Final Project Assignment: The Theory of You

“Literature has not only made identity a theme; it has played a significant role in the construction of the identity of readers. The value of literature has long been linked to the vicarious experiences it gives readers, enabling them to know how it feels to be in particular situations and thus to acquire dispositions to act and feel in certain ways. Literary works encourage identification with characters by showing things from their point of view” (Culler 112).

For your final project—note, not paper—I want you to make a brief presentation on the four works of art that have most shaped your ‘theoretical’ identity. By “identity,” I mean how you see yourself ideally, in your own mind, and/or how hope to identify yourself in the years to come (since identity is a performance we never quite master—see page 114). Your presentation should be a series of slides—as few or as many as you would like, so long as the presentation is no longer than 10 minutes. The slides should include at least ONE passage from Culler to contextualize the project, and at some point, how each work contributes to the ever-evolving theory of you.

Each slide should contain one of the works that influenced you, with whatever information you want t0 include about it: when you first discovered it, why you feel it affected you so strongly, how you tried to emulate it, what it says about your personality/beliefs, whether your understanding/relationship with the work has changed over time, why you think others need to read/watch/experience it, whether you could respect someone who hated this work, etc. The works in question can be any type of art: books, movies, albums/songs, paintings, video games, etc., though try to include at least one book or one artwork that isn’t a book. There’s no right way to do this, as long as you explore the idea of how you collaboratively created your identity with these four works of art, and what we can learn about you—or your idea of yourself—by understanding each one.

Since this isn’t a paper, we will be presenting these in class on the last week of classes. The Presentations will begin on Monday, November 29^th and go until Friday, December 3^rd. All you need to do is bring your presentation on a flash drive or be able to pull it up via Google docs, or some other format. You will go through the slides and narrate them for us, so don’t feel like everything has to be on the slide.

Remember, this is basically a Final Exam for the class, though it’s designed to be a low-key, low-stakes way to digest some of the themes of the course and present them in a personal, reflective manner. And yes, you will get bonus points if one or more of the works you chose come from the books in class (ha—kidding!). Good luck and try to have fun with this assignment: I know I did when choosing the books in this class—all of which were my four works that shaped my theoretical self!