Description
Write a 1500-1800 word (~5-6 pp.) essay in which you:
Analyze our Primary Source (2001: A Space Odyssey {Clarke})
Select 4+ passages
focus on a common theme / convention / trope
like: homecoming / nostalgia / nostalgia
gravity / falling / transcending
reflection / specular / fictional / temporal
commodification / reification / personification
n.b. 2+ passages must be from the novel
n.b. I recommend choosing passages that dealing with similar rhetorical issues / complexities / ambiguities and then evaluating which additional passages you might need to build / contextualize your analysis
Contextualize how / where the passage fits into the
genre (science fiction, epic poetry, speculative fiction, cognitive thriller, etc.)
history (aesthetic, autobiographical, political, scientific, economic, etc.)
text (novel, film, part, chapter, scene, passage, etc.
Identify which specific words, phrases, visual / cinematic elements are functioning rhetorically
e.g. metaphor, metonymy, irony, syntax, description, prolepsis, analepsis, metalepsis, line, perspective, texture, pattern, cinematography, mise-en-scène, sound, etc.
Analyze
ambiguity / force of rhetoric
what exactly makes the phrases you’ve identified above rhetorical)
how do they create a variety of meanings open to interpretation?
which of these meanings is more plausible / valuable for your analysis?
which of these meanings does the author / text seem to emphasize / hide?
relationship between the rhetoric of this and other passages
how does the rhetoric of this passage exemplify your theme / convention / trope?
how does it resemble / differ from the other passages?
does it illustrate the same point or does it raise new questions / introduce new aspects?
is its rhetoric simpler or more complex than the other passages.
Incorporate Secondary Sources
Identify / research 3+ additional sources you are drawing for contextual / rhetorical insight
n.b. no more than two of these can be the ones we’ve been using in class (e.g. Aristotle’s Poetics for ethos / pathos / logos; Homer’s Iliad / Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Milton’s Paradise Lost etc. for the conventions of epic poetry; Marx’s Capital for the theory of commodification / personification / reification; Gérard Genette Narrative Discourse for the theory of prolepsis, metalepsis, analepsis, etc.). You may refer to the lectures in citing these sources but I encourage you to research further into the history of any terminology you are using)
n.b. for your 1+ additional secondary source, I recommend skimming the following works for the materials most relevant to your essay: Kramer (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., Kolker (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., Benson (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. (Kramer is among the most cited).
Sample Solution
