LITTÉRATURE

THE IMMEASURABLE JOYS OF

DISSERTATION WRITING

M. RAPHAËL COSTAMBEYS-KEMPCZYNSKI

Enseignement universitaire flexible et à distance TELE 3, UNIVERSITE PARIS III-SORBONNE NOUVELLE, 75231 PARIS CEDEX 05 TÉL : 01 45 87 40 92 — FAX : 01 45 87 48 89

Don’t tire yourself out by letting someone else do your thinking. Raphaël Costambeys-Kempczynski [email protected]

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Acknoweldegements In the writing of this booklet I owe great debt to The Norton Introduction to Literature (2001) and to Tom Davis at the University of Birmingham.

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THE IMMEASURABLE JOYS OF DISSERTATION WRITING

CONTENTS I. A brief introduction to the joys of dissertation writing……….……5 A. A few essentials……………………………………………………..5 i. a definition……………………………………………………………… 5 ii. key points……………………………………………………………….6 iii. mapping your dissertation landscape……………………………….….7 a. The Introduction …………………………………………………….……7 b. The Main Body ………………………………………………………….8 c. The Conclusion …………………………………………………………8

iv. helpful hints…………………………………………………………..9

II. Beyond the basics: from joy to ‘jouissance’……………………..10 A. Preparing your sources ………………………………………….11 i. Primary Sources……………………………………………………...11 ii. Secondary Sources…………………………………………………..11 a. Critical Sources ………………………………………………………....11

B. Reading & Note-taking…………………………………………...12 C. Quoting…………………………………………………………… 12 D. Bibliography……………………………………………………....13 i. Books………………………………………………………………... 13 ii. Articles………………………………………………………………13 iii. Internet……………………………………………………………...13

E. Structure………………………………………………………….. 14 i. Sub-sections…………………………………………………………. 14 ii. Language…………………………………………………………….14 a. Style and Register……………………………………………………….14

F. Writing……………………………………………………………. 15 i. What do you think?…………………………………………………..15 a. About fiction…………………………………………………………….16 b. About poetry…………………………………………………………….16 c. About drama……………………………………………………………. 16

ii. Using your notes……………………………………………………. 17 iii. Paraphrase: the students’ Judas……………………………………. 17 iv. The writing-self……………………………………………………..17 v. Re-reading your work………………………………………………. 18

Works Cited…………………………………………………………19 4

I. A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE JOYS OF DISSERTATION WRITING

A. A FEW ESSENTIALS i. a definition

Dissertation: 1. a lengthy, formal treatise ; 2. a formal or elaborate argumentative discourse, oral or written ; 3. a treatise advancing a new point of view resulting from research.

A dissertation is essentially a critical analysis established through a certain number of arguments defined by a given theme. This theme is determined by the title of the dissertation imposed by the lecturer, and is to be treated in direct link to the text you are studying in the course.

NB. The theme may be plural or multifaceted, ie. it could and probably should be understood as encompassing a number of SUB-THEMES.

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ii. key points 1. Understand the title: to establish the theme(s), you must fully understand the title as it shall necessarily contain one or more keywords (you must understand the idea of “title” in its largest scope – it could be a short quote from the text you have been studying as well as a contextualised topic). Even if you think you know and understand the keywords in the title, it is always worthwhile looking them up in a dictionary to ascertain their real potential. For instance, if the title of the dissertation is Autobiography in the Poetry of Simon Armitage, you should look to define the term “autobiography”, even though you undoubtedly know what it means: autobiography: n.; pl. autobiographies. [auto- + biography.] A biography written by the subject of it; memoirs of one's life written by one's self. Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

This definition throws up the important notion of “memoirs”: memoir: (or pl. memoirs) n. A memorial account; a history composed from personal experience and memory; an account of transactions or events (usually written in familiar style) as they are remembered by the writer. Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

Here the concept of “memory” is evoked suggesting that an autobiography is not a factual account of events but a remembered one, and is therefore questionable. This aspect, therefore, should be studied in the dissertation.

