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The Optical Parables Welcome to the Optical Parables "Analytical Imagination Challenge." The writing you will turn in, based on the prompts below, should be no longer than 8-10 pages in length (if you must go longer, a page or two let's say, don't sweat it; also, if you are a graduate student or English Honors program student, you can take it to 15-18 pages if, repeat IF, you wish). Also, please do not turn in a paper that focuses on an illustrated and/or filmed text without also turning in visual evidence----images do NOT count toward your final page count, so illustrate at will.
Lastly,
please use MLA or University
of Chicago works cited pages formatting. Your
expository bundles of genius are
due
Friday, April 15, 2022 at
noon!! Turn in a pdf copy attached in an email to bnericci@sdsu.edu. Early
papers, in most cases, will be cherished lovingly.
Late
papers
will not be accepted. All
"A-grade" level imagination prompt responses will
integrate select, direct quotations from the primary
texts read thus far in the class this semester and
will avoid ALL of the quicksand-like bad habits noted
on the gradesheet above--click
it to
make it readable. Additionally, A-level
grades will be awarded ONLY to crafty writers who make
use of scholarly research discovered either by
prowling the stacks (the shelves and shelves of books
that fill Love Library) or
that you can gather off of JSTOR or PROJECT
MUSE--be sure to CITE THESE WORKS CAREFULLY. In
general, avoid research garnered from the
internet--any use or adaptation of material from Spark
Notes, Cliffs Notes, Barron's Notes, etc (and
especially essays that rely on Wikipedia) will likely
be returned to you ungraded or burned ritually at a
secret sacred site guarded by druids! One last
bit of advice, do NOT plagiarize ANY material from an
online source or 'paper mill.' In other words: unCITED material = PLAGIARISM;
also, as noted above, if you are going to analyze a key
element from an illustrated or filmed work, do please go
to the bother of xeroxing the image and incorporating it
INTO your essay with captions and with a notation in the
'Works Cited' to let your readers know where you got it
from. Last hint? Have a blast with this paper! Try things you have NEVER tried before! Test the limits of your imagination! Good luck! This IMAGINATION CHALLENGE is slightly different from other writing assignments you may have completed as an undergraduate (for example, please leave everything you learned to loathe in RWS 100 or 200 at the door--unless your instructor was a genius, in which case, use your best judgement). For this Imagination Challenge, you will fill in the blanks provided below and then complete the essay making sure to provide specific textual evidence to sustain/defend/illustrate your stated position in the essay! FINISH only ONE of the following challenges. Note that some of the blanks below are meant to be filled with authors' names whilst others should be filled with specific phrases/ideas; read the prompts carefully to make your final determination. One last thing. Try to finish your paper a DAY BEFORE it is due. Print it out and lay it on a desk in your room. A day later, wake up early and take this printed work and go to a room/library/cafe you don't usually go to--go there with a big old printed dictionary, you should own one and you can get good ones for cheap at old book stores like Maxwell's House of Books, Verbatim Books, DG Wills Books, Bluestocking Books and other area book shops. Take your paper to this special place and edit your paper. We really don't have the power to carefully edit a document on the screen where it was composed. You must switch the medium, going from screen to paper, from photons to ink, to see errors your reader will trip over! Cool. Go for it! Here are your prompts! Unless you KNOW you can write a better introductory paragraph, please use these PromptParagraphs™ (an intellectually enhanced version of MadLibs!) as your opening paragraph for your paper. 1.
Inspired by a Book of Photography Department The
curatorial and writerly work of Luis Camnitzer, Olivier
Compagnon, and Alfonso Morales Carrillo wonderful
album-style collection America Latina 1960-2013: Photographs,
explodes with images and stories that bring visual
cultural richness and diversity of Latin American to
life. Their collage of interpretation and photography
enriches the imagination presenting the complexity of
the region with tenacity and style. Using this book as
my inspiration I will do a similar treatment of visual
phenomena focusing closely on _________________________
by ________________________________ and
___________________ by ___________________________. By
doing so, I hope to _____________ 2.Psychology
& Film Department (note that doing this challenge
means also doing some cool secondary research on
psychoanalysis, psychology, and film). For this
prompt, you can focus on Orson Welles's TOUCH OF EVIL
or Alfonso Cuarón's Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIEN. A
provocative film by ________________________,
____________ 3.
Jorge Luis Borges Department One of
the most exciting ideas that peculiar librarian from
Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jorge Luis Borges, ever
invented concerns the ______________________ and
________________________________ seen in his short
stories ________ 4.
