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The Big Damn Scary
Imagination Challenge
Research Adventure®
urgent issues? email: memo at sdsu.edu; phone: 619.594.1524 Elegant, eclectic and clever, not to mention an American original when it comes to writing, Gore Vidal reminds young writers that a peek into the fabulous history of the word essay, an etymological poke into the labyrinth of essay's past, yields another word you might not have expected to run across: attempt. You see most people think of an essay as a finished product--a dull, lifeless, inert textual body with a static introduction, an "ABCD" body, and a clear lets-tie-up-all-the-pieces conclusion. You will not write this kind of essay, opting instead to produce something that is less product and more process. Allow the OED, the Oxford English Dictionary to show you the "guts," the DNA of the term "essay," with its Jeckyll/Hyde twin, "assay:
So,
for the purposes of this writing/research challenge, I am asking, with
no little nostalgia, for you to return to the origins of the essay. Your
mandated task is to make a sincere attempt to produce a set of ordered
reflections, a group of carefully arranged tasty words which respond in
some way to the novels, films, short critical treatments and lectures you
have worked through and will continue to work through in the coming weeks.
Are you writing for your professor and TA? In a way, of course
you are.
But in order to do well on this assignment, you must forget about this peculiar pair of literature-cinema sex fetishists! The only people who count are the readers you write for: the audience for your paper. Who are they? Well, they are a lot like you. They are impatient and easily bored. They like specific details; they love direct, succinct quotes woven carefully into the fabric of an essay. If you are going to write about an image, they want to see a xeroxed reproduction of that image properly captioned and carefully catalogued in your list of works cited. They hate misspellings and passive verbs. They like tangy language which is fresh and not filled with stupid clichés. Specifications: 4 to 10 pages (tops); cleverly titled, double-spaced; 1-inch margins top and sides; carefully proofread; chock-full of active verbs; MLA or University of Chicago-style bibliographies/works cited; and due Friday, April 24, 2009 at noon, outside my door at the end of the hallway, 273 Arts and Letters. Late papers will not be accepted--keep this in mind as this imagination research challenge constitutes 30% of your final grade for the term. Early papers, in most cases, will be cherished lovingly--that is, you are encouraged to run your work by Bianca or myself in advance. All A-level critical speculations will integrate carefully selected direct quotations from the primary texts and will avoid ALL of the quicksand-like bad habits noted here on your gradesheet. They will, additionally, include researched material from FOUR to SEVEN separate research resources found in LOVE LIBRARY stacks--YES, the "stacks." While you are welcome and even encouraged to make use of material from JSTOR or PROJECTMUSE located in the ONLINE VERSION of LOVE LIBRARY, I also expect you to spend some time spelunking the stacks in search of published scholary materials that either support your argument or, even more exciting, that your utterly disagree with. One last bit of advice, do NOT plagiarize ANY material from the internet; unCITED material = PLAGIARISM; also, if you are going to "quote" a passage from an illustrated text, go to the bother of xeroxing the image and incorporating it INTO your essay. Last hint? Have a blast with this paper! Try things you have NEVER tried before! Test the limits of your imagination! Especially for graduating seniors: put everything you know on and between the lines of your big scary imagination blow-out! Good luck: with your talents, you may not need it! Choose ONE of the following prompts... TWO NEW PROMPTS 14 Pleasures of Being 1. We have trained our ears and eyes to pursue and peruse the dialectic of truth, being, and pleasure in the works of Rivera-Garza, Hernandez, Mayer, and Foucault. How do these authors re-define the concept of pleasure and sensuality? In their literary worlds, how does one confront the clash of ontological ramifications and sexual pursuits? Do they seem to be married to the freedom of the erotic or resolved to the force of societal expectations? Explore. 15 Historical Sexuality 2. The concept of categorization is a fundamental human fascination. Two of the authors we've examined could, themselves, be categorized as creative historians, fusing the documentation of actual events with the poetic licenses of imagined musings (Rivera-Garza and Foucault) into literary allegiances of power. What power does history impose upon the sexuality of their examined characters? How does selective history (remember Aura) perform its own intimate, sexual activity? How does one come to terms with the role of sexuality in the selection and utterances of history (remember the proclamations of feminist theory and the phallocentric discourse of the sciences, literature, history, law, etc.)