Novel Analysis
General rules for the Novel Analysis
- Novel must come from approved list
- One student per novel
- Length:
- Introduction (blurb): 250 (minimum) - 400 (maximum) words
- Analysis: 1000 (minimum) - 1500 (maximum) words
- Minimum of three critical approaches
- Absolutely no source material other than class materials (textbooks, Course Content, notes)
- Demonstrates intimate knowledge of the novel
- Demonstrates thoughtful application of course concepts to the novel
- Demonstrates proper grammar and usage
The novel analysis must be typed and double-spaced on typing paper, front side only, with one inch margins on all four sides. NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
Novel Analysis
This assignment has three components. Each student will
- Carefully read a work of fiction from the selected reading list
- Write a one (1) page (250 word) introduction to the novel. This introduction will identify
- the major characters with a brief description of each
- the setting of the story: time, location, any special characteristics
- the central conflict in the story - What is at stake? What problems is the novel addressing? What direction is the novel taking?
However, while this introduction may indicate where the novel is going, it should not explain how the conflict is resolved in the end. In other words. do not summarize the novel. Instead, this introduction should be similar to the blurb of a book.
- Write a three (3) page analysis (1000 words minimum, 1500 word maximum) of the novel, explaining the ways in which myth underlies the novel, how myth is used in the novel, how any particular myth may be modified in the novel, how the various theories and approaches to myth can open up the novel to a reader, and an explanation for the choices made by the author based on the student's own perceptions of the work without reference to resources other than the work of fiction itself. Students must incorporate at least three (3) different approaches to their novel. The student's aim in the analysis is to demonstrate to the instructor that the student can apply the various ideas and theories about myth studied in this class to a work of fiction. This can be accomplished in several ways.
Some possible approaches to the analysis
- Plot
- Campbell's monomyth (ORIAS version)
- Lord Raglan's "hero of tradition"
- Propp/Hastings functions of the fairy tale
- Van Gennep's initiation rituals
- Cosmogonic cycle - Campbell, Eliade, Frazier, et al.
- Character
- General archetypal characters
- Male/Female Divine archetypes
- Propp's dramatis personae of fairy tales
- Carol Pearson's six archetypes
- Italian stock characters
- Jungian archetypes - self, persona, shadow, anima/animus
- Freud- id, ego, superego
- Others
- Great Goddess and the Warrior King - Frazier, Gimbutas, Graves
- Binary oppositions and coded language - Marx, Claude Levi Strauss
- Sacred and profane space - Mircea Eliade
- Sociological/Anthropological approaches - Frazier, Graves, Malinowski
- Rituals - Levi-Strauss, Eliade, Frazier, Raglan
- Universal and ethnic ideas - Bastian, Doniger
- Myth as ideology - Lincoln, Levi-Strauss
- Weigle creation types (ONLY if story includes a creation myth)
This is not a research assignment. Students may not use any source material other than the work of fiction itself. Again, students may not use any resource materials for this assignment other than materials presented in this course. Under no circumstances should students be reading any materials that discuss their novel.
No two students will read and write about the same work of fiction. A reading list is attached. Click on the link to view the reading list. When you are given the option to download the list, clicking on the link will open the list so that you can read it.
Students in the online courses should e-mail me their choices using our course e-mail. Students in campus courses will select novels in class by lottery. Novels will be assigned on a first come, first served basis.
Additional Resources
Students are required to submit this assignment. Students who do not submit this assignment are ineligible to pass this course.
