Karlstad University
Faculty of Arts and Education
Department of English
British and American Literature
6 Credits
—
Study Guide
Campus B
2010-09-01
Anna Stibe Waller
[email protected]
054–700 18 05
Room 12B544
Johan Wijkmark
[email protected]
054–700 16 01
Room 12B548
Karlstads universitet 651 88 Karlstad
Tfn 054-700 10 00 Fax 054-700 14 60
[email protected] www.kau.se
British and American Literature
Study Guide, Fall 2010
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Contents: Course Aims............................................................................................................................................................3 Individual Assignments........................................................................................................................................3 Keywords or alternative assignments ..........................................................................................................................3 Final Essay (1,000-1,500 words)....................................................................................................................................3 Assessment ..............................................................................................................................................................4 Grade Criteria .........................................................................................................................................................4 Schedule with Assignments............................................................................................................................6 Reading List (in order of reading) .....................................................................................................................8 American Poetry Selection for Nov 11............................................................................................................9 Advice on the Writing of the Literary Essay ............................................................................................... 11 A Note on Plagiarism ........................................................................................................................................ 19 Guidelines for References ................................................................................................................................ 19 Definitions of Useful Literary Terms............................................................................................................ 21 British and American Literature
Study Guide, Fall 2010
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Course Aims
This course is intended to give an overview of British and American literature up to 1950.
After finishing the course, you should be able to
•
independently reflect on and analyze different kinds of literary texts
•
use basic terms and concepts in literary analysis
•
compare aspects of literary texts from different times
You should be so familiar with the texts that you are able to
•
discuss how literary works relate to and contrast with each other
•
give examples of how different themes and ideas are treated in the texts
•
give examples of characteristic features based on your reading of the texts
Individual Assignments
Keywords or alternative assignments
When you read the assigned literature in the course you are supposed to find keywords to the
literary texts. A keyword is a word or phrase that is in the novel or short story—it is actually
spelled out in the text, not implied—and that you feel is quite important or relevant to the story
as you read it. The keyword can be large and obvious—the title or a part of it, for instance—or
something that seems insignificant at first, but becomes more and more meaningful. When you
have decided on a keyword, write down a few sentences that show why this word or phrase is
significant in the novel or short story. Do not forget to write down the page(s) in parentheses
after the keyword where the word or the phrase can be found.
For some texts you can also choose to do the alternative assignment. These should be of about
the same extent as the keywords.
The keywords or alternative assignments will provide the basis for all discussions
in class, so it’s important that you do these before you come to a seminar. All
assignments must be completed and handed in to a teacher.
Final Essay (1,000-1,500 words)
Compare and contrast one aspect (e.g., characterization, theme, imagery, ideology) of two of the
literary texts of the course. Before you begin, read Maria Holmgren Troy’s “Advice on the
Writing of the Literary Essay” and “A Note on Plagiarism” below. The essay should be sent in
together with the documents Front Page Take-Home Exam and Plagiarism Disclaimer (download
from Kurstorget). The essay will not be graded without the signed disclaimer (a scanned copy of
the signed document is acceptable).
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Assessment
Your final grade will be based primarily on the essay and with reference to your performance
during the course. Assessment will be made on the following grounds:
•
•
Written assignments (keywords and alternative assignments). NB! These assignments will
not be graded directly, but they must all be handed in to achieve a pass grade and will be
referred to in case your final grade is balancing between two grades.
Essay, 1,000-1,500 words
Grade Criteria
G
All assignments for the course module have been completed and passed.
The essay has a clear thesis (i.e. a clearly defined argument) that involves a comparison/contrast
of (at least) two literary texts and which is properly expressed in a thesis statement. The thesis is a
proper literary question. For instance, it does not deal with general topics, such as racism,
poverty, gender inequality, etc. but relates all issues to the literary text in question: e.g. racism in
this or that novel, etc.
The analysis is supported by textual examples, conforming to the formal requirements for citing
sources, etc. The usage of literary terminology is largely correct. The literary texts under analysis
are actually put in meaningful relation to each other in some respect.
The language is largely satisfactory, without repeated, serious grammatical errors (e.g. no more
than four subject-verb agreement errors). Essays may be returned for revision based on language
alone.
VG
In addition to the requirements for G, the following criteria apply:
The thesis has a literary analytical perspective, and the essay exhibits an awareness of a metaperspective, i.e. reasoning about how the literary text functions.
