“The Art of Literary Fiction (Links to an external site.)”, by Umberto Eco
“The Great Divide: Commercial vs. Literary Fiction (Links to an external site.)”, by Louisa Burton
What they both say is, basically, yesterday’s “light/popular fiction” is tomorrow’s literature – given that it is good fiction. There is a lot of bad literature out there that is tough to read, and in fact isn’t really that good. So, if you have a book in mind, run it by me and we can have a conversation about it. This is the beginning of the research process!
Initial Steps: Finding a Topic
I strongly suggest that you first choose a monster or monster story that interests you. Dont pick something that you think just might be easy. Typically, they arent.
Once youve done this, consider going to a website such as Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble to explore versions of the story and critical analyses of the book.
There will be a limited number of papers written about the same monsters as that gets kind of boring, right? You will be writing a research proposal that will be due week 7 see calendar.
Warning: dont simply recycle a paper from high school or a book you read a long time ago. Students often try this thinking that because they did well before, they will do well again. That isnt so!
Not only is this plagiarism, but the standards are much higher in college.
From here, you should start looking at what critics have to say and then consider a literary approach. You should have made this decision at least by the end of week
What is Literary Analysis?
Take on one piece of literature, a writer, or a genre and analyze it according to current literary theory. Most students choose to write a comparison and contrast paper focusing on the development of one authors work compared to another authors.
So, for example, if you are interested in childrens literature, you may write about Dr. Seuss and choose one story, comparing it to what other authors are writing for children. Or if you like mysteries, as a genre, you may choose Edgar Allen Poe and closely examine the Purloined Letter. Or you may want to compare a story of his with a more modern mystery.
In order to complete this assignment, I recommend that you choose an aspect of one of the scholarly conversations we have been reading and use that as the basis for your research. The discussion may overlap with other Schools of Literary Theory, so dont concentrate on staying within any artificial/rigid academic boundaries.
So, for example, you may choose to analyze Dr. Seuss stories using a New Criticism approach. Or you may want to write about Wuthering Heights by using a Feminist approach. You could also write about a work like Brave New World using a psychoanalytic view. The idea here is to prove that you understand that stories can be seen from different viewpoints, as perceived by literary critics and the authors that write them.
Literature Review
The Literature Review is designed so that your paper will give the reader a clear idea of what type of writing was done during this time period, making note of the authors contemporaries and how her work fits with the rest. So if you were writing about Walt Whitman, you would also discuss other Transcendentalists such as Thoreau, Emerson and Margaret Fuller. This is the EASY part of the essay, so be sure to do a good job with this.
Most scholarly articles contain some sort of Literature Review, so Id like for you to demonstrate your familiarity with the literature pertaining to your topic. Where/how you include that review is up to you, but it should be at least one page long and clearly labeled Lit
