Total Required Labor: 285 minutes, ~ 4.75 hours
Close reading is the process of making the implicit explicit.
Please follow all the instructions, and dedicate the time I’ve asked you to to each part of the assignment. Read through the instructions fully before starting step 1. This way, you know what I will be expecting you to hand in. The more time you invest in the process, the easier it will be to write the actual paper in a few weeks. Close reading is as much about the process before you begin writing as it is about what you write.
1. (30 MINUTES)
Please follow all the instructions, and dedicate the time I’ve asked you to to each part of the assignment. Read through the instructions fully before starting step 1. This way, you know what I will be expecting you to hand in. The more time you invest in the process, the easier it will be to write the actual paper in a few weeks. Close reading is as much about the process before you begin writing as it is about what you write.
1. (30 MINUTES)
- Pick a passage from Zitkala-Sa’s memoir, a scene from Turtles Can Fly, or a specific location in the place you want to write about (i.e. a particular cafe, a certain street, a room). You should have a photo of this specific place-- either from your own library, or from the web.
- Choose a passage or scene you find confusing or weird or strange! I promise you that you will have more to say about a moment you find perplexing than about a moment you find straightforward. If, after doing steps 2 and 3, you realize that you don’t have enough to say about this passage, then expand the passage or choose an alternate passage. Spend time choosing a passage you would like to work with. Invest the time, because it will save you time later.
- Passage: These can be important words, verbs, adjectives that repeat, etc. You don’t necessarily have to write the observations out in a list, you can color code them or code them while annotating (i.e. circle key words, underline others, double underline punctuation, swiggly line under adjectives, etc.).
- Scene: Since you cannot annotate the actual passage, you will need to write these observations out in a list. Just make a list of everything-- colors, people, objects, etc.
- Place: Since you cannot annotate the actual place, you will need to write these observations out in a list. Just make a list of everything. You can also draw on your memory here. For example, if you remember a particular woman playing guitar in a cafe, but she's not in the image, you can still list her.
- Turtles Can Fly: You should really be thinking about what the various objects, places, disabilities, powers, etc. symbolize. What are all the things you can associate with “turtles” for example. This activity will really unlock the film for you.
- Place: Different places make you feel certain ways (nostalgic, homesick, intellectual, wild) because of the what we associate with the details in them. So, really spend time understanding what you associate with the various objects, details, smells, etc. from that place. For example, "the smell of coffee in the Cafe"-- home, breakfast, comfort, sleep, drowsiness, early morning travel.
- Look at your lists and your free associations. Now, start to make sense of what you've come up with. Ask and answer the following questions with a free-write: What stands out to you already? Are there any strange patterns? What kinds of themes do you notice in the passage? What kind of tensions do you notice in the list. For example, is there one free association list that's led you to ideas of leisure and play and another that's led you to ideas of work and discipline. Take time to slowly come out of uncertainty and make sense of the material before you.
For Zitkala-Sa and Turtles Can Fly:
1. (15 MINUTES): Look back at your pre-work, and begin to think about what question you can ask of the material.
- What kinds of questions will your chosen passage help you answer?
- Put your primary passage and your pre-work in front of you. Open a new document. Put the question you aim to answer at the top of your document
For Place:
1. (135 MINUTES): Write 1,500 words about the scenes or locations you’ve described. Once you've done that for a couple hundred words, then just spend the rest of your words writing about your memory and personal experiences. You will need a lot of personal experiences and details to launch you into the research portion of your paper, so take the time just remembering, writing about the place you're interested in exploring for the paper.