2. Be objective: you should also try to offer counter-arguments to your arguments. Onesided arguments are rarely to be trusted. This is also true if you are quoting critics. You need not blindly agree with them. 3. Take care over style and register: make sure your dissertation is a pleasure to read (a good test is to see if your dissertation is accessible to a non-specialist). Neither write as you speak, nor be pompous. 4. Avoid generalisations: sweeping statements, over-simplifications, banalities and niceties, offer neither constructed nor constructive arguments. 5. Please acknowledge your sources. Do not copy or paraphrase a book or article and pass it off as your own work. Chances are the person correcting your dissertation will have read the author you are plagiarising, or will notice the sudden change in language.

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iii. mapping your dissertation landscape Be warned: an introduction does not announce what you are going to say; a conclusion does not recount what you have just said.

a. The INTRODUCTION An introduction should aim to do three essential things: i. Define the title so as to establish the theme(s) you wish to debate; ii. Establish the arguments you will use to debate these themes; iii. Let your reader know the order in which you will deal with your arguments.

The introduction should not anticipate the results of your debate(s). The introduction sets up the main arguments of the dissertation. Do not forget that your readers are not mind-readers (unless they are exceptionally gifted, but this is rare and still awaits scientific verification). You may know your subject inside out, but be careful not to overlook logic because of this. The introduction must establish your take, your perspective on the themes established by the dissertation title. This can be done through a number of different contexts (viz. literary, cultural, historical, political, sociological, etc.). The introduction guarantees the argumentative cohesiveness of the dissertation. Therefore, be sure to establish the way your dissertation will structurally develop.

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b. MAIN BODY i.

The main part must stick to the order of events established in the introduction.

ii. The main part must be coherent. No matter how many sub-parts you are writing make sure the transitions are logical and clear, and that the thought progression is transparent and highlighted. iii. Examples should never be listed, but should be used sparingly as a logical reflection of what you are trying to say. iv. In each sub-part set the question(s) and develop the argument(s) before offering any answers. v. Always remember to justify your ideas, points and arguments by quoting from the original text. But do not quote ad nauseum, quote to illustrate and demonstrate. vi. Write in paragraphs. Though this seems obvious, some of you still do not know what is a paragraph. A simple rule of thumb is that one idea = one paragraph. vii. Do not stray from what you have set out in the introduction. You cannot say everything there is to say on any particular topic in one dissertation (wait till you are writing your doctoral thesis). You will have chosen a limited number or things to deal with in your introduction so stick to them. It is better to offer an in-depth analysis on one aspect of a theme, than superficial comments on a number of different (irrelevant) things.

c. The CONCLUSION A conclusion must not re-evaluate the terms set out by the title or in your introduction. Neither should it be a summary. i.

A conclusion does not have to be long, but neither should it be non-existent. It should be succinct and to the point. You must never see the conclusion as an excuse to say everything you haven’t said in the main body of your dissertation.

ii. A conclusion should not discredit what you have said, but should offer a logical end to your debate. iii. A conclusion should be a synthesis of the different sub-conclusions of the argumentative strands established in the main body of your dissertation, confirming their relevance to the title. iv. Your conclusion can be open-ended. You could pose a further topic of discussion both relevant to the text you are studying and to the theme(s) established by the title that you did not have the space nor the time to develop in your own dissertation. If you can provoke your reader into thinking positively about the topic beyond your own dissertation then you are already halfway to success.

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iv. helpful hints •

Do not write a never-ending ‘stream of consciousness’ dissertation. If you are asked to limit the length of a dissertation make sure this is respected. Under exam conditions, the length of your dissertation shall be dictated by the length of the exam itself. These limits are useful because they force you to focus on a limited number of specific themes.

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Book titles should be underlined if hand-written, in italics if typed. Short stories within a collection should be between ‘single inverted commas’. Quotes of up to a sentence long should be quoted in text and be between “speech marks”. Quotes longer than a sentence should be […] separated and indented from both the left and right margins, and preceded with suspension marks if started mid-sentence.

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You must read and re-read the book(s). This is the most important thing you can do – a good working knowledge of the texts is the best tool you can equip yourself with.

