Essay Overview

Summarise how the ideas of Barthes and Blanchot complicate the question, 'What is a child?' with reference to the film Innocence - if you want.

Introduction (250 words)

Set a context for the question ‘what is a child?’ by giving a stock definition (from a text, film, dictionary, etc – or an example relating to Innocence) and suggesting why it is insufficient.

Barthes (500 words)

Choose a few (4-5) quotes from Barthes’ essays and use them to guide a discussion about the complexity of the concept of  ‘the child’ - particularly taking into account the difficulty of reading a child as subject and the problem of objectifying the child through a reading of signs and myth.

Blanchot (500 words)

Choose a few (4-5) quotes from Blanchot’s essays and use them to guide a discussion about the complexity of the concept of ‘the child’ - particularly taking into account the child being an autonomous subject and thus separable from community, as well as the uses of creativity in allowing for many different readings of the child.

Conclusion (250 words)

Try to draw the ideas of the two theorists together and clarify the effect their theories have on the question, ‘what is a child?’Here would be a good place to consider the necessity of plural readings of ‘the child’ through creative means.

Concepts that should be coming up in your writing on Barthes and Blanchot:

Barthes	Blanchot
The subject (in relation to death) The object/objectification Myth/signs Reading	The subject (‘who?’) (the impossibility of) community Reading Creativity/the literary

Remember that it is important to bear in mind the following when working on your assignment:

show engagement with primary sources;

show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works;

show an understanding of abstract concepts within theoretical perspectives;

and show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment.