Ode on a Grecian URL

More topics may be added later this week.

Topic 1: There may no such thing as a bad question, but there are certainly good questions

You'll hear me babble a few times this semester about Active Reading. An active reader engages with the text -- the text is a conversation between the author and the reader, and she participates actively in that conversation.

The distinguishing characteristic of the active reader is her aptitude at asking questions of the text. These questions dig into the subtleties of the author's intent, and they can only be answered by engaging with the text closely. Usually, the answer to one of these questions leads to more difficult and more interesting questions.

An example: Why has Austen given the Bennets five daughters and no sons? (I imagine you have begun to answer that question already, and that answer is beginning to propel you into new questions -- at least, that's what it should be doing if it is a good question and if you are an active reader.)

Ask a question that begins to dig into the social, political, or aesthetic layer of Pride and Prejudice by asking why Austen chose to structure her text in a certain way or to include certain details. Once you have laid out the question, begin to answer it in such a way as to expose other questions to which this question leads. In so doing, engage closely with a sentence or two from the text, building your analysis off of details like form (epigram, dialog, letter) or word choice -- that is to say, you should imitate the textual specificity of Prof. Ortiz-Robles's lectures as best you can.

Your hebdomadal need not have a conclusion, but should instead spiral off into a series of increasingly interesting and sophisticated questions.

Topic 2: Thematic analysis

A theme is a problem or idea that comes up repeatedly in a text. At root, themes are broad (marriage, money, religion); however, authors tend to deal with them in fairly narrow ways (the difficulty of knowing a partner's character before marriage; the uncertain relationship between wealth and marriageablitily; the role of religion in a social world).

Find a theme in Pride and Prejudice that has not been mentioned in lecture. To find a theme, you might look for a situation that comes up again and again, or you might instead look for a word or idea that comes up frequently. (There are other ways of looking and other kinds of themes, but these might be the two easiest.) Pick two specific moments in the text where this theme surfaces and, by comparing the language and form of those two moments, suggest in detail the significance of that theme for Austen. Hazard a guess at how that specific theme connects to Austen's larger point in the novel.

This is not an easy question. Don't fret if you feel unsure how to answer this -- don't hesitate to take risks, and send me an email if you have any questions.