Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

This is a critical summary on Sharf, Robert: Idolization of enlightenment: on the mummification of Ch’an Masters in Medieval China

Thesis: The thesis is the main idea of the reading – what is the author trying to do? You should be able to state this in one or two complete sentences. You may find the author states his or her thesis quite clearly in the introduction, or you may find it stated more clearly in the conclusion, where the author summarizes the argument.

Claims/ Argument The author supports his or her thesis with an argument made up of a series of claims, and generally each of these claims will be supported by evidence of some kind. It is important not to get bogged down in the evidence when writing yourcritical summary. You have very little space, so your job is to summarize the argument succinctly so that you can move on to evaluating it.

Methods: How does the author try and demonstrate his or her thesis? What kinds of evidence does he or she cite? These methods could be historical (analyzing records from the past to tell the story of what may have happened), sociological (analyzing social structures), anthropological (examining human culture, possibly through ethnography), phenomenological (examining human experience), psychological (explaining behaviour as mental processes), textual analysis (unpacking a particular text), or some combination.

Assumptions/ Theoretical Framework What assumptions does the author assume about humanity, culture, and religion? Put another way, what theoretical framework does the author apply to his or her subject? His or her argument may draw materialism (stressing the material conditions that underlie a cultural phenomenon), functionalism (looking at culture functions to keep society stable), structuralism (looking for universal patterns in human behaviour and culture), post-structuralism (emphasizing how knowledge and power constitute one another in historically-contingent ways), performance studies (centering performance as the site of meaning-making), etc. Often times once you are able to figure out the author’s assumptions, it is much easier to critique the strengths and weaknesses of his/her work.

Strengths & Weaknesses Evaluate the author’s argument. What do you find convincing or unconvincing? Do you agree with his or her claims and the assumptions that underlie those claims? Why or why not?

must focus on synthesizing the ideas in the piece. therefore must be read completely. Do not summarize too much, more analysis, reflection and critique is needed