Writing Critically, part deux

Lets go to Case Western's website and look at some craft considerations for literary analysis thesis statements...

After discussing the ideas at Case's website, I want you to practice writing strong thesis statements and introduction paragraphs that include the craft considerations found there.

Our sacrificial lamb is Tobias Wolff's "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs." Write a thesis statement that interprets the concept of martyr and how Wolff uses the concept in the story. To do so, you will have to write an introduction that argues who the martyrs are within this story, and why those characters are martyrs.

Remember: a good thesis and introduction in a literary analysis essay (or any essay) works to contextualize the story towards its argument...

Lit Crit Essay 2

Craft Analysis (200pts)

Due: Monday, June 15, 2009 by noon, either in mailbox or by e-mail

Write a literary analysis of two stories reading during the Spring term. At least one of the stories must be from second half of the quarter.

- You will want to have a thesis statement that clarifies what in your comparison you are focusing on showing to audience.
- As always, provide textual evidence that supports thesis, and explain how evidence does so.
- Cite the page number of all quoted, paraphrased or summarized text from the stories at the end of each citation.
- Provide Work Cited Page
- For longer quotes (four lines or more) follow special MLA formatting guidelines
- Provide a title that clarifies thesis and subject matter – be creative, grab reader’s attention. This will be part of essay grade.
- Avoid use of “I” in essay, as “I” is NOT the subject. The use or non-use of first person has nothing to do with “my opinion.” Use of this rhetorical structure has to deal with subject of writing. “I” is not the subject. The stories and the writers are.

The essay must be a minimum of three (3) complete pages, double-spaced, using a 12-point standard font, with a maximum length of five (5) pages.


Final Prompt:

Coming of age? Death enter your life? Experience a first love? Broken down by love? At your mid-life? How does a man act? What’s a woman to do? Oh, brother! Oh, sister! Mi familia! Ma famille! – These questions inhabit common themes dealt with in the stories we write and the stories we read. Whether one speaks English, French or Spanish, or Gaelic or Swahili; whether living B.C. or A.D. – our humanity drives us to explore these human themes again and again…

Choose two stories we’ve read this quarter that deal with a familiar theme. Compare and contrast how the individual author of each story deals with the theme through language and subject matter.

In addressing the language of each piece tone, syntax, choice of images, and word choice are some of the options you may analyze. In addressing subject matter tone, plot, characters and setting are some of the things worth discussing.

Also, in discussing these texts, you are allowed to articulate your idea by connecting ideas to larger world; by putting the piece in context with other texts that deal with same themes (which includes putting one text into context by how it relates to comparison text).

Please be advised: spend your time developing your thesis statement throughout paper rather than trying to address too many points. An effective argument has direction and addresses the thesis from various angles. Quality of argument is weighed more than quantity of ideas. Make sure to connect and explain how all of your smaller points relate back to thesis statement.

Reading for Wed., 6/3:

I would like to skip(!) over Thomas Mann and have us read both Frank O'Connor and James Thurber for Wednesday's class. This was not mentioned in class, so I will do my best to remind students throughout the rest of today, and by e-mail.

Sincerely, Chris : )

Mimicking the Artist 2 (30pts): One

Due: Monday, June 8, 2009

One image, one word, one event, one setting, one phrase, one theme, one metaphor...

Pick one of the authors we've encountered over the second half of the term to imitate in your own story. Write an original piece in which you follow the lead of your author in using one image, event, metaphor, or phrase to center your story around. 

For instance, Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" centers around the title metaphor; Viramontes' "The Moths" uses the title image; John Updike centered his "A&P" around the title setting (the A&P grocery store); Kincaid uses the her title "Girl" to define gender roles of impoverished Caribbeans. Garcia Marquez gives us "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World." 

What will you give us? These authors' stories use these focal points to explore the lives of their characters, and the worlds they live in. What is your story, what kind of world does it exist in, and what kind of image will help shape that world? Rather than tell us directly, use your focal "one" to paint your story. Use sensory descriptions; pay attention to your mimicked author. How do they write? What language can you take from them and make your own?

Guidelines: 2 pages, single-spaced, and title your piece with a title that is going to grab your readers attention and get them into the story (The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World!)

Reader Response #4 (50pts): 6/1

Due: Monday, June 1st

Requirements: 1-2 pages, double-spaced, 12pt. font, Times New Roman

Prompt: 

Crafting Sentences

After reading Robert Penn Warren's "Blackberry Winter" (p. 783-798) and marking those sentences with vivid and/or stark images, musical cadences or some other linguistic feat that help shape a consistent writing style, go back and pick out those sentences that represent the author's writing style.