The thesis is a well argued and cogent analysis that is fully supported by relevant textual
examples. It exhibits a well-developed literary perspective, using the proper literary terminology
studied in the course and using it in the right sense. The comparison/contrast perspective is
sustained throughout the essay, and this analytical method brings something new or something
that is not self-evident to the analysis.
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The text is well structured according to the formal requirements of an essay and to suit the topic
at hand.
Language is satisfactory both grammatically and stylistically.
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Schedule with Assignments
Fri 1/10
Elizabethan drama + poetry: Anna Stibe Waller (ASW)
13.15-16
Read William Shakespeare’s Macbeth + write four keywords with analytic
explanations OR discuss four examples of striking imagery (with
explanations) from the play. See section “Keywords or alternative
assignments” below.
1B306
Read the sonnets by Shakespeare in the poetry handout + write one keyword
for each.
General note: Always bring your keywords or alternative
assignments to class and hand in at the end of the session (with
changes or amendments penciled in if need be).
Thu 7/10
The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (ASW)
13.15-16
Read Aphra Behn’s The Rover, Act 1 and 2, plus Act 4:3 – Act 5 + write one
keyword.
12B258
Read Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto + write two keywords OR
discuss two examples of Gothic elements.
Read Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal and write two keywords OR discuss
two examples of satire (with explanations), and Alexander Pope’s “The
Rape of the Lock” (Web version with hyperlinked notes:
http://people.umass.edu/sconstan/poemlink.html) and write two keywords.
Thu 14/10 Pride and Prejudice (ASW)
13.15-16
12B258
Read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice + write four keywords OR examine and
discuss four examples of irony.
Read the selection of Romantic period poetry in the poetry handout +
select two poems and write one keyword on each.
Thu 21/10 Captivity narratives and slave narratives: Johan Wijkmark (JW)
13.15-16
Read Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs.
Mary Rowlandson (selection in Heath 206-32) and Frederick Douglass’
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12B258
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. (Heath 867-931)
Write two keywords for each text OR give two examples from each of rhetorical
strategies from each and discuss their meaning. (If you want to, look up
“rhetorical strategies” on the Internet and see if you can find some helpful
definitions. Remember to list your source[s] if you do.)
Thu 28/10 The American [Re]naissance + Problematizing woman’s role in
society (JW)
9.15-12
Read Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (handout),
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” (Heath 968-76), and
12B258
Edgar Allan Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” (Heath 1001-14) + write one
keyword for each.
Read Kate Chopin’s The Awakening + write two keywords OR a few
paragraphs on the imagery in the novel related to major themes.
Read Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (Heath 15971609) and “Why I wrote ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper” (handout) + write two
keywords to the short story OR a brief discussion of the theme of women’s
position in society.
Thu 4/11
Victorian and modernist literature (ASW)
13.15-16
Read Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray + write three keywords OR
write a few paragraphs on a central theme in the novel.
12B258
Read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own + write two keywords.
Read the selection of Victorian poetry in the poetry handout + select two
poems and write one keyword for each.
Thu 11/11
American modernism (JW)
13.15-17
Read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby + write three keywords OR
develop a central theme in the novel in a brief discussion.
Note the
time!
12B258
Read Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” (Heath 1950-53)
and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” (handout) + write one keyword
for each.
Read Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (Heath 2242-52)
Read poetry selection from Heath (see separate list below) + select one
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keyword each from three of the poems.
Fri 19/11
Deadline final essay! Send in to Johan by e-mail or put a hard copy in his
mailbox at the English department.
Please note that you’re also supposed to submit the Plagiarism
Disclaimer and the Front Page Take-Home Exam (download from
Kurstorget).
Don’t forget to proofread! A poorly proofread essay will be sent back immediately for
revision without being graded. And don’t forget to write your name on it!
Reading List (in order of reading)
Most of the texts below are available on the Internet (although rarely with the helpful
notes that you can find in most of the printed versions). Here are three sites on the
Internet that offer full texts:
Google Books: http://books.google.com/
Open Library: http://openlibrary.org/
Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/
University of Virginia's Virgo (old Electronic Text Center): http://virgobeta.lib.virginia.edu/
(still in its beta stage, though, so it does not yet contain the full collection)
William Shakespeare, Macbeth.
