Order Number |
99933441147 |
Type of Project |
ESSAY |
Writer Level |
PHD VERIFIED |
Format |
APA |
Academic Sources |
10 |
Page Count |
3-12 PAGES |
This assignment is a closed reading from “The fetishism of commodities and the Secret Thereof” by Karl Marx. THIS IS NOT A SUMMARY WRITING TASK.
The first thing you need to do is select a passage from this provided piece. The passage may be several sentences, a paragraph, or two, NOT LONGER. Include the passage in your paper, either at the beginning or end or on a separate page, it does not count toward the required word count.
This is a critical reflection; you need to interpret the specific passage that you chose from the text. Analyze the choice of language, why the author means by saying what he said…… ANALYZE ALL THE TEXT AND THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT THE TOPIC DISCUSSED.
When writing this you ask questions of the text, rather than ask yourself that you think of the topic at hand. You interrogate the text, not your opinions. Close reading is a critical reflection on the logic, multiple meanings, and inferences in a text. You certainly can refer to other parts of the paper from which you have selected a passage, and you can refer to other theorists.
But THIS IS NOT A RESEARCH PAPER so no references to secondary sources are required or recommended; you need not include a list of works cited. Also, your paper need not be thesis-driven: I am more interested in your exploration of issues and possible approaches to questions rather than in conclusions.
You can choose only one idea from the passage, you can choose just one aspect of that or idea or ideas, and you can choose only one approach to analyzing the passage.
I advise choosing a shorter, rather than a longer, passage: just one or two sentences put in conversation with the whole text. The sharper your focus, the richer meaning the is. The paper is freely structured, choose to dive into the analysis from the start. Its a very open paper. EXPRESS CREATIVITY, USE STRONG LANGUAGE NOT REPEATED WORDS AND IDEAS
In close reading it is important to take every word as indispensable to the meaning. No matter how verbose, obscure, or difficult the style seems to you to be, the authors you will read in this course are among the most careful, precise, and insightful thinkers who ever lived. None of them wastes even one single word. Consider each word in terms of the whole reading, but also look closely and the rhetoric, architecture, and argument in your passage.
Consider how the words work with one another, how the ideas work with one another, and how the ideas and the words work or do not work with one another. Try to understand what is said, what is not said, and what is implied. Seek out conflicts as well as harmonies in the author’s presentation. Look for readings of the text that are contrary to your first impressions or to conventional understandings—and to my exposition of the text, for that matter.
In this paper, plunge straight into your analysis rather write an introduction to the author or the author’s work. You are welcome to bring in material from the author’s historical situation or life when and where such information helps you do close reading of the text. But the emphasis should be on understanding the author’s arguments in constructive terms.
If you wish to criticize the author’s ideas, please do this only after writing as fair and good an exposition of his ideas as you can. In general, at this stage of your acquaintance with these ideas, you are best served by confining arguments against he author’s positions ought to be confined to a brief section at the end of the paper.