Final Paper

Your final exam grade will be exclusively based on your ability to complete a literary analysis paper. We've been working all semester on becoming more knowledgeable about literature, and this is your chance to show all that you've learned.

Task: Choose three works of contemporary literature.  At least one has to be an outside piece not read in class.  You will then create an original thesis for your paper that examines a common thread through these three works.  The stories may use vivid imagery, complex characters, unique themes, etc... You will then analyze how this device/technique is employed in each of the three works.

For example: The Use of Female Characters In Contemporary Short Stories
                      Violent Imagery in Contemporary Literature
                      Loneliness in American Short Literature       


So, it is your job to read a few more stories and find the commonality between works. A good place to start would be to choose a story/author that we've already read and seek out more of that author's work or that type of story.

Pick a Story, Any Story

Please grab a copy of The Story and Its Writer.

Look through the Table of Contents on pages xi - xxi and choose one story to read that we have not read in class.

You will be reading on your own and analyzing the story using a Reading Notes worksheet.


Suggestions:

"A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor  - 1042
"Cathedral' by Raymond Carver - 191
"Snow" by Anne Beatie - 108
"The Yellow Wallpaper" - Charlotte Gilman - 462
"The Lady with the Pet Dog" - Joyce Carol Oates - 975
"Powder" or "Say Yes" by Tobias Wolff
"Prisoner on Hell Planet"  by Art Spiegelman (graphic novel)

Blackout Poetry

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2010/09/tuesday-on-the-newshour-austin-kleons-newspaper-blackout.html