Sonnets in poetry handout.
Aphra Behn, The Rover Act 1 and 2 and Act 4:3 through Act 5.
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto.
Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal.
Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.
Romantic poetry selection in handout.
Mary Rowlandson, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (selection in
Heath 206-32).
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. (Heath 867-931).
Washington Irving, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (handout).
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown” (Heath 968-76).
Edgar Allan Poe, “Fall of the House of Usher” (Heath 1001-14).
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Kate Chopin, The Awakening.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (Heath 1597-1609).
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own.
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Victorian poetry selection in handout.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants” (Heath 1950-53).
William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” (handout).
Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (Heath 2242-52).
American poetry selection from Heath (see separate list below).
Recommended Reading:
John Peck and Martin Coyle, Literary Terms and Criticism
American Poetry Selection for Nov 11
Edward Taylor, “Huswifery” (Heath 236).
Phyllis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” (Heath 575).
Section “Songs of the Slaves,” “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve had” (Heath 1190), “Many Thousand
Go” (Heath 1192).
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Warning” (Heath 1207).
Walt Whitman, sections 1-3, 13-15, 21-24, 48, and 51-52 of “Song of Myself” (Heath 1225-76).
Emily Dickinson, [“I’m Nobody!”] (Heath 1299-1300), [“Because I could not stop for Death”] (Heath
1310), [“In Winter in my Room”] (appended below).
Alice Dunbar-Nelson, “I Sit and Sew” (Heath 1668).
Stephen Crane, [“A Man Saw a Ball of Gold in the Sky”] (appended below), No. 76 and 96 (handout).
Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” (Heath 1801).
Ezra Pound, “A Pact” (appended below).
Amy Lowell, “Venus Transiens” (Heath 1840).
William Carlos Williams, “The Red Wheelbarrow” (Heath 1856).
e. e. cummings, [“Buffalo Bill’s”] (Heath 1897).
Langston Hughes, “Johannesburg Mines” (Heath 2009), “I, Too” (Heath 2010).
Countee Cullen, “Yet Do I Marvel” (Heath 2021).
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1670
In Winter in my Room
I came upon a Worm—
Pink, lank and warm—
But as he was a worm
And worms presume
Not quite with him at home—
Secured him by a string
To something neighboring
And went along.
A Trifle afterward
A thing occurred
I’d not believe it if I heard
But state with creeping blood—
A snake with mottles rare
Surveyed my chamber floor
In feature as the worm before
But ringed with power—
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Lest he pursue
Nor ever ceased to run
Till in a distant Town
Towns on from mine
I set me down
This was a dream.
--Emily Dickinson
A man saw a ball of gold in the sky;
He climbed for it,
And eventually he achieved it -It was clay.
Now this is the strange part:
When the man went to the earth
And looked again,
Lo, there was the ball of gold.
Now this is the strange part:
It was a ball of gold.
Aye, by the heavens, it was a ball of gold.
The very string with which
I tied him—too
When he was mean and new
That string was there—
—Stephen Crane
A Pact
I shrank—“How fair you are”!
Propitiation’s claw—
“Afraid,” he hissed
“Of me”?
“No cordiality”—
He fathomed me—
Then to a Rhythm Slim
Secreted in his Form
As Patterns swim
Projected him.
That time I flew
Both eyes his way
I MAKE a pact with you, Walt Whitman—
I have detested you long enough.
I come to you as a grown child
Who has had a pig-headed father;
I am old enough now to make friends.
It was you that broke the new wood,
Now is a time for carrying.
We have one sap and one root—
Let there be commerce between us.
—Ezra Pound
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Advice on the Writing of the Literary Essay
The literary essay is
•
a form of examination. You are expected to show that you can
o deal analytically with a fictional text
o develop your interpretation of it
o present your material and ideas coherently and correctly
•
the documented result of a careful study of a particular aspect of a work of
fiction.
•
an analytical paper which argues a case or examines the effects of a
particular literary device. Usually, the case argued is an interpretation or an
explanation of the effect, meaning or significance of an aspect of the
literary work.
•
an essay that consists of a controlling idea (or thesis statement), a number
of supporting ideas, and textual evidence in the form of quotations.
The literary essay is not
•
a “research paper” in the sense that you should find and make use of
secondary sources.
•
a summary (“telling the story”).
•
a review (introducing and assessing).
