~~ Independent Project ~~

PRINTER FRIENDLY FORMAT

Due: Final Exam Period
Length: 5-7 pages, typed, double spaced
Documentation: MLA Parenthetical

Directions: Select any single literary work (poem, short story, novel, drama, or film) related to our "Imaginary Worlds" course theme (suggested works appear below) on which to base an original literary analysis/synthesis essay.

Specific Guidelines

1. Provide an expressive introduction: what led you to choose the work and how do you believe it relates to our "Imaginary Worlds" course theme? Do not summarize the literary work.

2. Provide a brief summary of critical opinion about the work you chose.

(FHG Library subscribes to several excellent Language and Literature databases, which should make this an easy task. From the Library's Homepage, select "Indexes and Databases," then select "Humanities," then select "Language and Literature," and choose any of the specialized databases for articles about the author and/or the work you've chosen. If you are accessing the page from off campus, you'll need to type in the 16-digit number (beginning either "601") or the 14-digit number (beginning "217") on your Ram E-card.)

3. Enhance your perspective of the work by extensively comparing/contrasting it with one or more of the works we studied OR by researching information that deepens your understanding of some aspect of the work that you find interesting.

(Here are some suggestions for research angles: (1) explore the writer's biography: find facts relating to the author's life and relate them to the work; (2) explore some detail relating to the subject matter or theme of the work in greater depth or currency; (3) explore some aspect of the surrounding social context and relate it to the work; (4) compare/contrast the work you chose with another literary work we haven't studied (i.e., a work by another author or even by the same author that explores a similar theme, form, etc.); or (5) apply a theory from another discipline (sociological or psychological analysis, Marxism, feminism, quantum physics, whatever!) to some aspect of the literary work (an interpretation of character, for example)

4. Provide an analysis of the text that examines one or more its key features (i.e., its characters, themes, motifs, symbolic or allegorical meanings, etc.)

5. Provide an expressive conclusion: what relevance does this work have for contemporary readers? For you? Why do you think readers might be interested in it?

LIST OF SUGGESTED READINGS
[more will be added]