? Examine the role of sex in history and the role of history in sex. 1 An exercise in re-definition, analysis, and/or deconstruction Identifying specific comparative qualities shared by the artists, redefine the term "SEX" in the work of Chris Ware, Jericho Brown, and Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher). 2 Wherein you surf the contours of dialectical intrigue I have argued in class that we might benefit constructively by seeking to complicate our notion of the dialectical relationship that obtains between literature and culture, between narration and nation. Do the works we will have read by late May support or dispute this view? Use at least THREE works as you identify specific phenomena in culture that finds itself represented/critiqued/supplemented in and by literature. DO NOT WRITE ABOUT WORKS YOU FOCUSED ON IN YOUR FIRST PAPER; DO FOCUS ON WORKS WE DEALT WITH LATER IN THE SEMESTER. 3 Sexual Fictions Define the relationship between sexuality and representation to be found in the work of Frida Kahlo, Michel Foucault (be sure to seek out and read other published essays written by Foucault), and Chris Ware (you may substitute Cristina Rivera Garza for Ware and/or Oliver Mayer's JOY OF THE DESOLATE for Frida Kahlo). 4 Damned Literary, Film, or Art Criticism Find a piece of published criticism on two or three of the works we have read this term in a scholarly journal published within the last 20 years that you TOTALLY disagree with. Incorporate a critique of this published scholarly study as you produce your own critically informed interpretation of one of the works we have read thus far this semester. Be sure to attach a xeroxed copy of the selected piece of dreadful analysis that you attack in your polished, posh essay! 5 Writer as Gender Theorist One can say that many of the works we have examined this semester are nothing more and nothing less than primers on recent developments in Gender theory in cultural studies--explore the work of Haneke, Foucault, and Brown when it comes to gender. 6 Tales of Photographic Seduction For challenge 6, photography will be the "focus"--pardon the pun. Write a speculative meditation on sexuality and photography as it emerges in the writing of Rivera Garza, Peter Greenaway, and ANY 20th century photographer of your choice. 7 Desire, Psychoanalysis and the Human Psyche Freud's theory of psychoanalysis would seem to provide a foundation for many of the works we have stumbled upon this semester. Familiarize yourself with a published essay by Freud taken from his Collected Works, edited by James Strachey. Contrast issues of Freudian psychoanalysis at work in the works of three of the following: King Vidor (GILDA), Rivera Garza, Brown, Ware, Hernandez, Mayer and Haneke. 8 Funny Guys Write a short essay on the dynamics of contemporary COMEDY. If you look close enough, you'll find humor in the works of Gilbert Hernandez, Chris Ware, and Oliver Mayer. Contrast their comedic strategies as you explore their work. 9 Psychoanalysis Part TWO: The Case Histories Locate and read ONE of Sigmund Freud's case histories from the multi-volume selection of Freud's collected works edited by James Strachey: Some of his more famous case histories include the Wolf-Man, Little Hans, Dr. Schreber, Dora, and the Rat Man. Use one of these case histories as a key to open up unexplored phenomena from at least TWO of the works we have encountered in class this term (focus on works from late in the semester). 10 Race and Human Sexuality Using the works of Brown, Mayer, and Hernandez, discuss issues with regard to race/ethnicity and sexuality in 20th and 21 century literature. 11
The Erotics of Power, the power of the Erotic Using one primary work written by Michel Foucault on power, sexuality, or punishment, analyze the dynamics of power and sex, sadism and masochism, in the work of Haneke, Hernandez, and Ware. 12 Derrida, Foucault, et al and Literature/Cinema Find and read an essay by Carlos Fuentes, Jacques Derrida, Edward Said, Michel Foucault, Jane Gallop, Luce Irigaray, Michael Taussig, Henry Louis Gates, Stephen Heath or Gore Vidal that you suspect relates to one writer and one director we have read/screened this term. Apply the ideas you find in this essay as you comparatively discuss these two required texts from this semester's grab-bag of delicious literary/cinematic morsels. Do please ensure that the essay you select is a substantive piece over 10 pages in length and that you xerox and attach a copy of said selected essay to your essay when you turn it in! 13 Roll Your Own Develop and refine your OWN independent thesis; you MUST run your proposal by me or Bianca Chapman by FRIDAY, April 17nth, by noon, in person or via E-mail, in order to take advantage of this option. You are also welcome to run it by me in person during office hours or by appointment--BEFORE April 17, 2009 at noon.
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