•
a mere description (simply repeating what is already obvious in the text).
•
an account of your reading experience.
Avoid:
* “When I first read the book …”
* “This made me feel very sad …”
* “It really changed my life …”
Content
Remember that you do not have to come up with an original, unique, revolutionary, or
ingenious idea (although you are welcome to). The originality will lie in your choice of
organization, your choice of quotations, your mode of argument. Strangely enough, essays
on the same topic are never alike.
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Focus on what the novel does in specific terms, on how the work deals with specific
problems and issues:
•
“The novel emphasizes the importance of mutual respect in human
relationships.”
•
“In the novel, the painful crises of middle age lead to spiritual and
moral growth.”
•
“The Native Americans described in the novel emphasize the
importance of doing what is best for the community, whereas the
Anglo-American characters primarily think about what is best for
the individual.”
Turn your reading experience into a statement about the novel:
•
“At first sight it is not immediately clear that the novel is ironic in
its treatment of the protagonist.”
•
“Stevens’s inability to leave his duties even when his father lies
dying is another example of the tragic consequences of his
commitment to his work.”
•
“The novel is thought-provoking in its depiction of female power.”
Try not to treat characters as if they are “real” people. Remember that, unlike people,
characters have no life outside the pages of the novel. In other words, do not speculate
about a character’s past or future outside the text. Base your observations and analysis on
what is said and done in the novel.
The literary essay is not a forum for moralizing or philosophizing on the ills or
virtues of the world.
So avoid statements like the following:
•
“We should love each other more.”
•
“It shows that you don’t have to give up when you reach middle
age.”
•
“We ought to learn from the Native Americans.”
It is not an essay which discusses a problem treated in the work in general terms.
Discuss in your essay why there is a focus on divorce in The Buddha of Suburbia and
write about the function of divorce in the novel?
Do not use the divorces in The Buddha of Suburbia as a starting-point to write an
essay on divorce in general.
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The Writing Process
•
Choose one of the set books used in class (or two if you have been asked to write a
comparative essay).
•
Generate ideas.
o Ask yourself questions: What intrigues you, puzzles you, irritates you,
fascinates you, or interests you about the work(s)? Write down any ideas
and answers that come to mind.
o Brainstorm: put down on paper as many words that come into your head
when you think about the novel(s).
o Mind map: start with a central idea and associate freely, fanning out from
the idea. Try out another idea if you like.
•
Select a subject or an idea.
•
Reread the book(s) with this subject in mind, collecting material in the form of
relevant quotations and references to episodes.
•
Analyze and interpret your material.
•
Decide what you want to say about it; that is, what is your thesis statement.
Thesis statement
The thesis statement is the controlling idea of the essay, or, in other words, your
main assertion, claim, or question. (Remember that this question is most often
formulated as a statement.)
“The conflict in Pigs in Heaven is based on two different interpretations of
the concept of ‘family’.”
“The main women characters in Nervous Conditions represent various stages
of feminist awareness.”
“This essay will examine the use and importance of bird symbols in
Generation X” (implied question: What is the function of bird symbols in
Generation X?).
A thesis statement is not a vague indication of your point of view:
•
“I think the story is about love”
•
“The difference between men’s and women’s conditions is very
important”
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•
14
“It seems as if Roddy Doyle wants to criticize Irish society”
Your task is to show how you know, why you claim, that the story is about love, etc.
A thesis statement is not
•
a mere description of your method:
* “I will compare these two novels”
* “I will analyze the text…”
Connect your thesis statement to a description of your method:
“By comparing these two novels I will show that Doyle is considerably
more moralistic in his later works than in his early novels.”
In this essay I will examine the consequences for Stevens of the division of
role and identity.
Organize your material so that your analysis or argument is properly developed:
•
thesis statement
o topic sentence 1 in support of the thesis statement

supporting examples from the text

comment(s) on the examples from the text showing their
relevance
o topic sentence 2 in support of the thesis statement etc
Your essay should have the following structure:
TITLE - indicates the focus of the essay. It cannot simply be the title of the book.
Avoid titles such as “Everyone Needs to Be Loved.”
It is better to say: “The Absence of Love in Jay McInerney’s Story of My Life.”
INTRODUCTION – contains the justification for your essay. The introduction should
introduce your topic and controlling idea, not the novel or author in general. It should also
attempt to awaken the reader’s interest in the specific aspect of the novel that you will
focus on in the essay.
