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RESEARCHING SKILLS OPENING QUESTIONS How confident are you in your academic researching skills? What questions or obstacles do

you run into when you try and find academic sources? RESEARCHING JUNGIAN THEORY & X-MEN As a class were going to dive into researching Jungian theory today, as if you were in a group with this presentation topic Our goal is to find reputable and informative sources from academic

databases that will help us with our four presentation questions: 1) Explain the lens 2) Apply the lens to X-Men 3) Apply the lens to God Loves, Man Kills 4) Conclude if the lens helps us see the book or characters in a new and unique light LETS START WITH THE OBVIOUS Google it Share your search terms and the quality of responses with the class

MY SEARCH RESULTS All Wikipedia, which isnt an academic source. (Though Wikipedia is a good starting point) HOW DO WE MAKE OUR SEARCH BETTER? Search specific databases (Jstor, Academic OneFile,

Google Scholar, etc.) Change your search terms: Jungian theory = archetype Jungian = Jung X-Men = Wolverine Others? Lets try Google Search together: www.google.scholar.com THIS IS HERE TO REMIND MR. SHULKIN TO SWITCH HIS COMPUTER FROM

POWER POINT TO THE INTERNET WITH YOUR PARTNER Find a solid academic source that explains the Jungian literary theory lens Pull out a quote from the source that explains the lens and put it in your own words. Put all of this in a word document WITH YOUR PARTNER

Find a solid academic source that applies the Jungian literary theory lens to X-Men Pull out a quote from the source that explains the lens and put it in your own words. Put all of this in a word document WITH YOUR PARTNER Find a solid academic source that applies the Jungian literary theory lens to God Loves, Man Kills

Pull out a quote from the source that explains the lens and put it in your own words. Put all of this in a word document WITH YOUR PARTNER Find a solid academic source that helps conclude whether or not the Jungian lens should be applied to an analysis of X-Men Pull out a quote from the source that explains

the lens and put it in your own words. Put all of this in a word document USING YOUR LENS TO DEVELOP A THESIS LENSES HELP BREAK AWAY FROM EITHER/OR ANALYSIS Using a lens for critical analysis allows you to examine nuances and contradictions within the text

There is no black and white: lenses show complexities within characters, plot and the authors intent. Heres an example thesis statement from an article that used a psychological lens to examine the X-Men: Mutants, of course, are intended as an allegory for oppression in general. X- Men readers/viewers are intended to generalize Professor Xaviers philosophy of tolerance and assimilation to other oppressed groups, including racial and ethnic minorities and the Lesbian-GayBisexualTransgendered (LGBT) community. Unfortunately, the analogies are not always adequate. (Lyubansky 77) How is this a clear and argumentative thesis statement that also allows the author to examine the nuances?

LENSES HELP BREAK AWAY FROM EITHER/OR ANALYSIS Using a lens for critical analysis allows you to examine nuances and contradictions within the text There is no black and white: lenses show complexities within characters, plot and the authors intent Example from Romeo and Juliet: Lets say you wanted to write about how Shakespeares

play is feminist because Juliet defies conventions for girls/women in the 1500/1600s But theres a problem: the other female characters in the play Lady Capulet and the Nurse dont defy those conventions. So what do you do? This is an example of how a lens helps: you incorporate the contradictions to explain why this is. Research what other feminist thinkers/writers thought and apply it to the text Now your thesis may be stronger: Not only does Juliet break social norms as a girl, but Shakespeares diverse range of female characters and how a patriarchal society influences them demonstrates that he was a feminist. In his world

women were a diverse group of actors and thinkers negatively affected by the society around them. By using a lens to help you craft your thesis, youre not avoiding the inconvenient or contradictory parts of the text, youre incorporating it into your argument GENDER/QUEER REFRESHER What sort of support (if any) is given to elements or characters who question the masculine/feminine binary? What happens to those elements/characters? What does the work contribute to our knowledge of

queer, gay, or lesbian experience and history, including literary history? What elements of the text can be perceived as being masculine (active, powerful) and feminine (passive, marginalized) and how do the characters support these traditional roles? GENDER/QUEER READING OF X-MEN From Ramzi Fawaz:

Through a close reading of the X-Men in the mid-to-late 1970sthe comic book visually absorbed the cultural politics of the women's movement and the gay liberation movement to figure mutation as an expansive form of cultural difference that wedded fantasy to the ideals of radical politics. (Fawaz 1) GENDER/QUEER READING OF ZORRO Zorro is a Mexican hero a mix of Robin Hood and Batman often appearing in

stories set in the early 1900s Heres a thesis from an article titled "Draped Crusaders": Disrobing Gender in The Mark of Zorro: The "secret identity" trope [is] often times related [to] drag and the closet: drag because of the way superheroes use clothing and performance to signify an ironic relationship between gender and sex; the closet because of the way secrecy and silence permeate all corners of superhero characterization, including -- and especially -sexuality. (Williamson 3) OR This article will explore the construction of "secret identities" in The Mark of Zorro and question how tensions between homosexuality and heterosexuality are negotiated through

the hero's feminine and hypermasculine identitiesWhen we understand how superheroes invoke and repress homosexuality we can begin to speculate why they are so popular and what effect they have had on modern sexual politics. (Williamson 6) WITH YOUR GROUP Brainstorm ways in which your lens revealed new or interesting information about the X-Men story or characters Brainstorm ways in which the plot or characters serve

as contradictions to your lens Look at the specific questions your lens has a reader ask of the text and/or author. What ideas do your answers reinforce? WITH YOUR GROUP Take your brainstormed information and begin turning it into a thesis idea its too early to have a set thesis statement A thesis idea should still propose an argument, or at least an idea that you want to explore more deeply

Your thesis idea can explore contradictions as long as theyre combined to make an overarching point: Instead of X-Men are Marxist and also not Marxist try something like The conflicts between the X-Men and Magneto demonstrates the complexity of Marxism: the powerful simply cant be convinced to give up their power. Write your thesis idea on a notecard INDIVIDUAL WORK Now that you have a thesis idea, its time to start researching Start with information about the lens in general. This information will likely

appear in your introduction or early paragraphs to help set up your analysis of X-Men WORKS CITED Fawaz, Ramzi. Where No X-Man Has Gone Before! Mutant Superheroes and the Cultural Politics of Popular Fantasy in Postwar America. American Literature, vol. 83. No. 2. 355 388. Lyubansky, Mikhail. Prejudice Lessons From the Xavier Institute. The Psychology of Superheroes, edited by Rosenberg, Robin S. and Canzoneri,

Jennifer. Benbella Books, Inc. 75 89. Williamson, Catherine, "Draped Crusaders": Disrobing Gender in "The Mark of Zorro. Cinema Journal Vol. 36, no. 2 (Winter 1997). 3 16.