CR1: Close Reading One: New Criticism, Structuralism, + Deconstruction in Wuthering Heights.
New Criticism, Structuralism, + Deconstruction // ENG 200
A close reading paper will focus on an area of the text that you find interesting, significant, or feel merits discussion. A close reading should be fairly formal and should genuinely attempt to shed light on one or more aspects of the work. You may discuss the significance of character, plot, setting, symbolism, narration, theme or any other aspect of the text you observe in relation to concepts from one of the schools of critical theory from this section….whatever catches your fancy! Overall, I am looking for interesting, compelling insights concerning Wuthering Heights.
In order to do this, you will need to isolate a passage or a short part of our course novel Wuthering Heights and then close read this passage using the CRIT method. Steps 1 and 2 are grounded in the assumptions of New Criticism (attention to the text, using the text as evidence) and step 3 opens up your close reading to consider other theoretical schools, or in other words, step 3 allows you to contextualize and move outside of the text. For CR1 you must make use of theoretical concepts from Structuralism or Deconstruction in your close reading.
More specifically, your paper will explore a problem or point of interest created by a work of literature (this includes, but is not limited to, character motivation, thematic elements, symbolism, irony, and any other aspect you might observe, etc.) which is illuminated by or illuminates a theoretical concept. Your ideas and insights will be based on information from the pages in the novel we have read so far (outside research is not required for CR1. Simply focus on the literature and the critical theory we have read so far), calling upon specific examples to illustrate the theoretical concept and idea you are exploring. Your grade will be based on the quality and depth of your insights, and on the use of specific textual evidence as support. Avoid the obvious! Take risks! Make it interesting!
For this paper, It might be helpful to think how the narration and language in the passage you select (and then the novel overall) establishes binaries and then shows how this binary is arbitrary (Structuralism) OR shows how binaries are really not a binary at all but a multiple (Deconstruction).