In other words, it is time to analyze the craft of a sentence-level. In your response discuss Penn Warren's use of language, what patterns one can find in his sentences, and how does that language shape the story?

With this prompt, try your best to really deconstruct and explain those 1-3 sentences of Penn Warren's that you will use to argue the story's writing style. Don't simply identify, for instance, what images come up in the story, but discuss why this image; what does image uncover in story's meaning; how is image used? 

Reading for Friday, May 29th:

Read Edwidge Danticat and Jamaica Kincaid for Friday, May 29th! 

This means we are skipping over Ellison and Wright! You may still include these two writers in your next Mimicking assignment, to be handed out at a later date.

Your final Reader Response (#4), will be handed out on Friday, and be due on Monday, as to give you a brief analytical writing break!

For Friday, 5/22 and Wednesday:

The class will not be meeting together, but you are required to do the following reading and writing assignments:

1) Read Yasunari Kawabata's "The White Horse" (p. 426) and Helena Maria Viramontes' "The Moths" and then respond with Reader Response #3

2) Reader Response # 3 (50pts):

Due: May, 27, 2009 (Wednesday)

Prompt:

Choose one of the stories and argue what the symbolic representation of the title's image means within the story. As always, provide some textual evidence that you explain to clarify your argument. 

Both stories are fairly short, so you really have a chance in this response to discuss the symbolic meaning of either story.

Requirements: 1-2 pages, double-spaced, 12pt font, Times New Roman, Cite page numbers in appropriate places

3) Bonus:

The Art Institute of Chicago has free admission until the end of this Friday, May 22nd to celebrate the opening of the Modern Wing of the museum. The new wing includes a special exhibit of painter Cy Twombly's work, as well as art work from the last 100 years.

This is the perfect time, since we are discussing Symbol and the museum is free, and we don't have class on Friday, for you to visit the museum and check out the new wing.

If you would like some bonus points, do the following Bonus Art Response (due Wednesday, too):

Choose any piece of art within the museum that inspires you; a piece that's symbolic gesture you feel you have some understanding of and could argue in a reader response.

Describe the piece of art, provide contextual information (artist, title, year painted), and then argue What the piece symbolically states, and how it does so. 

You do not need to provide every minute detail, but focus on detailing the main images so that your audience can see the piece.

Guidelines: 1-2 pages, double-spaced, 12pt font, Times New Roman

In-class prompt (35 – 40 minutes):

Both “The Lady with the Dog” and “An Adventure in Paris” involves adultery that takes place (or starts) in a city outside the main character’s hometown. Choose one of the stories to focus on answer “Using evidence from the text, why does the character have an affair within the story, and what role does the visiting city play in their reasons? Be specific, and also explain how the mental state of the character changes by the story’s end.”

-       Have a clear thesis statement that answers the two questions of prompt

-       Use at least 4 quotes from different parts of story

o   Do not just quote, but properly cite page number

o   Also, after quotations, re-state in your own words, with analysis, the significance of the quoted material in answering your thesis

-       Allow for two to three main points (topic sentences) based off of your thesis statement…

-       Take all of the time given, as this will be graded. Also, this is a good practice for other analytical essays!

Reading for Monday, 5/18 and RR#2 announcement

For Monday, 5/18: Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"

On Monday you will be assigned Reader Response #2, which will ask you for a response to a question on symbolism in Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried." 

Reader Response #3 will be assigned shortly after, so that we are getting a good amount of critical writing done for the improvement of our analytical eyes!

In-class Writing Practice

1. Come up with some themes in the writing in which you discuss how setting plays a role in "Shiloh." Think not only of the final setting, but ALL of the settings within the story...

- Also think back to last class' questions on setting for help/

- We will write list on board:  ...

2. Come up with some questions that ask something about the themes as they pertain to story and, perhaps, the characters, the plot, or another literary element in text.

3. Pull out some relevant quotes from the story…

4. Make some claims that from the thematic questions created in class… and then use quotations as support…

- When you write an essay, I always keep in mind:

1. What my thesis is, and 

2. What is the thesis of this individual paragraph!

o I look at each paragraph as a small essay!!! One paragraph=one idea

Theme Week: dissecting a story for theme

Bharati Mukherjee – “The Management of Grief”

Discussion Questions to bring out thematic analysis:

1. How does the title indicate what the story may be thematically about? How do we see the title being played out within the story on a general level?  

