Please either print out your paper and put it i the pink folder on the door of my office or send it to me as an e-mail attachment. The deadline is midnight on Friday, January 31st.
Thank you. Enjoy your holiday!
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Thesis and supporting arguments; the right way and the wrong way.
Wrong: Topic
question: Why does Charlotte Bronte make Jane Eyre not pretty?
Reason
one:
Reason
two;
Reason
three:
This is
wrong because it takes a fact (Jane is not pretty) and gives three
reasons for the fact. There is no thesis
Right: Topic
question: Why does Charlotte Bronte make Jane Eyre not pretty?
Answer: Charlotte Bronte makes Jane plain because she is a feminist
writer [this is just an example; there could be other answers]* This answer is the thesis.
First
argument showing that this answer is right
Second
argument showing that this answer is right
Third
argument showing that this answer is right
A thesis
is something people could disagree with. It is not just a fact.
*It's
a good idea to think about the other answers. One answer could be "Because
she preferred clever women to pretty ones". Another answer could be "Because
she wasn't pretty herself". Thinking about all the possible answers helps
us to decide which is the best answer. If we read critics who give an answer we
disagree with, we can attack their wrong idea as part of our paper.
Jane's attitude toward poverty
I want to write about Jane's attitude toward poverty. Jane's attitude toward poverty has changed as she has grown up. When she is still at Gateshead , Mr. Lyon asks her if she wants to live with her relations who are suggested to be poor. She refuses it and says she is "not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste." Based on this remark, it can be seen that she has bias to poverty when she was little.
When she becomes adult, she said to Hannah that “ Some of the best people that ever lived have been as destitute as I am; and if you are a Christian, you ought not to consider poverty a crime.” It seems that Jane does not have bias to poverty anymore. However, as a narration of this story, when she mentioned her hard time of wandering Morton without money, she says she “can scarcely bear to review the times to which I allude: the moral degradation, blent with the physical suffering, form too distressing a recollection ever to be willingly dwelt on. I blamed none of those who repulsed me. I felt it was what was to be expected, and what could not be helped: an ordinary beggar is frequently an object of suspicion; a well-dressed beggar inevitably so.” Through this remark of her, it can been seen that she actually hate poverty. Based on this reason, Bonvenuto says “Jane is in no position to lecture Hannah about her duty to the poor” (621) In other words, Jane still has bias to poverty.
However, it can not say the Jane still have bias to poverty only because the memory of poverty is so hard for her that she does not want to mention. In addition, she says " an ordinary beggar is frequently an object of suspicion; a well-dressed beggar inevitably so." she seems to blame poverty through this remark but she does not say or imply that she agrees this idea. She just says what other people would think not denies poverty. I want to prove this thesis in my paper.
When she becomes adult, she said to Hannah that “ Some of the best people that ever lived have been as destitute as I am; and if you are a Christian, you ought not to consider poverty a crime.” It seems that Jane does not have bias to poverty anymore. However, as a narration of this story, when she mentioned her hard time of wandering Morton without money, she says she “can scarcely bear to review the times to which I allude: the moral degradation, blent with the physical suffering, form too distressing a recollection ever to be willingly dwelt on. I blamed none of those who repulsed me. I felt it was what was to be expected, and what could not be helped: an ordinary beggar is frequently an object of suspicion; a well-dressed beggar inevitably so.” Through this remark of her, it can been seen that she actually hate poverty. Based on this reason, Bonvenuto says “Jane is in no position to lecture Hannah about her duty to the poor” (621) In other words, Jane still has bias to poverty.
However, it can not say the Jane still have bias to poverty only because the memory of poverty is so hard for her that she does not want to mention. In addition, she says " an ordinary beggar is frequently an object of suspicion; a well-dressed beggar inevitably so." she seems to blame poverty through this remark but she does not say or imply that she agrees this idea. She just says what other people would think not denies poverty. I want to prove this thesis in my paper.
Reference
Bonvenuto, Richard. “The Child of Nature, the Child
of Grace, the Unresolved Conflict of Jane Eyre”, ELH, 39: 4 (Dec.,
1972): 620-638
Strangeness of Jane Eyre
In "Reflection on Feminism in Jane Eyre", Gao says "Jane is uniqe". However, was Jane really unique when Jane Eyre was published? I want to prove whether Jane was unique or not. I don't decide thesis statement. I will make clear my thesis while I write my report.
