Answer one of the following questions:

1. Carefully explain Saussure's philosophy of language, stressing those aspects which critique traditional models of signification (such as Plato's, Aristotle's, Locke's, Humboldt's, etc., as you see fit).

2. Carefully explicate Levi-Strauss's model of cultural identity, stressing those aspects which critique traditional models of culture.

3. Carefully explain Volosinov's philosophy of language, stressing those aspects which critique Saussure's model of signification.

4. Discuss Bakhtin's theory of the novel, paying special attention to the role played by the following concepts in the critique of traditional, monologic conceptions of realism: polyphony, double-voiced discourse, heteroglossia.

5. Illustrating your answer with reference to a novel or short story of your choice, discuss the precise steps which a Bakhtinian critic might employ in reading.

6. Discuss Gates's concept of 'Signifyin(g),' showing why many African American (and, by extension, Post-colonial) theorists have found Bakhtinian views on both language and literature appealing.

7. Independent Research: Drawing on any / all the works listed below (as well as any other relevant studies you may discover), discuss how Feminist theorists have engaged with Bakhtinian models of language and literature:

   • Dale Bauer Feminist Dialogics: a Theory of Failed Community

   • Dale Bauer, ed. Feminism, Bakhtin, and the Dialogic

   • Joanne S. Frye "Politics, Literary Form, and a Feminist Poetics of the Novel" (in Michael Hoffman and Patrick Murphy, eds. Essentials of the Theory of Fiction)

   • Karen Hohne, et al., eds. A Dialogue of Voices: Feminist Literary Theory and Bakhtin

   • Gwendolyn Mae Henderson "Speaking in Tongues: Dialogics, Dialectics and the Black Woman Writer’s Literary Tradition" (in Laura Chrisman and Patrick Williams, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory)

ADVICE

Length: approx. 10 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

Essay-Writing:

• 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.

E33D students: since Module I is tested by this assignment, the final exam will test knowledge of the remaining two modules: Module II and Module III.