Analytic Essay
The purpose of this first paper is to practice sustaining an independent, focused analysis derived from a critical, synthetic reading of the sources provided by the class. This is a chance to practice and re-familiarize yourselves with close reading, the organization of paragraphs, and the uses of “frames” and “cases” in your critical use of sources.
Remember that the “frame/case” model of analysis asks you to use concepts or key terms from some sources in order to “frame” the examples (or cases) provided by other sources.
Main Instructions:
There will not be a formally provided question prompt. You will explore pivotal/significant themes in the assigned readings and develop an original and detailed analysis of them.
The emphasis of the First Analytic Essay is on your focused area of concern or sustained investigation rather than on a definitive argument, per se. Your essay may have a specific argument statement, but it is not required. You might think in terms of having a “project”—something you want the essay to communicate or accomplish.
The purpose of this Analytic Essay is to help you get ready for research writing: identifying problems you wish to solve; mobilizing citations; putting conceptual frames and cases in action with one another; assessing sources and using their conversation to help you develop your own independent understanding of a topic.
Texts to use:
Theoretical Readings:
— Alain Badiou, “The Construction of Love,”(selection from In Praise of Love);
— Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, vol. 1 (selections)
NOTE: utilize one or both of these texts in your development of the paper
At least two of the following case studies:
–Slavoj Žižek, “Sex, Love and Coronavirus;”
–Alenka Zupančič, “Contradictions that Matter: Sex or Gender?;”
–Simon Critchley, “The Rigor of Love;”
–Regina Kunzel, “Sex Panic, Psychiatry, and the Expansion of the Carceral State”
–Donald A. Nielsen, “Charles Manson’s Family of Love: A Case Study of Anomism, Puerilism and Transmoral Consciousness in Civilizational Perspective”
In what ways does the “repressive hypothesis” manifest itself today and how does that affect dominant conceptions of love?
In addition to discussing Badiou and Foucault, you might also engage with Kunzel, Critchley, and Žižek in answering this question.
Foucault claims that sex and sexuality have always been subjected to different forms of control. Considering this claim about sex, to what extent might one say the same thing about the experience of love?
In responding to this question, it would make sense to engage with the writings of Nielsen, Zupančič, and Kunzel.
If love and sexuality and experiences/concepts that change over time, then how should we anticipate their future development? Considering what the authors have written about each, what does the future of love and sex look like?
In answering this question, one might focus on the dynamic between love and sex. In that sense, Žižek, Zupančič, and Critchley might make sense as possible case studies.
