As I told you for Unit 2, your third formal assignment for the class will be to turn your critical eye on the project from Unit 2. You will write an analysis of the project, reflecting on your participation, your initial expectations, the ideological assumptions you approached the project from, and how (if) those assumptions were called into question. You will analyze, more broadly, the project itself in terms of its representation of "history" and the implications of that representation.
This assignment is a "critique." That is, as you have read the outside essays for this course, "Ideology," "Locations in Theory," "Critique as Radical Praxis," and "Ideological Analysis" you have been learning what it means to analyze "texts" in terms of implications and ideology. You have learned that all texts are written from and are read from ideological lenses. Texts are written to serve purposes, but beyond that, they have implications and do certain "work" in the world. You need to keep all of these concerns as the central focus of your essay.
It is probably most difficult to turn critique on ourselves, on our own work. This will require a lot of effort and the willingness to confront the ways that your own values and beliefs are tied up quite intrinsically with "hegemonic" structures. Your representation of the history in the second unit was a sort of discursive practice, situated in a larger context, constrained by the technology and research methods you chose. The purpose of this assignment is for you to recognize the way your values shape the things you write/create and for you to understand that everything you write has implications in the world. I have emphasized your actions and your ethics in this course; this assignment is designed to have you actively engage with both of those concerns.
Some elements of my evaluation of this essay will include:
• The level at which you critique your group project. (Remember to
refer back to your essays to make sure you understand the definition of
critique.)
• The level at which you talk about the implications of your representation.
• The level at which you are able to connect the goals of unit 2 and
the project you created. That is, what was the assignment for unit 2 designed
to encourage you to do, and what did you actually do?
• The level at which you are able to connect the project that you created
to the ideologies at work (for you individually and within your group).
• The level at which you can explain how the process of examining ideology
at work in representations and in your own work impacts what you write.
Write this essay with enough background information and context so that a reader who hasn't necessarily been sitting in this class understands your group project, the context for that assignment, and the purpose of this essay. The essay must have a claim to significance. The reader of your essay should have some sense of why it was valuable to have learned this with you.
These essays will be put on the MOO as a note. I will read rough drafts at any point and as often as you would like me to.
Final Draft Due December 8, 1998.