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Learn off by heart about ten quotes from the texts you are studying, they will come in handy for the exam.

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II. BEYOND THE BASICS: FROM JOY TO ‘JOUISSANCE’ Many of the details below apply to dissertations written at home, but read carefully, do the background work, and you will be well-prepared for writing dissertations under exam conditions.

There is no God-given gift to writing that exempts anyone from working at their writing skills, reading themselves, re-writing what they have written, re-reading what they have rewritten. Though I have been able to devise this booklet from work done by other academics on dissertation writing, it still needed to be revised and re-read, not only by myself but by others. And yet it could still be bettered. You must, therefore, understand writing, regardless of the genre, as an apprenticeship. You could learn this booklet off by heart, but only sitting yourself down, writing, handing in your work and receiving a personalised revision of your work will allow you to progress in real terms. So where to begin? An essential factor is that your dissertation is readable and interesting. You do not want your reader to fall asleep halfway through your dissertation. The structure must be clear and easy to follow, and the best way to guarantee interest on behalf of your reader is to make sure you express your own ideas on the texts. Remember: chances are your lecturer will have read most of the books published on the author(s) you are studying, and won’t need you to tell him or her for the umpteenth time what Harold Bloom had to say about William Blake. Though you shouldn’t overlook the obvious, do not spend pages and pages describing what everybody else will have noticed. State these things succinctly but DO concentrate on how the text affects YOU.

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A. Preparing your sources There are two main sources of material you will use when preparing a dissertation: primary and secondary sources.

i. Primary sources These are the texts you are studying. If your course is on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, then your primary source is the text of the play Hamlet by Shakespeare. Read your primary source(s). If you only have time to read one text, make sure it is the primary source. Read it and re-read it. It is far more important to read the primary source than any other text, critical or otherwise. Know the primary source, it is your best guarantee to gaining a good mark for your dissertation. Always give preference to reading other literary texts than critical texts. The more familiar you are with literary texts the more interest you will gain from your reader. References to critics, especially obscure ones, and even worse ones you found on the internet, will inspire nothing from your reader. There are exceptions to this, but for the moment it is important to bear this in mind.

ii. Secondary sources These are all the texts you use other than those you are studying in class, from other works of literature to ALL works of criticism. However, it is important to know how to use these secondary sources, especially texts written by critics. You will not gain marks by quoting already published criticism, however, it is also best to avoid thinking that your brilliant idea is original, when in fact it was said by someone in the nineteenth century. The best way to use critics is either to disagree with them or to use them as springboard for your own reflexion. Never simply quote a critic to agree with him. This simply suggests that you are paraphrasing someone else’s thoughts and haven’t given any thought of your own. a. Critical Sources Use both the university library and your local library (remember you can order books from the university library through your local library). In the library you’ll find two different sources of critical material: books and articles. Do not think that articles are of a lesser value than books. This is false. Besides, articles are more likely to be at your disposal, as books tend to be the first thing to be borrowed. Obviously, tracking down useful articles will take longer, but their content is usually more specific and up to date. The rewards are therefore great. The internet will seem alluring as an easily accessible source for critical works. Be careful: the internet is a democratic tool which, though often a good thing, means that a lot of things you’ll find will be utter rubbish. Remember: it is not because something has been printed in a book, published in an article or posted on the web, that it is the gospel truth.

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B. Reading & Note-taking When you read take notes. It is whilst reading that your best ideas will come to you. Always carry a notebook and pencil with you. Who knows when the spark of the intellect will fire in your mind? The last thing you want is to forget your revelatory idea. As you jot your idea down, others may come to you. No matter if your idea doesn’t seem particularly good, or is in a very rough form. The more ideas you jot down in this fashion the less you are likely to encounter writer’s block. You can always sort the notes out later on. You can also file these notes away and use them as revision tools when it comes to preparing for the dissertation under exam conditions. Note down interesting quotes and why you find them interesting. Remember that you will always need to justify the ideas you have and the best way to do this is to tie them in to a quote from the literary text you are studying. Don’t forget to note down the page/line reference so that you can easily find the quote again. This also applies to secondary sources. In addition, every time you read an article or chapter from a critical book, note down the source and a brief summary of the author’s argument(s). This will always come in useful, especially when revising for the exam. When taking notes from secondary sources, make sure you keep a record of these sources as they will establish the “Works Cited” section of your bibliography. This section should contain all of your secondary sources. Note these sources down even if you don’t quote from them directly as they may well influence your critical appraisal (even subconsciously). Therefore, you must credit these sources.

