Literary Fiction Analysis Assignment

Literary Fiction Analysis

 

 

Before completing this assignment, please

·         Review Burroway’s discussion of Story on pages 166 to 175 and her discussion of Fiction on pages 259 to 270 of Imaginative Writing

·         Review the PowerPoint/Camtasia segment on Story and Fiction provided in the Week 5 and 6 folder

·         Select one of the following stories to analyze:

o   Joyce Carol Oates’s “Mastiff”

o   Roddy Doyle’s “Bullfighting”

o   Lorrie Moore’s “Paper Losses”

o   Edna O’Brien’s “The Widow”

o   William Trevor’s “A Day”

o   Tobias Wolff’s “The Night in Question”

§  audio readings and discussions of each selection are available free as New Yorker fiction podcasts (on the New Yorker website, on iTunes, and some on YouTube) but as the first step in your research, you are expected to track down and read a written version of your selection (whether paper or electronic).

 

 

 

The 1000-word assignment consists of three parts:

a)      A 500-word discussion of story mechanics

b)      A 250-word summary of reviews

c)      A 250-word reflection on reproducible techniques

Please hand in the assignment as one Word document.  Please include a word count, and ensure that you have stayed within 10% of the assigned lengths.

 

a)      A 500-word discussion of story mechanics – considering the contrast between story/plot, scene/summary, and backstory/flashback, deconstruct the structure of your selection in one of the three ways presented by Burroway:

i.            story as journey (discuss the central character’s goal/desire/decisions, obstacles to the goal, overcoming the obstacles, the resolution of the journey)

ii.            story as power struggle (discuss the protagonist’s struggle against the antagonist, the shape of the conflict/ crisis/ resolution, the inverted checkmark)

iii.            story as connection and disconnection (discuss the central character’s pattern of movement from one extreme to another throughout the story’s events)

b)      A 250-word summary of reviews – learn the short story collection in which your selected story was originally included, and using Algonquin’s electronic databases (not the open internet), locate, read, and summarize three published reviews of the collection; it is best if the reviews refer directly to your selection.  Your summary will be in your own words and should not use direct quotation; use APA or MLA format.

c)      A 250-word reflection on reproducible techniques – reflect on the techniques you have observed in your selected story and discuss how you could incorporate them into your own fiction as you develop and revise.  Be specific and point to exact moments in your selected story, and as appropriate, explain how you might use these techniques in revising your first craft assignment on Image/Voice.

 

 

 

 

The rubric used to grade your assignment will be as follows:

 

missing F/35% D/55% C/65% B/75% A/85% A+
     a) Discussion of story mechanics (10)
Insight and support in plot/ story discussion (2) 0 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 2
Insight and support in scene/ summary discussion (2) 0 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 2
Insight and support in flashback/ backstory discussion(2) 0 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 2
Analysis of story structure (2) 0 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 2
Specific support in story structure analysis (2) 0 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 2
     b) Summary of reviews (10)
Completeness & appropriateness of review sources (2) 0 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 2
Content and clarity of summary (4) 0 1.4 2.2 2.6 3 3.4 4
Paraphrasing and use of own words (2) 0 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 2
MLA / APA format (2) 0 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 2
     c) Reflection on reproducible techniques (10)
Clarity and organization of reflection (2) 0 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 2
Specific support from story in reflection (4) 0 1.4 2.2 2.6 3 3.4 4
Discussion of future use of technique in reflection(4) 0 1.4 2.2 2.6 3 3.4 4
     d) Overall (10 )
Overall organization (2) 0 0.7 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 2
Grammar and sentence structure (4) 0 1.4 2.2 2.6 3 3.4 4
Readability (4) 0 1.4 2.2 2.6 3 3.4 4
Total /40