Sample Paper in MLA format for future reference

Follow the link below to view a sample research paper in MLA format. This resource will be a helpful refresher for you in the future.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090701095636_747.pdf

Mid-term Exam

Hello, all! I'm sorry that I am only just now posting this information, but my Friday proved to be much busier than usual.  This week I hope you will enjoy writing a post-colonialist critique of a film or television episode. I have posted a link to a website with some extra helpful information about this type of criticism to use (if you so choose) in addition to the class notes from Friday.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/10/

This week, in addition to your critical essay, you should also review the main points of Deconstruction,
Reader-Response,  New Criticism, and Post-colonialism. I will provide a poem for you to read in class, and you will be asked to examine and relate what each of these different schools of criticism would identify as the "meaning" of the poem.

Thank you for all of your hard work so far this semester! I am very proud of each of you!

Deconstruction

Follow the link below to find an essay on Deconstruction. On the site this link will lead you to, you will find towards the bottom a link to a sample essay applying Deconstruction to "My Papa's Waltz." Please make sure that if you use this paper at all in your interpretation of the poem that you cite it as a source.

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_decons.html

Another helpful website:
http://www.teachingliterature.org/teachingliterature/criticism.htm

Some Questions for your Analysis:

~What are the binary operations or oppositions that govern the text?

~What ideas, concepts, and values are being established by these binaries?

~By reversing the elements in each of the binaries, can you challenge the previously held value system posited by the original binary?

~After reversing one or more binaries in a given text, can you dismantle your original interpretation of that text?