C. Quoting Chances are you will quote. You shall undoubtedly quote from your primary source(s), you may well quote from critical works or you may simply want to summarise what a critic has said. Whatever the case, it is vital that you signal this to you reader. Whatever the source, there are two primary ways of introducing a quote in your text: 1. When using the author’s name to introduce the quote place the date of the publication and page number in brackets afterwards: Writing about Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Paul Hamilton notes, “Poetry, as an untranslatable medium, symbolises an ideal for desynonymy to aim at” (1983, 84)

2. If you do not use the name to introduce the quote, place the name, date and page number in brackets afterwards: As it has been suggested, “Poetry, as an untranslatable medium, symbolises an ideal for desynonymy to aim at” (Hamilton 1983, 84)

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D. Bibliography Always note down the title, author, publisher, location of the publisher and date of publication of all the books you read. Of course, you cannot be expected to produce a bibliography for a dissertation written under exam conditions, but if you are writing your dissertation at home get into the habit of providing a bibliography. It is beneficial to you to show us that you have researched your dissertation rather than, say, pretending that other people’s ideas are your own.

i. Books Surname, First Name. Date. Full Title: including subtitles. Location: Publisher. Larkin, Philip. 1988. Collected Poems. London: Faber & Faber.

ii. Articles Surname, First Name. Exact Date. ‘Title of Article’. Title of Periodical. Page numbernumbers. Crawford, Robert. 21 August 1997. ‘Deep Down in the Trash’. London Review of Books. p. 21-22.

iii. Internet Surname, First Name. Date. ‘Web page title’. Website Name. Source. Full web address Burt, Stephen. 1999. ‘Review of Hay’. Boston Review. Internet. http://bostonreview.mit.edu/BR24.2/burt.html

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E. Structure We love it when a plan comes together to paraphrase Hannibal from the A-Team. Therefore, make sure you have a clearly defined outline when writing your dissertation. To help in clearly defining your dissertation make sure you know what a paragraph is and make sure you write in paragraphs. The paragraph is the basic element of a dissertation. Every paragraph should develop an idea.

i. Sub-sections: A paragraph should be introduced by a topic sentence, a sentence that succinctly puts forward the idea you are going to develop in the paragraph. Stick to the theme of the topic sentence in the paragraph and do not deviate from it. The first sentence of the paragraph should logically link in to the last sentence of the previous paragraph. Note that one sentence does not equal one paragraph. You are not writing a tabloid article.

ii. Language Check your punctuation, spelling and grammar. We all make mistakes, but in a dissertation you should always double-check your punctuation, spelling and grammar. In an exam make sure you set aside a good amount of time to re-read your work. Don’t carry on writing till the very last second of the very last minute. You will not get an A grade because of what you have expressed in the very last sentence of your dissertation. BUT you will lose marks for silly mistakes you could have ironed out by simply re-reading your dissertation. a. Style and Register: You are not writing a newspaper article, you are not writing a letter to a mate, neither are you writing an email, nor a tractatus philosophicus. Do not be familiar, but don’t be too heavy or your reader will lose interest. Avoid spoken and colloquial abbreviations : write cannot instead of can’t etc.

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F. Writing Whether you are handwriting or typing your dissertation, please make sure you leave a double-space.