Some bulleted answers, to get the ball rolling...

- Story is about how one handles their grief
- There are multiple ways in which people handle their grief
- Allows you to focus on the idea of “managing” grief and what that means!

2. Summarize the major event in the story, who was all affected and how does our main character, Shaila, seem to be dealing? Then compare and contrast the different ways characters react.

3. Going back to plot, what is happening in the first scene of the story, and why might Mukherjee start the story with this scene? What details help us in those first introduction paragraphs allow us to understand Shaila’s mindset?

4. Discuss the differences and similarities amongst how Shaila, Kusum and Dr. Sharma

5. Describe the different cultural reactions that are taking place in the story. What is a thematic significance of these differences?

6. For above, how do the Irish treat the victims? How do the Canadians? Dissect some of the different parts where we see the interaction of two cultures, and how does that help us understand the story’s themes more clearly?

7. How does Shaila change by the stories end, and what causes her change? Explain how that affects how we read the title of the story – the thematic importance of the title?

8. If we haven’t, dissect some of the language used.

9. What about the scene where Shaila is helping out and reflects on her Indian culture?

10. What else do we need to discuss? What did we miss?

Writing Critically (on literature, and in general)

Purdue University's OWL website provides thorough advice and examples, and I suggest using this particular page when writing essays in college! This particular page discusses writing a developed but focused paragraph, and will explore some of the same things we will discuss in class, perhaps in slightly different vocabulary.

But more specifically, here is the OWL link on Writing About Fiction.

Mimicking the Artist 1

Mimicking the Artist 1: (plot, narration and character)
due: Friday, May 1 2009

Guidelines:

- 1-2 page short story (perhaps one brief scene from a larger piece) that serves as a creative homage to a writer you admire (or don’t!).

- Can be an author we’ve read, or a writer you’ve read and feel you understand their literary techniques/writing style.

- Imitate/parody the author’s writing style – the literary device(s) that make them famous (plot, characters, language/dialect/syntax/word choice, dialogue, theme, symbolism, suspense, allegory/ etc.)

o At the top, on left-hand side, head your paper with:
    • Your name
    • Mimicking _______ (insert their name)
    • ID story and/or aspect of their writing you’re mimicking

Modernize the stories (or sci-fi them), update the language and setting, etc. If an author is known for thick language or dialect of their time and culture – use the dialect of our time and culture. However, be true to who you are, and consider if your language might offend your audience! In other words, do your best not to have flat characters (stereotypes) unless this is part of the authorial imitation.

The ubiquitous advice to burgeoning writers (even if forced to write!) is to be honest, and “write what you know.” However, leaving the statement at that is dangerous. Without context, it tells you to write with an authority of having the answers, when this is simply not the case What that statement really means is this:

Write from the reality and experiences of your life; what have you been through, what people in your life have gone through; what is the world you live in; what themes of humanity obsess you? What do you know, but not really know? What is worth exploring based on you and your experience?

Schedule Reminders/Clarifications:

Friday, April 24: No Class. However, for attendance credit (to not be marked absent), you must e-mail me by 6pm Friday a journal entry for Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" answering the following question:

What is a likely thematic message of "The Open Boat" and why was it an appropriate stylistic choice by Crane to use a 3rd person narrator? (Go further in your thinking than saying it's because there are four main characters and it allows access to all four. Instead, focus on the narrative style's connection to the stories theme.)

* Reader Response 2 is rescheduled for a later date (probably Week 6!, after our first LitCrit Essay).

Week 4: Character Week -- readings are on schedule:

Monday, April 27: Truman Capote's "Miriam"

Wednesday: Borges, Cortazar & Marquez

Friday: Tolstoy, Mimicking Fiction 1 due

For Friday, 4/17:

Response #1 (50 points)

Due: Friday, April 17th


Atwood v. Oates

Here is your first written chance (in this course) to turn personal preference into an analytical response.

Which story, of the last two read for Plot Week, do you prefer? Both authors are considered major writers of the 20th century; both, that is to say, have their literary merit, and are worth analysis.

So, focusing mostly on plot and its effects on the characters, what parts of your favored story – upon a close reading – makes the story worth sharing with readers 50 years from now?

Use specific detail from story. Quote lines from the text and explain in your own words how you understand these lines operating in the story – how do they make the story?

Guidelines: 12pt, Times New Roman (Cambria is okay); 1-2 pages double-spaced.
This will serve as a “diagnostic” as well as your first grade.

Introduction to Fiction Syllabus