SHORT PAPER TOPIC

Short Paper Topic: Presentation of critical articel followed by essay (15%)

Critical article for Short Paper #2: Susan Fraiman, "Jane Austen and Edward Said: Gender, Culture, and Imperialism," Critical Inquiry, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Summer, 1995), pp. 805-821. See also material from Edward Said's discussion of Austen.

Your first paragraph should succinctly present Fraiman's argument, using the template provided below. Then, using this paragraph as a jumping off point, write a 3-page paper.

Your paper should be typed and double spaced (and should have a title).

Template for first paragraph:

1. ► In "Jane Austen and Edward Said: Gender, Culture, and Imperialism," Susan Fraiman argues that .

2. ►She develops her argument by __________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________.

3. The rest of your paper follows here.

Sample paper

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Course Paper

Refine one of the topics provided below and write a 12-15 page paper focusing attention equally on 2 of the novels we have read. Incorporate the idea(s) you find in at least 4 articles on Austen. Incorporate means use idea(s) to make your own thinking more complex

Turn in a draft of your paper (at least 8 pages) on May 21 (at the beginning of class). Please bring 3 copies, one for AJVS and two for peer readers.

On May 26, we will have peer/instructor conferences beginnning at 12:30 in my office. We will not have a regular class session that day.

When you turn in your revised paper, please underline your thesis.

Please also turn in both the peer reading sheets you received and the peer reading reading sheets you wrote for others.

And, finally, also write and turn in a COMMENTARY.

Commentary: 1-2 pages on the writing of your paper. How did things go? What sort of trouble spots did you run into? How did you handle them? What did you learn--from handling trouble spots and from having your paper read by a peer reader? Did anything about your thinking surprise you?
The commentary is informal and will not be graded, but it is required.

T O P I C S
(Actually, these are topic areas; you will need to refine the one you use. You may also shape your own topic if you discuss it with me early in the quarter.)

1. Connections: What are connections and what difference does it make to have connections or not have them? What does Austen achieve by her treatment of connections? Is this treatment the same in each of the novels you analyze? Or is it different?

2 Books are often important in Austen's novels.

3. Imagine one of your novels as a "rewriting" of a previous one. What would such a rewriting imply? And what difference does it make to see the novels in this way?

(Chronology is obviously important here. Mansfield Park might be a rewriting of Sense and Sensibility. Persuasion might be a rewriting of either Sense and Sensibility or Mansfield Park.)

4. Bodily functions: Do bodily functons ever come into view in the novels? People cry. They laugh. Do they sneeze? What else do they do or not do with their bodies? What kind of conclusions can you draw because of the body's functional presence or absence? What would be unthinkable in an Austen novel?

5. Dependence and independence are important concepts in Austen. How are they understood in the novels that interest you.?

6. Houses and estates are important in several of Austen's novels. Analyze the function of houses or estates in 2 novels. What does this sort of property say about Austen's novels?

7. The language of the senses: Notice and search for Austen's use of the language of the senses (sight, touch, hearing, tasting, and smelling). Does such language point to literal or metaphorical experience? What inferences can you draw about the novel(s) from Austen's treatment of the experiences? Is one novel different from another in this respect. Based on Austen's use of the language of the senses, what claims can you make?

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Bibliographical items that may be of interest

From JSTOR

MONEY IN JANE AUSTEN
ROBERT D. HUME
The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 64, No. 264 (APRIL 2013), pp. 289-310

Jane Austen and her Critics
Malcolm Pittock
The Cambridge Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 3 (2003), pp. 251-275

Jane Austen and the Happy Fall
Stefanie Markovits
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 47, No. 4, The Nineteenth Century (Autumn, 2007), pp. 779-797

Jane Austen's Periods
MARY A. FAVRET
NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 42, No. 3, Theories of the Novel Now, Part II (FALL 2009), pp. 373-379.

