Based on the book “The Box Man” by Kobo Abe ISBN:978-0-375-72651-4 1. Select a short passage from “The Box Man” by Kobo Abe. 2. Highlight (or underline or circle) two or three SHORT pieces of language (preferably single words, but 3-4 word images are also fine) on the copy of the text you’ve chosen that together add up to a constellation of meaning that we may have missed on a casual reading. These short units should form a pattern that convincingly suggests the text’s interest in a particular idea. 3. Do a close reading of the passage you’ve chosen, showing how the language of the text that you have identified (step 2 above) shows us something about the themes and structures we have observed. If you have chosen a work with an audio or visual component, make sure that your discussion takes into account (to some extent) the way that the music or visual art complicates or emphasizes the pattern that you’ve observed in the text.General close reading guidelines: As we’ve discussed, a close reading is not a summary or a rundown of the larger themes that appear in the work you’re examining; you will be arguing a theory of your own devising about something that you’ve found interesting (or better, troubling!) in one of the works we’ve explored in class. You want to reveal something beyond the superficial level, something that can’t be contained in a point-by-point summary of what “happens.” Avoid summary. Instead, state your claim and support it with the details that you’ve found; discuss how these details lead us to think about particular ideas in the text that may not be so apparent at first glance. Your argument should be quite focused. Make sure that you’re arguing a specific point, not attempting to handle a large theme or topic – trying to write a paper on “The Role of the Author in [insert work title here]” is far too general for this kind of focused assignment. You will want keep your focus trained on the “small picture” instead of the “big picture.” Because your essay will be focused on the way that ONE pattern of small details works, you will want to avoid any topic that creates a need to list a bunch of examples instead of staying rooted in one special case. Your essay should show how the very specific language (whether visual or textual) you’re handling (from the particular passage you’re reading) adds unique nuance to the larger themes; make sure that you’re not simply saying that your passage is just one example of a general tendency. In other words, if you’re writing about an evocative pseudonymous name in your text, you’ll want to discuss the way that the single name reverberates through the passage (that is, how it forces us to rethink how we read other words and images in the passage) rather than listing a bunch of separate instances of interesting names. You want to be VERY aware of what can be done well in a short essay. Cramming what should be a book-length project into a short essay will either lead to an extremely superficial reading or a nervous breakdown. Again, your goal is to argue an implicit point, not to catalogue examples. Your argument should give a particular reading of what your author/illustrator is saying about a major issue through very specific evidence. “Evidence” for this kind of essay is in the form of quotation and analysis of specific language. However, you do not want to pad your paper with huge blocks of quoted text. You should call attention to specific nuances in the text, quoting specific, SHORT (a word, a short phrase, a line) examples of strange or telling language. ALWAYS cite where you’ve found your evidence. You may need to refer to text outside of the short passage that you’re examining, but make sure that your focus is squarely on the passage you’re looking at. Whenever you quote something, make sure that you’re interpreting it — never ask a quotation to “speak for itself” or use it to summarize an author’s main point. Again, you want to be showing how the author’s particular choice of language reveals something not immediately apparent about his/her attitude about the material he/she is discussing.
