Alyssa's Reflection on Literary Analysis 2

• Informal, online, or multimedia resources:

• This part of developing my paper is one that I hadn’t expected to be as useful to developing my argument, but turned out to be quite influential in the way that I wrote the paper. Looking at different portrayals and stage interpretations of Dr. Faustus helped me to see perspectives different from the one that I had developed after reading the script and stage directions. I enjoyed looking at the artwork of specific scenes in the play as well as the different approaches that different theater companies took in their performances. The main source that I used here was the Globe Theater’s production of Dr. Faustus, which I found to be a far more comical and symbolic interpretation than I had initially read in the text. The actors’ performances and interpretations of their characters had a great impact on how I wrote about the psychology of the titular Dr. Faustus.

• Literary theory:

• I chose to use the psychoanalytical approach to Dr. Faustus because it was different from the other approaches that I was more comfortable using, and I thought it would be a good exercise. As it turned out, this literary theory was just as helpful in highlighting the import of the soliloquies and the symbolic characters that I had chosen for formal analysis. Looking at these aspects of the play through a psychoanalytical lens helped me to make the connections between the form and my interpretation of it more clearly visible. Because the formal elements I was examining were indicative of the mindset of the character, using the psychological theory just made sense to use. 

• Writing process:

• My writing process has changed a bit since the beginning of the semester. Before, I would write when I could, and often spend too long self-editing the paper long before I ever finished it. Having a specific time to write, as we did for this assignment, was helpful for me to focus my thoughts and get the words onto the page that I needed to write down. Being accountable to someone else for the work that I did was also helpful, as it kept me focused on what I needed to do and made me less liable to getting distracted. I still needed to take a little extra time to write after spending perhaps too long on looking for good sources to support my argument, and I feel that this is where I can most improve in my writing process.