HOW MANY REFERENCES?
A good academic paper should be well-referenced, with information taken from a variety of sources. Usually, we will refer to sources three or four times or more in each paragraph of the main body, and probably several times in the introduction, too. Some of those references will be to Jane Eyre, but others will be to academic papers and books about Jane Eyre or related topics.
So there may be something between about ten and twenty references to research sources apart from Jane Eyre in a 1000-word research paper. We probably don't refer to the same source more than two or three times, so that suggests that we might have about five to ten different reference sources.
The quality of the references is also important. We should avoid reference sources written for the general public, or for children or for learners of English, or even for students. They are all OK for background information, and to help us get started on our research, but we want our paper to look like a "real" research paper, so we should limit ourselves to reference sources written by academics for academics.
So there may be something between about ten and twenty references to research sources apart from Jane Eyre in a 1000-word research paper. We probably don't refer to the same source more than two or three times, so that suggests that we might have about five to ten different reference sources.
The quality of the references is also important. We should avoid reference sources written for the general public, or for children or for learners of English, or even for students. They are all OK for background information, and to help us get started on our research, but we want our paper to look like a "real" research paper, so we should limit ourselves to reference sources written by academics for academics.
Monday, 6 January 2014
WRITING AN ACADEMIC PAPER
Remember, the purpose of an academic paper is to prove a thesis. The thesis is the answer to a topic question. A topic question arises from research (finding out what other people have said about the topic) and the answer to the question comes from more research and analysis.
Research and analysis ("R&A") are the basic tools of the Information Age. If you can use them to write a paper on Jane Eyre you can use them to find out about almost everything that is going on in this world.
The main aim of this writing class is to teach you to write a well-structured 5-paragraph 1000-word paper. I've shown you the basic structure before, but here it is again:
1. The title. This usually gives the topic, the book and the author, in any order.
2. Introduction (one paragraph). This gives necessary background, leading to the thesis statement, followed by a summary of the main arguments in support of the thesis. The background should be focused on the topic. It often explains what other critics have said about the topic. The thesis statement should be a debatable point that critics are in some disagreement about; your thesis is the side of the discussion that you agree with. The arguments should be clearly explained so that they make sense by themselves; this usually means that each one should be explained in a clause or sentence with a main verb.
3. Main body (three paragraphs). Each paragraph of the main body gives a detailed explanation of one of the supporting arguments.
4. Conclusion (one paragraph). The conclusion should give a more detailed explanation of the thesis, drawing on information given in the main body.
In addition, we will try to give our paper the following features:
a) In-text references for all information used, not just quotes.
b) Full references in a list of works cited.
c) Formal academic style throughout. The main points are: no short forms, such as "it's" or "can't"; no addressing the reader directly as "you"; no slang or idiomatic conversational language ("children", not "kids", "lover", not "girlfriend", etc.); correct use of conjunctions (mostly "and", "but", "so" and "because").
d) Clear, simple accurate English. Check your use of articles (the/a/an), plurals and verb endings, verb tense, use of prepositions, etc. Stick mainly to a basic subject/verb/object construction unless you are very confident that you can control more complex sentence forms.
I want to give you as much guidance as possible to help you to write a really professional paper, so please keep posting messages on this blog, keep sending me e-mails about your paper and come and see me in my office if you want to talk through your work one-to-one.
The paper should be roughly 1000 words (it can be longer, but it shouldn't be much shorter than that). Quotes should not be more than about 15-20% of the total. The due date is January 31, using Turnitin.
See you in the CALL room on Thursday.
Research and analysis ("R&A") are the basic tools of the Information Age. If you can use them to write a paper on Jane Eyre you can use them to find out about almost everything that is going on in this world.
The main aim of this writing class is to teach you to write a well-structured 5-paragraph 1000-word paper. I've shown you the basic structure before, but here it is again:
1. The title. This usually gives the topic, the book and the author, in any order.
2. Introduction (one paragraph). This gives necessary background, leading to the thesis statement, followed by a summary of the main arguments in support of the thesis. The background should be focused on the topic. It often explains what other critics have said about the topic. The thesis statement should be a debatable point that critics are in some disagreement about; your thesis is the side of the discussion that you agree with. The arguments should be clearly explained so that they make sense by themselves; this usually means that each one should be explained in a clause or sentence with a main verb.
