Objectives:
For this paper, you are to synthesize how others approach a work of literature, and from there determine where you stand on methods of analysis. We seek to learn about others’ opinions on an issue so we can better form our own opinions. This is a vital skill to learn that is applicable to countless other situations in your life.
Assignment:
Choose a work of prose fiction, either a short story we read in the fiction section of our anthology, or a novel you discuss with me before the first submission is due. Then, find at least three scholarly print sources that address the work you have chosen to study, or that discuss other works the author has written. After reading these sources, determine the “typical ways” that your chosen work has been read by scholars. From there, construct an argument in which you either 1) disagree in a cohesive way with what scholars have said about the work in question, or 2) determine what still needs to be said about the work in question, and argue that point. Be sure to explain to your reader what, or whom, you are arguing against by clearly stating where other scholars’ approaches fail or do not go far enough. However, the focus should always be on your argument: avoid spending too much space summarizing others’ views.
If you chose to work on a piece of fiction that has not been widely discussed by scholars, you will need to look at how scholars have read other works of fiction by the same author or about the same genre. From there you can argue for a new way of reading this aut
