The essays should be 4-5 pages long and you are allowed to bring in outside sources to support your arguments. So when you use historical or social or biographical detail while discussing your chosen text you must show your reader (me) how you know the information. If you want to use MLA that’s great, try this link for a basic guide: MLA Style Guide for Creating Works Cited Lists. However, the key is to make it so that I find it easily (for example Author, Title, Publisher, Year, page / act.scene.line).
Note: remember that in a literature course your focus should always be the text that you are reading (or interpreting) so you should use regular short quotations from, and references to specific moments in, the text to keep your argument anchored to the literature.
Some general notes on things to avoid when writing literature essays:
Write in the present tense, but avoid present continuous – Not “is setting the scene” but “sets the scene”
“Through out” doesn’t mean anything.
“Moving on” is not a good way of moving on in an essay… generally you will find that wherever you have written “moving on” simply cutting it out will make things better.
Avoid using superlatives of magnitude as your adjectives when you’re not talking about size. The biggest / greatest / hugest examples of superlatives are not necessarily the most appropriate ones.
Get as close as possible to the text. Tell me what things mean. Tell me what that suggests. Tell me what the implications are on a much broader level.
Avoid generalisations. Be specific. Use sources to tie down what you’re saying to real exemplifiable things.
Avoid speculating, especially about what the author thinks. Just because we read his poem or novel doesn’t mean we know what’s in his/her head.
Avoid buzz words. This is not a movie trailer or Fox News. We use real and accurate language, not buzz and fluff. We’re not trying to excite and bamboozle our readers we’re trying to communicate our complicated ideas to them in an accurate and serious way.
Don’t stack possessives. My cousin’s friend’s aunt’s sister’s husband is possessed by the devil! If you find that you’ve a bundle of -‘s- in a row break them down and write it another way.
Aswel is not a word… As well as means as well as. Also is what you usually mean when you write either of these two things.
One of the most difficult things to comprehend about literature essays is that your opinion matters, but (as with any other subject / science) must be proved. Like a detective, it’s not enough to find out “who dunnit”, you must show how you found out. Imagine me having over your shoulder and every time you make an assertion going, ‘can you prove that?’, or ‘can you show me that in the text?’, or ‘how do we know that?’
Don’t narrate plot (tell me the story) because I’ve already read it. Instead tell me what specific events in the play/novel/poem mean.
Advice: I will upload some summary documents for you that might make the reading of the book easier for you. The teacher likes that we give examples in the book when we want to make a our statement.
Note that eventhough the main character (Pussy) has a lack of gender and Identity, while searching for it, he can not avoid the fact that politics, in a way or another, its present throught the entire story and he can not avoided.
It is important to be aware of the Irish background and history. Understand things like: IRA, Bloody Sunday, and all the historical backround and conflict between North Ireland and the Republic of Ireland during those years. My personal opinion is that he
My opinion is that Patrick has no political identity but not matter how detached he wants to be he is still affected by this reality. It is important to be aware of ’The Troubles’ because it polarized society back then. Males were were given a political identity, while women were apolitical. In other words, women were less of a threat while men were ‘soldiers’. But we know that Patrick is a transgender, so he is neither a man or a woman. I believe he is in a limbo because while searching for his gender and identity (being a man or a women) he doesn’t feel as Irish or British. Again he is in the middle of nowhere at a time when everyone had a very define gender and identity. (You were either protestant or catholic, unionist or labourist, british or irish, man or woman) and he is nothing of that while throughout the book he is constantly given an identity by orders. It is funny because while he is in London he is given a political identity because he is Irish plus also a man. So he cannot escape from a reality that is following him everywhere while his searching.
These are just some of my thoughts that it may or not help you in developing the essay…
It is important that you read the book so that you can citate. It is a short book. It will take you 3 to 4 hours to read.
I will upload a summary of the chapters that will make your life simpler and easier to read.
Sources are not mandatory so don’t bother but you can use one or two if you like for the historical background.
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