CRG #4: Beth Newman and the Gaze
(To be written and submitted in class on Thursday, April 17)
Beth Newman makes very particular use of the gaze in her reading of Henry James’ Turn of the Screw. In your last ever CRG (try to suppress the tears), you will write a three-paragraph essay examining how Newman uses the gaze, what sort of interpretation of the novel she produces based on that critical concept, and what other kinds of readings one could do of the novel that do not get play in her analysis. (You will note that other methodologies will produce different readings, and that we are not finding fault with Newman for not doing those things—no one’s readings can cover every base, after all—but recognizing the limitations of critical methodologies and the kinds of interpretations each can produce.) You will write three paragraphs this time.
Based on your reading and class discussion of the PW article on the gaze, sketch out in your first paragraph the manners in which Newman appropriates particular aspects of this complex phenomenon—the gaze—and puts them to specific use for reading James. That is: which components of the critical phenomenon of the gaze does Newman employ, and how does she tailor or nuance them by combining them with other critical methodologies?
In your second paragraph evaluate what specifically Newman owes in her reading of The Turn of the Screw to the notion of the gaze—that is, what does that critical methodology allow her to state about the novel that she couldn’t state using any other methodology (keeping in mind, of course, that she brings other methodologies to bear on the text alongside the gaze)? How does Newman apply these newly minted concepts for investigating James’ novel? Your second paragraph, in short, should look at how Newman puts into practice the components of the gaze that you identify in paragraph 1.
In your third paragraph, speculate critically on what sorts of interpretations or analyses of The Turn of the Screw one could produce by means of two other methodologies we have discussed this semester in class. Be as specific as you can about what they might say and what they might do.
I would imagine that this three-paragraph essay would contain about 550 words, and that it would be a model of clarity, precision, persuasiveness, and elegance.