The most important thing about writing is to write. Of course, your first sentence must be clear, set the tone and grab the reader. However, you must not stare frantically at a blank page because this magic sentence will not manifest itself. Just get going, and as you progress things will begin to shape themselves allowing you to re-shape what you are saying or have said. If you do have trouble getting started, or find yourself stuck at any point, especially during exam conditions, then take a piece of scrap paper and just start jotting down whatever comes into your head whether it be in good English or not, or even if it is in French. The trick is not to lose your momentum, but to keep going. The last thing you need in an exam is to waste quarter of an hour wondering what the hell you are doing there.

i. What do you think? It cannot be stressed enough that what interests us is what you think. We have now entered a new century and millennium, and one hopes, so has higher education. Gone are the days when a student was expected to learn parrot fashion his literature lecturer’s teachings so as to write them down word for word come dissertation time. This type of teaching always worked towards the death of literature as there can be no one final definitive reading of a literary text. The greatest critic publishing a million page analysis will always encounter someone who has another take, another opinion, another interpretation. Seldom will all readers agree entirely on any one interpretation of a literary text. No one interpretation is entirely right. In fact, as long as you can justify your opinion(s) by relating back to the original text, no one interpretation is entirely wrong. No one analysis can fully exhaust the affective or intellectual content of a major literary text. The only trick to learn is how to read.

Thanks to the medium of film we are able to compare, for instance, Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet to Kenneth Brannagh’s. Once you have done this, read aloud sections of the text alone and then with friends. Even before you start interpreting the text in a critical manner, the simple interpretation of the words you read aloud will no doubt be different from others. This demonstrates the impossibility of offering one reading at no matter what level. Now watch Al Pacino’s Looking for Richard. This play has been acted for the past 400 years, and yet here we have actors dealing with Shakespeare’s Richard III, as if it was to be performed for the first time – and the question that is constantly asked between the actors is, What do you think? When Tony Harrison says that the English language is in the hands of the receivers1, it is all of published literature that is in the hands of the receivers. It is only when a literary text has been received by the reading public, when it is being read, that it comes alive. We are not interested in what the author wanted to say, we are interested in what the text says to you. The author is not some sort Sphinx, dispensing truth through riddles, which, once solved, allow us to join the club of the enlightened. Even if the author, through interviews etc., tells us what he wanted to say, who’s to say he really managed to do it?

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Cf. ‘Them & [uz]’ (Harrison 1984, 122-3)

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a. About fiction The important chap never to overlook is the narrator. He is the one telling the story, the one mediating the story. Without the narrator, the reader would have no access to the story. The narrator can be many different things (first person, third person, part of the story, omnipresent, male, female, a disembodied voice, an animal etc.), but always offers either one or several points of view. Be aware of this. What we read is not the gospel truth, but the narrator’s take on events. The narrator acts as a filter between the events in the story and the reader. In addition, most fiction is in the traditional and conventional past tense (often automatically implying a narrator). But because the events take place in the past, the narrator has had time to select events and details, and therefore, everything in a well-constructed story is relevant. Several questions must be asked: who is telling us the story?; what is, if any, the emotional/physical relationship between the narrator and the story’s characters?; who is the narrator’s audience?; are we, as the reader, part of this audience or independent from it?; do we judge the narrator, and if so is this intended by the narrator?; why are some stories presented primarily through dialogue, others told with little dramatisation?

The structure of the narrative time is also an important factor not to be overlooked. Though most stories have a beginning and end, they do not necessarily begin at the beginning and end at the end. Sometimes time is compressed or expanded – a day may be recounted in a sentence; a minute may take up a whole chapter. The manipulation of time and the sequence of events by the narrator will affect the way we react to the story, will play on the effect(s) of the story.

b. About poetry The use of words is not unique to poetry, but the way they are used can be. In poetry, words often do not simply denote or connote. Poetry also uses the way words sound. Most poetry is highly phonetically patterned (and when it is not, it is usually a reaction against traditional and conventional phonetic patterning and so still needs to be discussed). Poems may also rhyme, have a rhythm, even an evolving rhythm. All of this plays on the suggestiveness of the language itself, right down to how the relationship between the sounds of the words effects and shades the meaning of the words used. But, do not exclude the themes of the poems for the sake of prosody and other trickery. The Gestalt theory states that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and never forget this.

