Fiction

Prompt: Fiction Analysis

Prompt

So far, you’ve taken on two analyses: one that focused on a single character and one that focused on a single literary or poetic element.  For this assignment, you’ll take what you’ve practiced so far and apply it to a slightly bigger project, and this time you’ll have a lot more freedom in deciding your focus. Whatever thesis you settle on, you will be asked to incorporate both outside research and textual evidence to support your claims.

As we move through this unit, keep intertextuality in mind! Keep notes. Write down what seems significant and interesting. Make note of connections you make. Make note of what connections others point out in class, too!

Some general analytical topics include ones like these:

• how an author or authors are visible in their work
• how themes of a text are developed
• a unique interpretation of a character and that character’s significance
• etc.

You might pair up two of our texts (at least one must be a fiction piece, of course) to address significant comparisons:

• What do American Gods and “There Will Come Soft Rains” agree upon when it comes to humanity’s dependence on technology?
• In reading American Gods and The Bacchae, what do we find compelling about representing gods as exhibiting the characteristics and personalities of humans?
• What is similar or at odds between Kneller’s Happy Campers and American Gods when it comes to existence beyond life?
• What does Wordsworth’s Romantic perspective about nature and deity compare to the dystopian future of “There Will Come Soft Rains”?

You could use a type of literary criticism, like the ones we discussed in class:

• feminist criticism
• Marxist criticism
• historical/cultural criticism
• etc.

Or maybe you’d like to apply your own interests, experiences, or knowledge to the topic at hand, like:

• a Bio Ag student who looked at a short story about parasitic aliens running a human Preserve through the lens of her major and argued that, like farmers who care for their livestock, the aliens did genuinely value and care for the humans.
• a History student analyzed the same short story as an allegory for the First Opium War

Guidelines

• Don’t summarize! Assume your audience is a conference on the author of your story: they know the story really well, so it’s your analysis they’re interested in.
• For this paper, you will be using at least 1 primary source (that is, the work of fiction you’ve chosen from what we’ve discussed in class) and 2-4 secondary sources. Choose sources that agree or disagree with your perspective, or inform your analysis in some way, and use them wisely. Think of those writers as other people you’ve discussed this text with before you wrote this paper: the interpretation you’re arguing for should be informed not just by your own reading of the text itself, but by those other informed opinions. Don’t forget the MLA section of the Purdue OWL if you want to use a source you’re not sure how to cite.

Requirements

Length of 5+ pages

Double-spaced, 12-pt. Times New Roman font

1-inch margins all around

MLA format (including a Works Cited page)