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I just got my mark back for the short essay I wrote for the 3rd year feminist seminar class I'm taking in the second half of the summer. It was a rare and mysterious thing, and something I have seen so few times in my life that it actually shocked me: I got an A+! Zomg! The class is called "The Monstrous Feminist: Gender and the Horrific in Popular Culture" and it is a course that examines horror stories and films through a feminist lens... from the Victorian Gothic to the modern day bloodbath flick. This essay was 20% of the mark. 30% of the mark is from a group class presentation of a movie... the group I'm in got Tokyo Gore Police... try discussing that from a gender politics perspective?!?!?!!! O_o. 40% is our final essay (on virtually any horror story or movie), and the last 10% is pretty much just showing up to class. The instructions for the essay were fairly simple: A critical reflection of no more than 4 pages (1000 words) on one of the short stories we read in the first part of the course. You must use the readings that accompany the stories.. I actually explain at the end of the essay why I chose this particular story.
Unfortunately, my essay won't really make any sense if you don't first read the story that it is dicussing: Joyce Carol Oates' "Extenuating Circumstances". There is a link to an online version of available by clicking this sentence. Disclaimers apply: this is a horror story; however, not a "monsters jumping out at you" or similar standard horror tale. This one is a little too believable because what it describes does actually happen, far too often. It is quite a troubling little tale of the horrible. You have been cautioned ;).
As for the essay itself, here ya go. Normally put the first and last paragraphs outside of the cut, but you really need to read the story before you read any of the essay or it just doesn't work...
Constructing a Monster in Joyce Carol Oates’
"Extenuating Circumstances"
( The essay is here... )
Unfortunately, my essay won't really make any sense if you don't first read the story that it is dicussing: Joyce Carol Oates' "Extenuating Circumstances". There is a link to an online version of available by clicking this sentence. Disclaimers apply: this is a horror story; however, not a "monsters jumping out at you" or similar standard horror tale. This one is a little too believable because what it describes does actually happen, far too often. It is quite a troubling little tale of the horrible. You have been cautioned ;).
As for the essay itself, here ya go. Normally put the first and last paragraphs outside of the cut, but you really need to read the story before you read any of the essay or it just doesn't work...
"Extenuating Circumstances"
( The essay is here... )
