Critical Interpretation Paper
7 pages required, 1750 word minimum , Use scholarly sources. Your paper will have three parts. There will be a thorough definition and explanation of the critical approach you are focusing on, informed by research; a deep critical interpretation of one piece of literature from the course, interpreted through the critical theory you researched; and an explanation of why it is worthwhile to interpret the text you selected with the critical approach you used. Please use subtitles to divide the three sections of your paper. I attached 3 files below including an essay on the poem Hope I did earlier in the semester.
You will compose a paper, which interprets and analyzes one piece of literature we have read this semester. Your paper will be informed by and include your own research. Your interpretation and analysis will take one of the following critical approaches:
topical/historical
new critical/formalist
structuralist
feminist
Marxist
psychoanalytic
archetypal/symbolic
deconstructionist
reader-response
Each of these critical approaches is briefly explained on pages 1916-1927 of Jacobs’s Literature. Select one to use for your paper. Begin researching the critical approach you select so that you can understand it more deeply and see how it has been applied by other critics. You are required to have a total of five sources for the paper. Save the research you do. This is the research for the paper.
Also, select any piece of literature we have read in the class to focus on. It may be Candide, Hamlet, Before Breakfast, or any short story or poem from our class. Select a piece to focus on that you think lends itself well to the critical approach you select.
Your paper will have three parts. There will be a thorough definition and explanation of the critical approach you are focusing on, informed by research; a deep critical interpretation of one piece of literature from the course, interpreted through the critical theory you researched; and an explanation of why it is worthwhile to interpret the text you selected with the critical approach you used. Please use subtitles to divide the three sections of your paper. Consider the sample headings below for a feminist reading of Hamlet:
- Feminist Critical Theory Defined
In this section of your paper, use your research to define and explain the
critical theory you are focusing on.
- A Victim of the Times: The Plight of Ophelia
In the second section of your paper, interpret one text from the course
using the critical approach you’ve selected.
III. A Defense of Feminist Interpretations of Hamlet
The final section of your paper is an argument which defends your interpretations. In this section of the paper, explain to your reader why it is worthwhile to look at the text you’ve discussed from the critical approach you used.
Complete paper must be 7 to 10 pages and include a works cited.
Sample Topics
You may use these approaches and these texts, or choose your own.
| Critical Approach | Text |
| Feminist | Hamlet |
| Marxist | Candide |
| Psychoanalytic | “The Necklace” |
| Reader-Response | “I Felt a Funeral In My Brain” |
Grading Criteria—150 points possible
Section 1—Researched explanation of a critical approach—60 points:
| 30 | Accuracy—writing and synthesized research demonstrates a clear understanding of the basic principles of whichever critical theory you are working with. |
| 15 | Research—sources are referred to in paraphrase and quotation to explain the critical approach. |
| 15 | Defining elements—at least three key characteristics of the literary approach are highlighted. |
Section 2—Critical Interpretation of a text—65 points:
| 15 to -40 | Specific interpretive thesis that approaches the text from the critical theory you explained in section 1. |
| 10 to -10 | Properly cited evidence from text(s). |
| 40 | Thorough analysis of the text, proving your thesis. |
Section 3—Defense of your own critical interpretation—25 points:
| 10 | Section offers at least two reasons why it is worthwhile to interpret the text you have selected from the critical standpoint you have adopted. |
| 15 | Reasons are supported with logically sound arguments, using evidence or examples |
Expectations:
| 0 to -50 | Five or more credible sources (SCHOLARLY) |
| 0 to -20 | Correct MLA internal documentation for all direct quotations and paraphrases. |
| 0 to -10 | Essay must have three distinct sections; each must have a subtitle. |
| 0 to -50 | Seven page minimum. (1750 words). |
| 0 to -25 | Correct grammar and spelling. |
| 0 to -10 | Clear, precise, style. Avoid passive voice. Proofread for clarity of meaning. |
| 0 to –
30 |
Works cited in correct MLA style. |
Hope by Lisel Mueller
Use formalist/ new critical approach
It hovers in dark corners
before the lights are turned on,
it shakes sleep from its eyes
and drops from mushroom gills,
it explodes in the starry heads
of dandelions turned sages,
it sticks to the wings of green angels
that sail from the tops of maples.
It sprouts in each occluded eye
of the many-eyed potato,
it lives in each earthworm segment
surviving cruelty,
it is the motion that runs
from the eyes to the tail of a dog,
it is the mouth that inflates the lungs
of the child that has just been born.
It is the singular gift
we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,
all we know of God.
It is the serum which makes us swear
not to betray one another;
it is in this poem, trying to speak.