Your goal in this assignment is to show me: that you know how to analyze prose fiction for characterization and setting; that you understand how character traits and setting in prose fiction are organized (via binary opposition) into character and setting systems; that you can use these oppositions to connect this excerpt from Dubliners to the character system that spans Joyce’s short story collection.
Your final draft of the assignment will consist of three parts (each clearly titled and presented in its own section):
- part one: a coding of the excerpt for characterization (modes and traits) and setting. This should be done by writing on/marking up the excerpt.
- part two: an analysis of the excerpt that organizes character traits and setting elements into patterns of binary opposition, i.e. a character/setting system – – this can be done through columns and lists (i.e. without writing, paragraphs, sentences, etc.)
- part three:
- a typed, written explanation (no more than two pages) that connects this excerpt to the character system of Dubliners. Here, you want to explain how this excerpt repeats or develops character trait patterns and oppositions that we’ve seen in “An Encounter,” “Two Gallants,” “A Little Cloud,” and/or “Araby.” Probably, the most efficient way to accomplish this is to focus on tracing one important binary opposition across the excerpt and two or more stories.
- a typed, written explanation that connects the delineation of setting in this excerpt to other semiotic and thematic organizations of setting in Dubliners. Probably, the most efficient way to accomplish this is to focus on tracing one important binary opposition across the excerpt and two or more stories.
(Bonus points if, a la Fiske, you can explain how this binary in fact represents a cultural or social conflict central to Dubliners.)
This assignment is due Thursday, November 14, at the start of class. As usual, the three-strikes-and-you’re-out rule applies. Questions? Let me know.