Gilbert Hernandez and Myriam Gurba Department How is
it possible that a Chicano punk rocker from Agoura and
a Chicana performer activist from Long Beach can be
seen to share a singular obsession? And yet that is
the case with Human Diastrophism by Gilbert Hernandez
and Mean by
Myriam Gurba. In
my brief study that will unfold before you here, I
will take the time to focus on ideas of
________________________________________________ as I
weave a critical tale of Hernandez and Gurba's
kinship. But I will also take time below to point out
their contrasts, especially with regard to
_________________________________________________. 5.
Characters Rule
Department The best literature is merely a vehicle for surveilling the complex corridors of the human mind. With the singular characters of ________________________ and _________________________ writers/artists ___________________ and ____________________________ introduce readers to _________________________________. I will use the next few pages to creep carefully into the minds of these two memorable characters from literature in order to explore how ______________________. In order to add complexity to my comparative dissection of thier achievements, I will incorporate a recent piece {after 2010} of literary criticism authored by __________________ on _______________________ that helps us probe the imaginative depth and psychological complexity of these two memorable characters. 6. Alex Espinosa and Salvador Plascencia, Reconsidered Department Alex
Espinosa and Salvador Plascencia share a deep and
abiding fascination with
________________________________________--this becomes
clear after a close examination of Still Water Saints and
The People of Paper.
I recently chanced to get lost in Love Library and I
happened upon a book by __________________ entitled
________________________ that helped me to coalesce
and integrate my ideas concerning these two formidable
21st century artists. Using this work, I will attempt
to show how Espinosa and Plascencia
________________________... 7.
Optical Parables, Your Turn Department In the first eight weeks of this class, we have been drowned in literary and cinematic works that are filled with parables, optical and otherwise. And while Professor Nericcio has been scrupulous in his tracking down of parables significant , he just does not have the time in 75 minutes to really explore the down and dirty nitty gritty of some of the more curious literary or visual parables we have run across so far. In the paragraphs that follow, I will try to document some of the more compelling literary parables we have run across that our good Professor failed to focus on in class... 8.
Verisimilitude or The Play within the Play Department Many of the works that have happened our way this term are metatextual--that is, they are as likely to tell a compelling fictional tale as they are to tell a story about the nature of storytelling itself. In critical writings, this practice goes by various names: self-referentiality, postmodernity, poststructuralism, 'breaking the fourth wall', and the aforementioned, metatextuality. Trapped in Love Library, I happened upon _______________________________ written by ___________________________. His/Her scribblings on the nature of self-referentiality/postmodernity/poststructuralism/'breaking the fourth wall'/ metatextuality (PICK ONE) give us a better way to enter into a discussion of _____________________________ and _________________________ (pick two works we have worked on this semester). Using this critical work, I will attempt to show how_________________________________..... 9. Roll
you Own Department Develop and refine your OWN independent fill in the blanks prompt--it must make use of at least two works from the required works, visual or textual, from your required book lists. You MUST email your proposal to me by 9am, Tuesday, April 12, 2022 to bnericci@sdsu.edu. You are also welcome to run it by me in person during office hours or by appointment. Have fun!
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| MODELS FOR GOOD
LITERARY AND FILM CRITICISM |
| If you have never read a good piece of literary
criticism or film theory, it is probably a good idea to
read some BEFORE you tackle this writing assignment; below
appear paragraphs and a link to some good writing focused
on literature and film. As you do your research for your
essay, pay attention not just to the ideas of the critics
you select to share in your essay as proof, pay attention
as well to the way they carefully craft these arguments. Edward Said, one of my stylistic mentors, on Joseph Conrad...  Helen Vendler, On Criticism  and last, J. Hoberman (extra-cool film theorist)... (click here to see/read his full review)...  |
| urgent issues? email: bnericci@sdsu.edu |
Write
unto others as you would have them write for
thee! 
