Carol Cohn "Sex and Death and the Rational World of Defense ...

Carol Cohn
"Sex and Death and the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals" by Carol Cohn (1987)
Seminar Prep
Submit to turnitin.com and bring a hard copy
As you read, note what happens to Cohn as she begins taking on the language of nuclear strategy. She has to
approach her subject from three angles--first as an outsider, then as an insider, and finally, as both. Keep in mind
Orwell's warning about what happens to a society when its language moves away from the concrete and towards the
abstract. Finally, properly introduce, integrate and thoroughly analyze quotations to support your answers.
Seek to UNDERSTAND before you JUDGE.
We are going to approach this essay using the SOAPS reading strategy—in other words, we are reading to
understand it rhetorically (how and what the author is persuading) by examining the Subject of the essay, the
Occasion for the essay, the intended Audience of the essay, the Purpose of the essay, and the Speaker of the essay.
Please render a full paragraph or more of analysis for each question - our goal of course is to arrive at a full
understanding of the ideas, issues, and values that are presented in the text.
1. What is Cohn's Subject? (There might be a few – but what is the MAIN subject?). Properly introduce,
integrate and thoroughly analyze at least two quotations to support your answer.
2. What is the Occasion for the essay? What drove her to write her essay? Properly introduce, integrate and
thoroughly analyze at least two quotations to support your answer.
3. Who is her Audience? How do you know? Think in terms of what she assumes her audience to know or
believe, and what her purpose is for this audience. Properly introduce, integrate and thoroughly analyze at
least two quotations to support your answer.
4. What is Cohn’s Purpose for writing this? (What does she want her audience to think, feel, believe, or how
does she challenge her audience?). Properly introduce, integrate and thoroughly analyze at least two
quotations to support your answer.
5. What do we know about the Speaker of the essay, based on the essay itself? Who is she? What does she
believe? You will need to draw inferences based on the text - pay particular attention to word choice and
tone. Properly introduce, integrate and thoroughly analyze at least two quotations to support your answer.
6. How does this essay tie in to Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”? Properly introduce, integrate
and thoroughly analyze at least two quotations from each text to support your answer.

Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals
Carol Cohn
Signs, Vol. 12, No. 4, Within and Without: Women, Gender, and Theory. (Summer, 1987), pp.
687-718.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-9740%28198722%2912%3A4%3C687%3ASADITR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E
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Sat May 5 23:32:33 2007