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Literary Analysis Brit Lit II

Page history last edited by Felicia Dz Stovall 11 months, 4 weeks ago

Literary Analysis Brit Lit II

In a research paper we look outside ourselves and the author and instead of just reading the text we find other works and sources that help in interpreting the original work. The sources may be literary criticism, biographical information, historical materials, other poems/plays/novels etc. by the author or related authors that aid in understanding and analyzing the text. It is the next step - going further. Now we can read and respond to the text and by looking outside of ourselves for even more knowledge we deepen our own. 

 

Play Analysis: Examination of a play to (1) identify its component parts, (2) explain their arrangement, and deduce the meaning that arises from them and their relation to the whole.

 

Assignment: Choose one of the following paper topics to examine, research, and analyze.

Choice ONE

The Importance of Being Earnest marks a wild range of social customs from Victorian society, what is being said about the concept of marriage and how its treated. Analyze what can be learned about the Victorian customs. How does this satirical reflection of the time period help us to understand how “society” felt about all the rules and regulations?

Choice TWO

Deception is a key element in this play, highlight key points of deception and discuss the results of each. Make an evaluation based on facts, was deception used for good or bad. Does it matter if deception is used to elicit the result? Why were the characters deceitful? Were there any characters that refrained from deceit? Was deceitfulness inevitable due to the social expectations?

 

Context: Assume that the reader is familiar with the events and characters of the play, but that he/she has neither analyzed it nor formed conclusions as to its meaning. Cite evidence or examples to support your claims. Using the following elements of a play analysis support your claim(s) and convince your argument that your evaluation is supreme.

 

Essential Elements of Play analysis: 

  1. PLOT: analyze the plot.
  2. CHARACTERS: using the Character Analysis outline, analyze the characters
  3. THOUGHT: Explain the nature of the world created by the playwright. What forces operate in this situation? What does it mean to be a human being in this world? What threatens the characters? What solutions are available? How are problems resolved, if they are resolved at all? What sort of feelings are aroused by these characters, these events?
  4. DICTION (LANGUAGE): Describe the play's language and any rhetorical plays on language associated with it. Prose or poetry? Poetry: rhymed or un-rhymed? metrical or free? imitative of daily speech or highly manipulated? Prose: rhythm imitative of daily speech or highly manipulated? Both: dialect and vocabulary of daily life or elevated/manipulated? Relationship of character and diction?
  5. MUSIC: Describe the playwright's choices regarding rhythm, time, and sound. Include examples of rhythmic repetitions of sounds, words, lines, or scenes; hurried or leisurely speech or movement; music or sound effects.
  6. SPECTACLE: Describe important elements of the settings and explain how each should appear to create appropriate mood and atmosphere and assist the communication of idea. Explain whether the setting is necessary or significant to the events or ideas of the play or is merely appropriate background. Describe other important elements of spectacle.

 

Lastly, Your Analysis: What does all this add up to? On the basis of the evidence you have described above, explain as fully as you can the meaning (particular point, general truth, argument, or proposition) embodied by the playwright in the selection and arrangement of the materials of this play.

 

I want you to continue to be the smart, reflective, and analytical writers you have grown into this semester.  The small, but essential differences between this essay and the previous ones are that now you are going to write a longer paper and include references to outside sources.

 

Although this assignment asks you to do outside reading, your main task remains the same: to produce an argument of your own drawing upon a literary text.  The outside sources are meant to help you develop and deepen your own interpretation of the Drama piece you have chosen, not to substitute for it.  This essay is not a traditional research report where you regurgitate all the facts you can find about your topic; indeed, report-style papers will not pass.  Instead, you are using the sources to help you understand your chosen focus, the literary devises being used, self-understanding, and presentation to the world, etc.

 

Suggested sources:

  • reviews
  • essays
  • articles
  • television sources
  • literary critiques
  • biographical materials
  • historical materials
  •  

Be inventive - find other sources too.

Find your sources before you start to write your essay.

  • Online students will submit their sources with their paper via Canvas. 

 

FORMAT Details

  •  Length: 5 to 5 1/2 pages, correct margins, heading…SHOW ME your MLA!
  •   The Works Cited Page it must be in correct MLA style. (does not include WC page)
  •   5 total sources includes the play itself. (more external sources are permitted).
  •   MLA Documentation: Correct or your essay grade will be lowered by a full letter grade (for example, an A- will become a B-)
  •   Writing Style: Do not write in report-style, but use the intelligent, thoughtful, and reflective style you have been cultivating. 
  •   Sources: The paper must refer The Importance of being Earnest and 4 outside sources.  When you refer to these sources, make sure to properly acknowledge other writers’ ideas and not use them out of context.

 

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