3. Main body (three paragraphs). Each paragraph of the main body gives a detailed explanation of one of the supporting arguments.
4. Conclusion (one paragraph). The conclusion should give a more detailed explanation of the thesis, drawing on information given in the main body.
In addition, we will try to give our paper the following features:
a) In-text references for all information used, not just quotes.
b) Full references in a list of works cited.
c) Formal academic style throughout. The main points are: no short forms, such as "it's" or "can't"; no addressing the reader directly as "you"; no slang or idiomatic conversational language ("children", not "kids", "lover", not "girlfriend", etc.); correct use of conjunctions (mostly "and", "but", "so" and "because").
d) Clear, simple accurate English. Check your use of articles (the/a/an), plurals and verb endings, verb tense, use of prepositions, etc. Stick mainly to a basic subject/verb/object construction unless you are very confident that you can control more complex sentence forms.
I want to give you as much guidance as possible to help you to write a really professional paper, so please keep posting messages on this blog, keep sending me e-mails about your paper and come and see me in my office if you want to talk through your work one-to-one.
The paper should be roughly 1000 words (it can be longer, but it shouldn't be much shorter than that). Quotes should not be more than about 15-20% of the total. The due date is January 31, using Turnitin.
See you in the CALL room on Thursday.
Wednesday, 18 December 2013
The Madwoman and Her Languages: Why I Don't Do Feminist Literary Theory
"The Madwoman and Her Languages: Why I Don't Do Feminist Literary Theory"
thesis:Woman's death is not good things.
Background: Nine cannot ignore the work Bronte has put into definding Bertha out of humanity.
The creature(Bertha) is wholly hateful, and no wonder :she has stolen Jane's man. Jane's rage against Rochester , one might say, is deflected to what a feminist might well see as innocent victim.
The woman ,rather than man, becomes her adversary;that woman's death is necessary as Rochester's blinding for Jane's liberation.
Nina Baym.The Madwomwn and Her Languages:Why I Don't Do Feminist Literary Theory. University of Tulsa.(1984):45-59
"Jane Eyre, from Governess to Girl Bride"
thesis
"the novel continues to prove unsettling in its
use of gender identities and its associations of gender with class and age"
Godfrey Esther, "Jane Eyre, from Governess to
Girl Bride", SEL Studies in English Literature,45:4( 1500-1900): 853-871
necessary background
"Since its publication in 1847, readers of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre have debated the subversive implications of this text. The plot conventions of Jane’s rise to fortune and the marriage union that concludes the novel suggest conservative affirmations of class and gender identities that seemingly contradict the novel’s more disruptive aspects."
supporting argument
Victorians("Jane
Eyre" was written in 1947 and it is related Victorian period.) were
expected to marry within same class, but in"Jane Eyre" we can see
less strong class conflicts. Jane is not rich and Mr. Rochester is wealth, but
they marry.
What Did Jane Eyre Do?
thesis
The topic of this academic paper is " Does Jane Eyre achieve a class consciousness??".
The theme is "literary criticism has tended to treat
ideology in economistic terms as a fixed, normative field of discourse that
represses social reality, a conception that underlies the now commonplace
characterization of Victorian texts as both subverting and supporting ideology."
back ground
*What Jane Eyre does is that it assumes that the novel embodies a fixed ideology represented in the subjectivity of its heroine and inexorably produced in the reading subject, a view that obscures the involvement of the text in producing—not just reproducing—ideologies and identities as well as the variety of uses to which reading subjects can put this textual material.
*What Jane Eyre does is that it assumes that the novel embodies a fixed ideology represented in the subjectivity of its heroine and inexorably produced in the reading subject, a view that obscures the involvement of the text in producing—not just reproducing—ideologies and identities as well as the variety of uses to which reading subjects can put this textual material.
*Because ideology is always being produced in time, we
should see the novel as producing, not merely reproducing, ideology.
About a title
the title of this academic paper gives the book title and
the topic.