c. About drama Most plays are related to us in the present tense. Though we may have asides and soliloquies, rarely do we have a narrator telling us what is going on. Neither do we have access to what the characters are thinking, nor are we told what the stage directions are. If we are reading the play rather than watching it at the theatre, we instinctively imagine it, direct its performance in our head. This mental staging is vital due to the lack of narrative, common in prose fiction. As with poetry and prose, you will write about the theme(s), the characters, the imagery etc., but, just like the narrator in prose and prosody in poetry, at some point you will have to talk about the dramatisation of the play, you will have to, quite literally, set the scene(s). 16

iii. Using your notes Once you have taken all your notes you will have to put them into some sort of order. To do this you need to clear your head and put them away for a couple of days, gain some distance. After a day or so, take a blank sheet of paper and write down, as they come to you, the points you would like to make. Once you have done this, re-read them and try to put them in some kind of order by listing them (1., 2., 3., etc.). Copy the list in numerical order. Read the order and match your points to the notes you have taken (which should by now be classified and on cards). Chances are you won’t quite be happy with the order. If this is the case, cut the sheet of paper up point by point and see if changing the order of a few ideas helps. Once you are happy with the order of points, place your notes in the same order. You may feel that some notes belong to several points, if this is the case place them as early as you think they could appear but add on the card the other points the notes might help enlighten. Your dissertation will be organic and may, therefore, reject some of your notes and ideas no matter how good they are. You will undoubtedly have a surplus amount of notes. Do not try to use all your notes just for the hell of it. You must understand that a dissertation has limits – not everything can be said in one dissertation.

iii. Paraphrase: the students’ Judas When I was at school, we were forced to paraphrase Shakespeare’s sonnets so as to prove we understood them. Though this is not how one writes about literature, it can be a useful tool when trying to illustrate a difficult point or reacquaint your reader with a certain passage. As you do this, use a dictionary (they are extremely useful). Do not sit around guessing what words might mean.. BUT, more often than not, students see paraphrasing as a way of copying someone else’s thoughts and presenting them as their own. You will not get away with this because the shift in style and the lecturer’s knowledge of critical works will act like a kiss of betrayal.

iv. The writing-self Be aware of your writing-self. Do not be pretentious, boring, random, imprecise, vague, sloppy or over-eager. Do not make sweeping statements or generalisations. Stay focused on what you are talking about.

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v. Re-reading your work Here are the steps you should take when re-reading your dissertation. You should always reread your dissertation, even in exam conditions. Do not keep writing to the very last second, leave yourself a minimum of 15 minutes to read what you have written as you shall have corrections to make. 1. Central argument: is it clearly stated in your introduction and maintained throughout your dissertation? 2. Structure: is your dissertation logical, do your ideas tie in and follow on paragraph to paragraph? 3. Justification: do you systematically justify your points by relating them back to the texts and using quotes to illustrate them? 4. Tone: is your dissertation pleasing to read, or do you come across as hesitant, smug, dogmatic, evasive, boring etc.? 5. Sentences: do these flow, read well, grab the reader, or are they full of redundant padding? 6. Vocabulary: are you using any words you for which you can’t guarantee the definition? 7. Punctuation: do not overlook its importance!

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WORKS CITED Beaty, Jerome et al., eds. 2001. The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: Norton. Brannagh, Kenneth. 1996. 2000. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. VHS. Turner Home Entertainment. Davis, Tom. 1998. How To Write An Essay. Internet. Online. http://www.bham.ac.uk/english/bibliography/students/essay.htm Hamilton, Paul. 1983. Coleridge’s Poetics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Harrison, Tony. 1984. Collected Poems. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Pacino, Al. 1996. 1997. Looking for Richard. VHS. 20th Century Fox. Shakespeare, William. 1597. 1999. Richard III. Ed. Janis Lull. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. Shakespeare, William. circa 1603. 2001. Hamlet. Ed. Harold Jenkins. London: The Arden Shakespeare. Zeffirelli, Franco. 1990. 2001. Hamlet. VHS. Warner Home Video.

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