Happiness. According to Freud, what is happiness and why is it so hard for us to experience it

Humanities 1

Overview: For this paper you will develop an interpretive essay based on your reading of Freud, McGowan, and/or Lacan. You should answer the question, supporting your interpretation with evidence from the assigned texts and illustrating it with examples from your own life, observations, or engagement with other texts, movies, plays, etc.

Length: 3-5 pages, typed, double-spaced.

Citation: Use MLA format.

Requirements:

Thesis. Your essay must be governed by a thesis that (a) responds directly to the essay topic, (b) is arguable, and (c) is stated at the end of the first paragraph having clearly defined all the central terms.

Textual Support. Your thesis must be supported by major interpretive claims (topic sentences) that are supported by at least one appropriate quote or allusion per body paragraph. Your ability to select, interpret, and apply the appropriate textual evidence is key to doing well with the essay. Additionally, you should illustrate your argument with at least one example drawn from your own life, observations, or engagement with other texts, movies, plays, etc.

Reasoning. You must consistently use and apply logical reasoning in developing your thesis.

Writing.Your essay must be written well. There should be no awkward sentences, rough transitions between paragraphs, incoherent paragraphs, extraneous information/unnecessary sentences, typos, or stylistic errors.

Objectives:

For this assignment, you will need to demonstrate your ability to read, analyze, and, to some extent, evaluate a key idea from Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents,

The successful paper will:

Demonstrate a clear, sophisticated understanding of Freud’s text and ideas.
Will accurately represent Freud’s positions/ideas as presented in Civilization and Its Discontents.
Will choose appropriate quotes from Civilization and Its Discontents and effectively integrate them into the student’s own argument regarding the topic.
Will state and develop a thesis in response to one of the assigned topics.

Evaluation:

For specific details on the grade for the paper see the “Grading Rubric for Papers” section of the syllabus.

The first thing I will ask myself about your paper is, “what level of understanding of the assigned readings does this paper reflect?”

The second thing I will ask is, “how effective is the use of quotations from the assigned texts in this paper?” Did the student choose the best quotes to make these claims? Does this paper suggest that the student actually read the book(s), or does it seem like the paper is based solely on notes from lecture, or (worse!) just Internet sources?

Third, I will consider the quality of the writing and the general structure of the paper.