Mss141
Spring 2004
Analytical Paper

Stage One: Select one of the topics below (or develop another in consultation with me) and prepare a ONE-PAGE summary or outline of your paper: your ideas, what you want to focus on, the questions you will ask, your thesis statement. While this is an informal assignment, the summary should be typed and double-spaced.  Due February 19.

Stage Two: The first draft of the paper should be about 5-6 pages, double-spaced. This is an analytical paper you will complete using the texts we have read for class and your own ideas. No outside research should be necessary. I'm interested in your ideas and the way in which you can support an argument through careful analysis. Due February 26.

Stage Three:  Submit your final draft, along with the original version. Due March 11.

Please note that all drafts must be typed and double-spaced, about 5-6 pages in length.  Please reference all citations carefully, title the essay and number the pages. 

No late submissions will be accepted.

Topics:
If you have another topic, please do not hesitate to present it to me. 

1.  The Usefulness and Limitations of Freudian Dream Analysis: following Freud's method as detailed in The Interpretation of Dreams, take one of your own dreams and interpret it.  Can you find examples of dream-work mechanisms such as condensation or displacement?  Can you discover the fulfillment of a wish?  Use this exercise as a means with which to evaluate Freud's method.  What is the usefulness of the method and what are its limitations?  Be sure to summarize thoroughly Freud's theory and method of dream analysis before you apply it to your own dream.   

--> variation on topic one:  analyze the same dream using Jungian theory of dream interpretation.  The same criteria for the analysis apply:  summarize Jung's theory and method of analysis before applying the techniques to your own dream.  If you wish, you may compare a Freudian and Jungian analysis of the same dream to highlight the differences between their theories or to show how the same dream can be understood differently depending on the theory used. 

2.  Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound" (1945): The film supposedly uses Freudian dream analysis to unravel a mystery.  But is the film faithful to Freud?  See the film in its entirety (on reserve at ATS) and determine exactly which Freudian principles it espouses and which it neglects.  Why might the filmmakers have made the choices they did?  As with the first topic , you will need to explain fully Freudian dream theory before you apply it to the film.      

3. Narrative on the Couch:  literary analysis often makes use of psychoanalytic techniques to interpret a narrative.  How would you read "The Coffee Pot" as a Freudian or a Jungian? Analyze one of these stories using the principles and ideas from either method:  Freud would look for distortion, examples of condensation, displacement, and of course wish fulfillment, whereas Jung would focus on the archetypes present in the literary dream and what they may be trying to tell the dreamer.  Do you find that these methods yield interesting analyses of the story?  Remember to treat the text not as a dream per se, but as a piece of literary fiction.