Write a literary analysis of a one of the following works:
Daniel Defoe The Journal of the Plague Year
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening.
James Joyce’s Dubliners.
Edwidge Danticat’s Krik? Krak!
Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillman’s The Honey Thief
I like to give students choices, but I need to restrict these choices in order to assure that you can find something “thesis worthy.” This class did a fine job analyzing Chopin’s “Ripe Figs” and “Story of an Hour,” so if her symbolism and stylistic or thematic choices interested you, perhaps her novella The Awakening would suggest some topics to you. We read Joyce’s “Araby,” so you might find the collection of stories from which it comes worth exploring; hence Dubliners makes my list. Others of you may wish to explore a contemporary writer: Danticat’s Krik? Krak! may offer you elements to analyze; Mazari and Hillman’s set of stories use magical realism to cover recent Afghani history. As you research and write this essay, think about what you have learned all semester about style. You might look for interviews, diaries, or letters; in places like those, writers often comment on the way they approach their work. How is the writer you have chosen an example of excellent style? What are the most distinctive stylistic features you associate with this writer?
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