“Voice at the Limits of Individual Practice”
Overview:
For your first Writing Project, you will situate and discuss in a theoretical context one of our vocal texts. To do so successfully, you will need to clearly and succinctly describe the question or questions provoked by your chosen vocal text. You will also need to carefully and conscientiously mark theoretical and historical coordinates useful to this discussion. You might consider asking, as a starting point, how your vocal text demonstrates shortcomings or calls into question various ideas in the theoretical context. And, I want to caution you against thinking of your vocal text as an “example” of the ideas formulated in the critical context. Instead, how does your vocal text also “think” alongside our philosophers, linguists, and cultural critics? Taken together as a whole, how does the constellation of ideas in your conjunction of theorists and vocal texts reorient the coordinates of the voice?
To successfully address the above, you will need to work closely with all of your texts. Since at least one of those texts will involve sound, you will need to practice the skills of quotation, paraphrase, close reading, and thick description. If you offer a quotation, you should also be able to situate that quotation within the author’s larger argument. And if you present through thick description a moment in your vocal text, you should also be able to connect that moment to the larger movements of the piece.
Requirements:
At least two theorists, and one vocal text.
Word-count: 1,250 – 1,500 words.
Assigned: Jan. 14.
Writing Center Conference: Make appointment here (not required).
Conferences: Feb. 4 – Feb. 7.
In-Class Peer Review: Feb. 8.
Final Draft Due: Feb. 11.