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SUPPORT 1 – should be clearly related to the thesis statement and develop the
“argument” of the essay.
SUPPORT 2 – see SUPPORT 1
SUPPORT 3 – and so on
CONCLUSION – specifies the effect, meaning, or implications of what you have said in
the essay. It summarizes the main points of the essay to draw the reader’s attention to how
the claim or question in the introduction is supported or answered. It has the feel of an
underlying (but not necessarily stated) “therefore …” State an insight about the novel based
on your essay. However, remember that no new material and no new points should be
introduced in the conclusion.
Write the essay. Then read it and ask yourself the following questions:
•
Have I made the controlling idea of the essay clear?
•
Are my points clearly developed with the help of a clear structure?
•
Is there a logical development between the main idea of each paragraph
(the topic sentence) and the rest of that paragraph?
•
Are there any irrelevant pieces of information?
•
What examples have I given to support my argument or answer my
question?
•
Are there enough examples to make it clear?
Quotations
Quotations from the text support your argument: they are not arguments in themselves.
Therefore you need to make comments, explain how the quotation is relevant to the point
you want to make and show clearly what you want the quotation to illustrate. The relation
is never as self-evident to other readers as it is to you; and even if it is, you need to make
clear what it is that you want to say.
Use quotations only when they support or clarify an argument, and keep you quotations
short. Less than 10 % of your essay should consist of quoted material. Obviously you
should not quote out of context: quotations must appear in a context similar to the
original.
Copy the quotation exactly. Do not italicize or otherwise change the form of the original
text.
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Incorporate short quotations in your running text and enclose them with quotation marks,
starting with and opening quotation mark: “ and ending with a closing quotation mark: ”.
Give page references in brackets (parentheses) immediately after the quotation:
•
“The great butlers are great by virtue of their ability to inhabit their professional
role and inhabit it to the utmost” (42-43).
Note: When you deal with only one text, it is enough to give only the page numbers.
When you deal with more than one text you have to include the surname of the author,
unless you have referred to the author previously in the sentence:
•
The story begins dramatically: “We started dying before the snow, and like the
snow, we continued to fall” (Erdrich 1).
•
From the very beginning of her story, Erdrich stresses the grim conditions that
the Chippewa Indians lived under: “We started dying before the snow, and like
the snow, we continued to fall” (1).
Question marks and exclamation marks are written outside the closing quotation mark
unless they are part of the quotation:
•
What does Nanapush mean when he says “I am old wood and I burn easily”
(185)?
•
Against this background it is a serious challenge when Mr Lewis asks “have you
any idea what sort of place the world is becoming all around you?” (102).
A long quotation (more than four lines of your text), a block quotation, is set off from
the text. Skip a line before and after the quotation and do not enclose it with quotation
marks. Put the full stop or period before the page reference. Indent the whole block
quotation:
It is sometimes said that butlers only truly exist in England. Other countries,
whatever title is actually used, have only manservants. I tend to believe this is true.
Continentals are unable to be butlers because they are as a breed incapable of the
emotional restraint which only the English race is capable of. (43)
Use […] or […]. or . […] to indicate the omission of irrelevant material in the middle or at
the end of a quoted sentence or passage, ellipsis (three dots for omitted words and four
dots for omitted sentences). This kind of indication is not used at the beginning of a
quotation:
•
The servants were always busy, and mostly silent. They whisked away behind their own
doors into mysterious areas into which he had never penetrated, though he met them at
every turning in those places in which his own life was led. […] They were as full of
urgent purpose as the children of the house were empty of it. (74)
Use square brackets, [ ], to enclose information you want to supply:
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•
17
This is how Jeanette describes the clear division of the world of her childhood:
“[My mother] had never heard of mixed feelings. There were friends and there
were enemies” (3).
Use [sic] directly after an apparent mistake in the quoted text to indicate to the reader that
the mistake occurred in the original text and is not yours:
•
Stevens’s reaction when Miss Kenton catches him reading a love story shows
that he feels that an interest in popular literature is beneath him: “I was
tempted to trust [sic] the book into the drawer of my desk and lock it, but this
seemed absurdly dramatic” (166).
