing (i.e., don't make us wait until the end for it).
- Crafting an informative and creative introduction that frames the lens relationship, orients an unfamiliar reader to the issue, and articulates the critical position you have discovered as a result of your analysis (the “main claim”). Framing can occur through narrative, quotes or epigraphs, by the way.
- Developing the lens relationship through several smaller points (“smaller claims” or discussions) that are interesting, original, and effective. Each of these points should represent new ideas or perspectives that are necessary for understanding the critical lens relationship you have discovered, rather than simply repeat the main ideas of the articles. This is probably one of the most important aspects of composing a critical lens text.
- Making the discussion intertextual, by weaving key terms, phrases, or snippets as quoted passages throughout the analytical essay. (This is clearly a Barthes-ian concept.) This is probably the other most important aspects of composing a critical lens text.
- Writing a conclusion that implicitly leads a reader to understand why they should care about what they have just read, or what are the stakes.
Format
- Word-processed or typed, double-spaced
- ~5 pages (but can go longer if needed)
- Submitted to Canvas by beginning of class time.
- Include a short “Works Cited” list at the end of your document with the full MLA citation for all of the essays you use, as well as any dictionaries you consult for terms.
- You can find the citation for our readings in the “Works Cited” list at the back of your syllabus. If you're uncertain how to cite a dictionary entry, you can find the citation pattern at this page on the Purdue OWL (scroll down to "Article in a Reference Book").
Plan ahead and start early. Send any questions my way in advance.