This will be the culminating project for our class. In many ways, it repeats and develops our earlier characterization work. Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Print out the full text of “Araby.”
- Select three segments from the short story. Choose one segment from the beginning of the story, the middle, and the end. These should probably be about 200 or 250 words each, i.e. each segment can be a full paragraph from the story or two or three paragraphs. You want to make sure that you have enough text to analyze. You. may choose a segment from the opening paragraphs we looked at for our last class.
- Code each segment for characterization and setting. Use our usual characterization rubric: ID/mode/trait, DD/trait. For setting, indicate which category the piece of text signifies – – Scope/social, geographic, or spatial/narrow or broad, Span/historical or duration/narrow or broad, Semiotic/thematic or structural.
- For instance, I might code the excerpt – – “The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.” – – this way: “The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.” Setting/Scope/social/middle-class.
- Or, code this excerpt thusly: “The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes under one of which I found the late tenant’s rusty bicycle-pump.” Setting/Semiotic/thematic/dull, enervated.
- Once you have coded three text segments from “Araby,” start to look for patterns. Use a separate sheet or sheets of paper to list these patterns. Especially keep an eye out for contrasts and differences. This list can be handwritten or typed.
- After reflecting on the patterns you discover, pause for a moment or two to think about what these patterns tell you about the meaning of the story. On a separate sheet/s of paper, write a brief explanation of how these patterns point you to the meaning (or meanings) of the story. This should be no more than two, typed pages in length. This is not an essay. Think of it more as a reflection on what your analysis of characterization and setting seem to be telling you about what’s significant and/or interesting in the story.
In conclusion, you should submit three separate components: your annotated text of “Araby”; your map or lists or etc. of patterns; and a two-page reflection on Joyce’s use of characterization and setting in the short story.
Due date: Tuesday, December 5, noon, HUM 553