Use italics (or underline, if using a typewriter without italics) if you want to emphasize
certain words or phrases in the quotation. Indicate that it is your emphasis, and not the
original’s, directly after the page reference. Use the phrase “emphasis added” or “my
emphasis”:
•
Stevens is convinced that his lack of feelings is a typically English feature, but
also that it indicates some kind of superiority: “Continentals are unable to be
butlers because they are as a breed incapable of the emotional restraint which only
the English race is capable of” (43, emphasis added).
Use single quotation marks for quotations within quotations:
•
“What you describe as ‘amateurism’, sir, is what I think most of us here still
prefer to call ‘honour’” (103).
Correctness
Book titles and authors
Italicize the titles of books: The Remains of the Day, The Snapper (if you use a typewriter, the
title of the book should be underlined: The Remains of the Day, The Snapper).
Refer to the author by using his or her full name or by using the surname only: Roddy
Doyle, Doyle. You are advised to use the full name the first time you mention an author in
an essay. Never refer to an author using only his or her first name: *Roddy.
Language and Style
•
Introduce your essay without referring immediately to its title. Repeat the title later in
the text, if necessary.
•
Use the present tense when writing about what takes place in a novel or short story.
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•
Use formal written English. Avoid informal or spoken forms.
•
Link sentences and paragraphs properly so the reader can easily follow your line of
thought.
•
Write complete sentences. Avoid run-on sentences and sentence fragments.
•
Proofread carefully. Check:
•
spelling
•
subject-verb agreement
•
genitives
•
adjectives and adverbs
•
pronouns and referents
•
punctuation
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PROOFREAD YOUR ESSAY FOR LANGUAGE ERRORS
BEFORE FINALLY HANDING IT IN!
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19
A Note on Plagiarism
All of the literary assignments in this course aim to develop your ability to interpret and
analyze literature, to read literature closely and draw conclusions based on your reading that
you then develop, change, rethink, or discard in the interaction with the other students and
the teacher. You are not required, or encouraged, to use secondary sources (books, Internet
sites, etc.) about the literature that we read before you write your literary keywords or
essays. However, if you want to use information from a secondary source (electronic or
printed), you need to give proper credit to this source and acknowledge that the idea or
phrasing is not your own in the same way that you are required to do when you write your
work with assignments in literary history. See “Guidelines for References” below. If you
fail to do this, you are guilty of plagiarism: that is, intellectual theft and fraud.
As Joseph Gibaldi puts it, “Plagiarism is almost always seen as a shameful act, and
plagiarists are usually regarded with pity and scorn. They are pitied because they have
demonstrated their inability to develop and express their own thoughts. They are scorned
because of their dishonesty and their willingness to deceive others for personal gain” (66).
He continues, “The charge of plagiarism is a serious one for all writers. Students exposed
as plagiarists suffer severe penalties, ranging from failure in the assignment or in the course
to expulsion from school. They must also live with the distrust that follows an attempt to
deceive others for personal gain” (67). If you are insecure about what is considered
plagiarism, we recommend pp. 66-73 in the MLA Handbook. You are of course welcome to
ask us if you have any questions about how to use secondary sources.
If we discover plagiarism in any assignment including keywords the student will
have to take an exam in an exam hall “salstenta” in order to get his/her points for
the course.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003.
Guidelines for References
Please note that these are just examples for the most typical types of sources. For more
information see The MLA Handbook.
After your context keywords always list your sources like this:
Internet sites:
Author(s) (or editor[s]). “Title.” Date of posting. Date of access. Web address.
Cert, Keda Cowling, and Harry Cowling. “Toe By Toe: A Highly Structured Multi-Sensory
Reading Manual for Teachers and Parents.” 1999. 14 June 2000. http://www.toe-bytoe.co.uk/
If the Internet site is maintained by an organisation, put the name of the organisation after
the title.
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Books:
Author(s) (or editor[s]). Title. Place of publication (the town): Publisher, year.
Fiedler, Eckhard, Reimer Jansen, and Mil Norman-Risch. America in Close-Up. Harlow:
Longman, 1990.
Lauter, Paul, et al., eds. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Concise Ed. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
**********
Source references in your text:
(Author[s]) and page number[s] [if there are any])
(Cert and Cowling), or (first substantial word(s) of title) – if there is no mention of author
or editor (“Toe by Toe”) or (“Toe”).
(Fiedler, Jansen and Norman-Risch 89)
(Lauter et al. 29-30).