Work Cited
Vanden Bossche, Chris R. "What Did Jane Eyre Do?
Ideology, Agency, Class and the Novel" , The Ohio State University: (2005)
46-66
Unaccommodated Woman and the Poetics of Property in Jane Eyre
Thesis:
This paper examines the equivocal and often erratic nature of Bronte's radicalism, which makes her
response to the manorial ethos resistant to any consistent formulation. The religious rhetoric, especially, is the source of a covert endorsement of patriarchalism that subverts more liberal impulses
evident elsewhere. What emerges ultimately is not a dialectic between different orders of value, but a radical text which is qualified in significant ways by a conservative subtext.
Background:
In our own time, it has been sacralized as a handbook for feminists and revolutionaries, articulating
all the rage of the unaccommodated and dispossessed. But contemporary adulation of Bronte the radical feminist often overlooks the tenacity of her Tory convictions, which inform even Jane Eyre, arguably one of the most unorthodox of her novels. It is true that Bronte endeavors to inaugurate in Jane Eyre a new and different discourse about the structures of power in nineteenthcentury England.
Work Cited:
Parama Roy,"Unaccommodated Woman and the Poetics of Property in Jane Eyre" , Studies in English Literature, 29:4 (1989): 713-727
This paper examines the equivocal and often erratic nature of Bronte's radicalism, which makes her
response to the manorial ethos resistant to any consistent formulation. The religious rhetoric, especially, is the source of a covert endorsement of patriarchalism that subverts more liberal impulses
evident elsewhere. What emerges ultimately is not a dialectic between different orders of value, but a radical text which is qualified in significant ways by a conservative subtext.
Background:
In our own time, it has been sacralized as a handbook for feminists and revolutionaries, articulating
all the rage of the unaccommodated and dispossessed. But contemporary adulation of Bronte the radical feminist often overlooks the tenacity of her Tory convictions, which inform even Jane Eyre, arguably one of the most unorthodox of her novels. It is true that Bronte endeavors to inaugurate in Jane Eyre a new and different discourse about the structures of power in nineteenthcentury England.
Work Cited:
Parama Roy,"Unaccommodated Woman and the Poetics of Property in Jane Eyre" , Studies in English Literature, 29:4 (1989): 713-727
Girl Talk: "Jane Eyre" and the Romance of Women's Narration
Thesis;
The novel is read as a "revolutionary manifesto of the
subject". Jane's value as a feminist heroine is "figured in the
ability to tell (if not direct) her own story".
Kaplan, Carla. "Girl Talk: "Jane Eyre" and the
Romance of Women's Narration", NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, 30:1
(1996): 5-31
JANE'S CROWN OF THORNS: FEMINISM AND CHRISTIANITY IN "JANE EYRE"
Thesis:
Given, then, the vexed discourses of
gender, domesticity, and faith surrounding Jane Eyre’s production, an easy
reading of the book's ending is neither possible nor desirable.
Background:
These ambiguities reflect the tensions real
Victorian women of faith experienced in trying to meet multiple, often
conflicting demands in their lives. Such challenges were complicated further by
the fact that nineteenth-century Evangelical Christianity-attentive to the
realities of sin, sorrow, sacrifice, and loss-was no easy creed for women or
men. Despite the attractive "healthy-mindedness" of so much of Jane's
theology in her narrative, the book's tormented ending reminds readers that
Bronte, freethinker as she was, nonetheless subscribed to Christianity that
cherished Christ's "Crown of Thorns" as its standard.
"Haunted by Passion: Supernaturalism and Feminism in Jane Eyre and Villete"
Theses:
“The treatment of supernaturalism in Jane Eyre and Villette reveals
a great deal about expectations for women in Bronte's time.”
“Jane and Lucy conceal their passion in order to get by in male dominated society. In Bronte's time, outspoken and aggressive women were generally considered to be unacceptable and unladylike. The ideal woman was calm, quiet, and submissive. Powerful women were often viewed as threatening. The supernatural figures associated with the female protagonists in both novels are robbed of their mysterious allure. Like Jane and Lucy, they are stripped of their power.”
Works Cited: Lorber, Laurel P., "Haunted by Passion: Supernaturalism and Feminism in Jane Eyre and Villete", Dissertations and Theses. (2013): 4-39
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