Close Reading/Rhetorical Analysis: How does the passage achieve a particular formal, textual effect? How does the passage do what it does? What kinds of rhetorical devices and uses of language work in tandem to achieve that effect? In what ways does what happens in this passage help to illuminate the work as a whole? An example of this kind of writing would be to look at the way the narrative voice describes the relationship between “History” and “Memory” in the “History” chapter of Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali.
Analysis of Argument: How does the author build their argument in a systematic and teleological manner? What are the gaps in the argument? What is it that makes the argument convincing or not? As an example, you could examine Taylor’s argument that the passage of time remains an irreducible mystery, or Trible’s argument that the text of the Old Testament does not support the notion of a hierarchy of male over female.
Limited to one passage from one text from the course thus far (including Sapere Aude).