? What makes Gulliver’s Travels Part 4 a satire? How does genre support or subvert your chosen text as socio-political commentary? Argue that the genre your author has chosen influences his manipulation of, for example, character, plot, style, figurative language, tone, point of view. (Notice you are not expected to address every aspect of the text suggested here; neither are you limited by those listed. State clearly in your opening argument what you will address, and why.)
Instructions:
The assignment requires you to produce your own critical reading of your chosen primary text but you are required to engage with :
The source you choose will have been published after 2004, though you may include earlier criticism in your bibliography. For the purposes of this essay, we want you to engage with a contemporary critical conversation. Your bibliography may include earlier work.
Explore at least four secondary sources before deciding on the one that will best forward your argument. You will probably choose something that supports your argument, but you may choose an essay you admire but disagree with since that will give you something to argue against.
All the sources you have read as you have researched your essay will appear in your bibliography, but you do not need torefer to them in your essay. (A list of works cited such as that you attached to the short essay contains only the texts you have referred to; a bibliography contains pertinent texts you have consulted, whether or not you have used them.)
Researching and drafting
1. Decide on a text and a topic.
2. Search for suitable peer-reviewed critical sources. (Ryan Weymouth’s talk will be useful—and remember his suggestion that you speak to a librarian if you need help.)
Your critical or scholarly source can be a peer-reviewedscholarly book; journal article; book chapter; or critical essay. The MLA International Bibliography allows you to narrow your search to peer-reviewed materials.
For the purposes of this task, entries from encyclopaedias (such as Wikipedia or Brittanica), the Norton Anthology, chapters from Bennett and Royle, or online summaries and study guides (such as Spark Notes) are not acceptable.
As Ryan showed us in Week 7, the searchable MLA International Bibliography is perhaps our most powerful research tool. Youwill find it under “Databases” in the library catalogue. Try other databases, too, such as Literature on Line and Google Scholar (accessthese through the Library Databases).
3. Develop a convincing critical, coherent argument.
You will begin to do this as you read, but most particularly as you begin to draft. Begin writing early because it is only as you begin to draft that your argument will develop.
A critical essay in literary studies consists of a clearly stated and coherently developed argument. This argument must be clearly set out as a signpost to your reader, probably in your first paragraph, and every point you make will support this argument. Your conclusion will draw together the points you have made in order to consider the significance and/or implications of your argument. It will not simply catalogue or repeat the points you have made.
