22 November 2019

English 330
Guidelines for your final project

Your final essay for this class is due on December 12 at 11:59. This deadline is firm. The
essay should be about 2,000 words long. Please submit it to me by email, as a Word
attachment.

Your final project should represent your best work and serve as a culmination of the
semester’s reading, writing, and discussions. Please choose as your topic the theorist/s
and/or film about which you have the most interesting things to say. Feel free to use one or
more of the papers you’ve completed (or your presentation) as the raw material for your
new project. But, remember that you need to rethink and go beyond the earlier writing—
rather than "adding on" to it.

This essay will be longer than those you’ve done to this point, and it will also be held to a
higher standard. Given this, you need to re-read and re-view any essay or film you will be
working with.

Prompts
Everyone's final project will be unique, and I look forward to our conference. These
prompts are meant to help get you started.

Remember what we are most looking for in these essays: argumentation that comes
through analysis, clear writing, and a final paragraph that steps back to reconsider in a
larger frame the focused argument you have made in the previous paragraphs.

Writing about a movie

We have been talking about movies in this class in basically two ways: 1) in what ways does
a film exhibit a theory?; and 2) how can we use theory to help explain how x film works
and/or what it means? Make sure your essay is doing one or the other (or both). So, you
might argue that Binta and the Great Idea represents a certain aspect of the work of Marx,
Althusser, or Patel and Moore. Another way to approach this would be to show how
Althusser’s essay explains the ideology represented in Javier Fesser’s film. Several of you
are working on projects that discuss how Judith Butler’s conceptions of gender can help us
understand Chiron’s character in Moonlight.

These sorts of connections are clear in part because these two works are grouped together.
But please don't hesitate to mix and match films and theoretical pieces. For example, you
might go back and reconsider Binta from a feminist perspective; or, you could use Mulvey’s
essay to talk about how Daisies challenges traditional film roles for women; or, you could
talk about similarities in James Baldwin’s reading of Hollywood films (in I Am Not Your
Negro) and bell hooks’ “oppositional gaze.”

Whatever you write about, it is imperative that you focus on the visual register of the film.
It's very good to quote the characters, but make sure also to talk about how specific scenes
or shots look and are organized (mise-en-scène), shot (cinematography), or edited. I'd
encourage you to use the Buckland essay (posted on Canvas) for help with categories and
language.
Two theorists, one concept (or technique)
As a class you have completed essays in which you show how two theorists engage with the
same concept, tracing direct and indirect connections between theorists. An example of a
paper making an indirect connection would look at how Marx’s work shows up in
Bhattacharya’s or Patel and Moore’s. Or, you might do something with an still less direct
connection: e.g. comparing Althusser's conception of power with that of Foucault's; or
comparing Anzaldúa's and Butler's conceptions of subjectivity. Or, you could talk about how
Audre Lorde’s and Gloria Anzaldúa’s conceptions of intersectional feminism or ideas about
lesbian politics overlap or differ.

An example of an essay focused on technique might (for example) show how some later
theorist has used Derridean deconstruction (Barthes, Butler, etc.) to make a specific
political or theoretical point.

The direct version of this type of essay would look at how a theorist rethinks or rewrites
another. For example: Derrida rewriting Saussure or Lévi-Strauss; Barthes rethinking
Saussure; Mulvey putting Lacan to use in film feminist analysis; etc.

Important Dates
December 5: Individual conferences.
December 9 and 11: Extra office hours in the library. Specific times to be determined.
December 12: The essay is due by 11:59.
Also: additional meetings upon request

Things to remember
 Do not include the page number in the sentence. Instead… If you need to indicate the
position of a point, maybe say something like “Early/Late in her essay,…” And then,
after you close the quote remember to include the page number in parenthesis.
 Give your essay a title that crystallizes what you have to say.
 Use one-inch margins all around and double space throughout.
 Above all: be argumentative and analytical.