Choose a one-page or two-page passage from a long text (graphic novel, short story or novel) on the course syllabus, and offer a close reading of that selection. You must have a clear, focused argument for your reading: what is the central tenet of your interpretation? How do you read this text, and why is that reading significant? Remember to examine directly the relationship(s) between form and meaning. How does the style and structure of the text you've chosen contribute to what it articulates? How does it set up or articulate key issues in the rest of the work from which it's been taken? What is a main concept put at issue in this text? How? Why?
Choose one of the following poems (or any poem with a length under two pages: please confer with me) from the texts on the course syllabus, and offer a close reading of that poem. You must have a clear, focused argument for your reading: what is the central point of your interpretation? How do you read this text, and why is that reading significant? Remember to engage directly and fully with the language of that text, and to examine directly the relationship(s) between form and meaning. How does the style and structure of the poem you've chosen contribute to what it articulates? What is a key concept put at issue in this text? How? Why?
Your essay should be no more than 1500 words (four to five typed double-spaced pages). Please follow the current MLA style for format and documentation.
Due in class on Monday, October 3, 2016.