Review of Peter Know-Shaw, Jane Austen and the Enlightenment; Review of William Deresiexicz, Jane Austen and the Romantic Poets; Review of Jillian Heydt-Stevenson, Austen's Unbecoming Conjuctions: Subversive Laughter, Embodied History; Review of Ann Gaylin, Eavesdropping in the Novel From Austen to Proust
JOCELYN HARRIS
Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol. 60, No. 4 (March 2006), pp. 510-527

A Nation without Nationalism: The Reorganization of Feeling in Austen's "Persuasion"
Anne Frey
NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 38, No. 2/3, New Work on Eighteenth-Century Fiction (Spring - Summer, 2005), pp. 214-234

Jane Austen on Love and Pedagogical Power
PATRICK FESSENBECKER
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 51, No. 4, The Nineteenth Century (AUTUMN 2011), pp. 747-763

PEER READER GUIDELINES
1. Read the paper until you find the thesis. Circle the key terms of the thesis, and put an asterisk next to it in the margin of the paper. Based on the thesis statement, how do you expect the essay to unfold? Can you imagine objections that the writer should take into account? Do you remember any material from our reading that might be helpful to the writer? (That is, can you offer the writer specific quotations that might be useful in the development of his or her paper?)
2. Read the paper through for a first impression. What strikes you about it? What are its best sections?

3. Were you right about the thesis? If not, what now appears to be the thesis to you? Does the paper follow through on it? If the paper seems to have more than one thesis, do you see any relation between them?

4. Locate and underline transitions between paragraphs. Do the transitions follow the "plot" or "argument" of the material being analyzed? Or do they follow the development of the writer's thinking?

5. Comment in detail on a paragraph that "works" and a paragraph that doesn't. What hooks sentences together in the paragraph that works? What kind of help does the non-working paragraph need?

6. What did you learn from the paper? What do you think the writer will learn from you?

Paragraph and Sentence Pointers
Say what you mean: Put the most important meaning words in the most important grammatical positions. This move is one of your most important revision strategies. It will help you get rid of wordiness, initial delaying constructions, and clunky clauses; and it will encourage you to subordinate properly.*

Hook-ups: Sentences in a paragraph must "hook on to" preceding sentences. In each case, look for the stated or implied connector.
In hooking on to a previous sentence, each sentence does something to the previous one. You need to be able to say what each sentence is doing to the one before it.
If your sentences have not met each other yet, they don't belong in the same paragraph.

Develop your paragraphs: Most paragraphs in English start out in a certain direction and keep on going that way. Many start in one direction and then turn (with such words as "however" and "nevertheless"). There are two "rules" about turning: a) you can only turn once per paragraph; b) all sentences following the turn
support that turn OR the original direction of the paragraph.* (One apparent exception is only apparent; I'll explain it in class.)

Test your paragraphs with the "paragraph test": cut the paragraph into sentences and see if another intelligent, attentive person can put the paragraph together again.

*These two ideas are from Frederick Crews's The Random House Handbook.

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Key to AJVS comments and questions

√= nice, good, etc.

√√ = very nice, good, etc.

_______ ________= Something is wrong with the connection between circled or underlined elements.

¶ = Paragraph.

¶ development, coherence, and unity.

(See paragraph and sentence pointers.)

Sp = spelling.

SS = sentence structure.

SVA = subject-verb agreement.

// ism = parallelism.

ref = reference not clear (for pronouns, etc.).

frag = sentence fragment.

P = punctuation problem.

ROS = run-on sentence.

NI = not idiomatic.

Pass = passive voice used inappropriately.

Pred = predication. Something is wrong with the way you are putting together a subject and a verb.

wd ch = problem with word choice.

T = problem with shift in verb tense or with sequence of tense.

# = spacing. You need to add a space or spaces.

POV = point of view. You may want me to explain this problem while looking at your paper.

Rep = repetition.

Redundant = redundant.

Transition = Something amiss with transition between sentences or paragraphs.

Subordination = problem with subordination.

Logic = Problem with logic, e.g., your evidence doesn't match your claim; you have made an unacknowledged assumption or you have assumed agreement that doesn't exist; you have drawn an inference that doesn't follow from your observation or from your evidence.

Meaning ? = Even with effort, I find this sentence or phrase
hard to understand.

Hm . . . = I'm not persuaded. Sounds doubtful to me.

This = Try not to usethe word this without a noun following it. Say this point, this idea, this problem, etc., rather than this, this, this.

GSS = Getting-started sentences; omit.

TOS = Too obvious to state.

TSINWVH = This sentence is not working very hard.

TSDNATKEO = These sentences do not appear to know each other. Please introduce them. And please see paragraph and sentence pointers: "hook-ups."

AMAT = Ask me about this [point].

CA = Clarify assertion. One frequent possibility: Put the most important meaning words in the most important grammatical positions. See advice on sentences and paragraphs: "Say what you mean."

Condense = Clarify assertions, subordinate appropriately, and aim for economy in expression. You often need to condense in order to see what needs to be developed.