Second Paper Assignment:
For this short but very common length for an academic review (1200 words), first choose any work on the syllabus that you would like to explore further, and then select one published criticism of that work.It may be in print or online, but it needs to be from no earlier than 2000. Evaluate the chosen critical essay. You willneed to do several things before you can write your paper: be able to summarize the critic’s argument; weigh the argument against your own interpretation of that primary text.Also consider the following issues: how to structure your paper; whether to include an explicit summary of the critical piece or not; how to evaluate the author’s assumptions, claims, theoretical stance, evidence etc.; how to evaluate style and readability. Be critical but also respectful of other peoples’ ideas. Criticism need not be synonymous with attack.
Along with your critical review, be sure to turn in an unmarked-up file (or xeroxed paper) copy of the published criticism if it is a short essay or book chapter.
Some sources for criticism:
Any book in the Cambridge Studies in Romanticism series
Byron: Jerome McGann, Jerome Christensen, Andrew Elfenbein, Terrence Hoagwood
Keats: Jack Stillinger, Helen Vendler, Nicholas Roe, Thomas Pfau
Shelley: Stuart Curran, Kim Wheatley, Jerrold Hogle, William Keach, Cian Duffy
Romanticism: M. H. Abrams, Marilyn Butler, Paul
Jerome McGann, James Chandler, Kenneth Johnson, Orrin N. C. Wang,