TERM PAPER
(BASED ON MODULE ONE: PSYCHOANALYTIC / ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM)

Answer One (1) of the following questions:

Freudian Psychoanalytic Criticism

1. "For Freud, a literary work is analogous to its author’s dream." Referring closely to his essay "Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming," discuss Freud's conception of the relationship between the literary work and its author.

2. Carefully analysing his concept of the anxiety of influence, discuss Bloom’s model of authorship and, by extension, literary history.

3. Illustrating you answer with reference to a brief literary work of your choice (e.g. a short story or poem), outline the main objectives of and characteristic steps taken by a Freudian psychoanalytic critic.

Jungian Archetypal Criticism

4. "For Jung, the significance of a literary work transcends the personal life of its author." Referring closely to his essay "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry," discuss Jung's conception of the relationship between the literary work and its author.

5. Illustrating you answer with reference to a brief literary work of your choice, outline the main objectives of and characteristic steps taken by a Jungian Archetypal critic.

Feminist Criticism: Psychoanalytic / Archetypal Emphases

6. Carefully analysing their concept of the anxiety of authorship, discuss the model of authorship and, by extension, literary history advanced by Gilbert and Gubar.

7. Discuss the archetypal patterns which Pratt discerns in women's fiction.

Anti-colonial Criticism: Psychoanalytic / Archetypal Emphases

8. "I read white books and little by little I take into myself the prejudices, the myths, the folklore that have come to me from Europe" (192-3).  How exactly, according to Fanon in Black Skin White Masks, does this process occur and what is its most important effect?

9. "Now there is a persistent, established theory which contends that the Middle Passage destroyed the culture of these people, that it was such a catastrophic, definitive experience that none of those transported during the period from 1540 to 1840 escaped trauma.  But modern research is pointing to a denial of this showing that African culture not only crossed the Atlantic, it crossed, survived and creatively adapted itself to its new environment.  Caribbean culture was therefore not pure African, but an adaptation carried out mainly in terms of African tradition" (191-192).  In what ways, according to Brathwaite, is an 'African presence' detectable in Caribbean literature?

10. What are the "epic stratagems" (378) which, according to Harris in "The Limbo Gateway," the "arts of the imagination" (378) make "available to Caribbean man in the dilemmas of history which surround him" (378)?

PLEASE NOTE:

Deadline: 6 pm, Thursday March 6, 2003 Late submissions will be penalised; ALL ESSAYS MUST BE SUBMITTED TO ME IN PERSON

Length: between 5 and 7 pages (I will not read anything that exceeds this limit):

• the paper should be type-written
• the paper should be double-spaced
• pages should be numbered
• please insert a word count at the end

Documentation: all references in your essay must be correctly documented

Bibliography: your essay must be accompanied by a correctly compiled List of Works Consulted

Advice:

• Essays must be written according to the guidelines laid out in The MLA Handbook.  These guidelines are summarised in the Faculty of Humanities and Education Essay-Writing Guidelines and in my own Essay Writing Guide.  Poorly presented and documented essays will be penalised.

• Please do not submit your paper in any plastic folder or any other kind of covering: the paper itself is sufficient.

• For advice on essay writing in general, see my set of resources entitled Essay Writing, Marking, Reading, Etc.
• You should keep a copy of the term paper for yourself in case the one submitted gets lost.
• You should not merely regurgitate material drawn from my handouts: essays should demonstrate evidence of engagement with the primary texts listed as required reading.
• Since Module I is tested by this assignment, the final exam will test knowledge of the remaining two modules: Module II and Module III.