Logs

Reader's Log

Think of your log as an opportunity for conversation with other scholars about their ideas and your responses. In the most exciting conversations, it seems to me, two people genuinely try to see what the other is saying. Your first task in the logs is to try to see what the writers we read are actually saying. Your second task is to explain a practical application of the theory we read each week, using an example from your own knowledge of literature or culture. Each log should be about two typed pages.

Please see the syllabus for specific questions I’d like you to address in Logs # 1 & 2.

Starting with Log #3, I'd like you to do four things in every log:

1) Nail down the thesis and supporting ideas for each text. You might think of this as extracting an outline of all the important ideas from the text or as summarizing the main lines of the argument. Some careful, analytic annotating of the text as you read will help you with this. As you read, underline what you think are important ideas. When you get to what looks like a thesis, underline that and take some marginal notes. Notice the movement from one topic to another; take notes in your margin to highlight key concepts. Then write up what you think is going on in the whole piece, using your annotations as a guide. This will be more difficult than it sounds. Don’t get discouraged. Your ability to analyze dense, theoretical texts will develop as you work at it.

2) Choose one literary or cultural text and “apply” the theory we’ve read each week. Explain what specific things you’d look at in the text and why you’d look at them. What other things, outside the text, would you analyze (if anything)? What kinds of conclusions might your application of this theory lead you to in analyzing this text?

3) Explain the theoretical assumptions that the theory makes about such things as: literary meaning and interpretation, the role of the reader, the contexts in which a text is to be read (if any), the kinds of questions the critic asks, and the function of literary criticism. When we read examples of several “varieties” of a particular theory, explain the differences among them.

4) Briefly state your reaction to this approach. What do you think about it? What is it useful for, and what are its limitations?

I will collect logs each week on the due dates. During the first few weeks of the course, I will write evaluative comments on each log. As the course progresses, you will exchange your log each week with a log partner so that you may respond to each other's work. Assessment of all your logs at the end of the semester will be based on how specifically and rigorously they address the above four questions. Please see the criteria for assessment by clicking on Reader's Log Assessment Criteria and Contract.

There are no "right" or "wrong" answers. But your self-assessment will be based on how successfully you discern the thesis and main points of each theorist, how successfully you apply each theory to a particular text, and how clearly you discern some of the assumptions that ground each theory. You may agree or disagree with the writer, but be sure you are agreeing or disagreeing with what the writer, in fact, argues.