For Thursday, you are required to read your assigned story and annotate it. Your annotations are to be submitted to the dropbox before the beginning of class on Thursday. It must be in the dropbox before class begins, or you will receive no credit for the annotations assignment.
This assignment begins our yearlong study of literary analysis. The first step in literary analysis is understanding the elements of plot (conflict, climax, resolution, etc.), figurative language (metaphor, symbolism, personification, etc.) , and other literary terms (tone, mood, theme, etc.). In order to do this you should know ALL of the terms in the following handout.
Download: Overview of Basic Literary Terms
I reserve the right to assess you on any and all of these "basic" literary terms -- their definitions as well as how to apply them, how to recognize them, etc. In fact, you will be using these literary terms to complete the series of assignments you will have relating to your assigned short story.
The Short Stories
The following short stories were chosen for this project because of their richness in literary value. For example, they can all be read on differerent "levels"; they allow ample room for interpretation; they rely on the use of figurative language and ambiguity; they raise important questions for the reader; and they are all of a similar length. Note: Although we are focusing primarily on British literature this year, I have also included some American authors.
"The Blue Lenses" by Daphne du Maurier
A2: Myers, Nabor, Orkwis, Josephson
A3: Bugada, Greve, Himes
"The Body Snatcher" by Robert Louis Stevenson
A2: Abeln, Asgian, Bruggeman, Bruns
A3: Kincaid, Reed, Kunkel, Mills
"William Wilson" by Edgar Allan Poe
A2: Griffiths, Hanna, Hoderlein, Pappalardo
A3: McCreary, Morton, Nymberg
"The Destructors" by Graham Greene
A2: Williams, Verrilli, Zimmerman
A3: King, Shaffer, Shade
"A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor
A2: Paz, Rieger, Schlueter, Schumacher
A3: Rumsey, Strottman, Wheat
"The Birthmark" by Nathanael Hawthorne
A2: Smallwood, Worobetz, Voss, Wick
In case you forgot what you're suppose to do for Thursday, see the second paragraph above. It is important that you read the story WELL before you come to class.