Put the reference at the end of the sentence or paragraph in which you use a source. If you
use the same source for two (or more) paragraphs following each other, remember to put a
source reference at the end of each and every paragraph.
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Definitions of Useful Literary Terms
Allusion: a (casual) reference to a famous literary figure or text.
Bildungsroman: the story of a single individual’s growth and development within the
context of a defined social order.
Character: an agent with one or more personality traits. A stock character is a stereotyped
character (a mad scientist, the absent-minded professor, the cruel mother-in-law); a static
character remains the same from the beginning of the plot to the end; and a dynamic
(developing) character undergoes permanent change. See also protagonist.
Characterization: A character’s traits, ideas, etc. can be described directly by the narrator
or by other characters; they can also be suggested by his or her actions, speeches, or
thoughts, or the lack of such in a specific situation.
Epigraph: a quotation at the beginning of a book, chapter, etc.
Genre: A term used to designate the distinct types or categories into which literary works
are grouped.
Ideology: a more or less systematic set of ideas, values, and beliefs, which underlies the
practices of a society, a class, or some other socially significant group of people.
Imagery: figurative language used to evoke particular mental images, not only in the visual
sense, but of sensation and emotion as well.
Examples of kinds of imagery (see also “symbol”):
A simile is a comparison of one thing to another.
“This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning:”
Here The beauty of the morning is said to be like a garment, which the City
wears.
Metaphor
Metaphor is a development of simile; the words of comparison (e.g. 'like') are left
out, so that one thing is simply substituted for another.
“And all that mighty heart is lying still!”
Here the poet says heart when he is referring to the City; the reader is left to work
out for himself the poet's idea that, as the heart is the driving centre of the body, so
the City is the driving centre of the whole country.
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Personification
Personification is the portrayal of an abstraction (idea or feeling) as a living person:
as with living persons, the name of a personification has an initial capital letter.
Thus if the idea 'love' is personified or imagined to be a person, it becomes 'Love'.
Allegory
Allegory is an organised system of symbols and/or metaphors and/or
personifications in which the relationships which exist on a literal level are mirrored
by the relationships which exist on the symbolic or metaphorical level. Allegories
are too lengthy to illustrate with a quotation, but a good example is John Bunyan's
The Pilgrim's Progress. In this book, the Pilgrim, who is the hero, travels on a long
journey in which he meets many dangers and adventures. Among other things, he
struggles up a hill, falls into a swamp (or slough), comes to a place where a man is
in prison, and is joined on his journey by another man who encourages him and
accompanies him to the very end. The Pilgrim is a symbol of every Christian, the
hill is a symbol of difficulty, the slough is a symbol of depression, the man in prison
is a symbol of despair, and the loyal companion, whose name is Hopeful, is a
personification of hopefulness. All the symbols fit together, just as the ordinary
story fits together, so that while The Pilgrim's Progress could be read as a simple
adventure story, to appreciate it properly we need to see that, at the same time, it is
an allegory of a Christian's journey through this life towards heaven. (“Notes”)
Irony: a term with a range of meanings, all of them involving some sort of discrepancy or
incongruity. It should not be confused with sarcasm, which is simply language designed to
cause pain. Irony is used to suggest the difference between expectation and fulfillment, the
complexity of experience, to furnish indirectly an evaluation of the material, and at the
same time to achieve compression. Verbal irony: the opposite is said from what is
intended. Dramatic irony: the contrast between what a character says and what the reader
knows to true. Irony of situation: discrepancy between expectation and fulfillment, or
between what is and what would seem appropriate.
Narrative: a text that presents a series of events that form a meaningful pattern. These
events, together with character and setting, constitute the story
Narrator: the agent who tells or “shows” a story. Some narratives are told in retrospect by
a character employing a first-person perspective. Other narratives are told by a narrator
external to the story, who may or may not refer to him-or herself as “I.” Such external
narrators can be omniscient, that is, have access to the minds of all the characters, or have
limited mental access to the inner view of only one character. An external narrator may
possess particular identifiable personality traits, or may lack such individualizing attributes.
Plot: the sequence of events or incidents of which the story is composed.
Point of view: the perspective from which a story is told, narrative perspective. Different
kinds of points of views are the
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•
omniscient - a story told by the narrator, using the third person; her/his knowledge,
control, and prerogatives are unlimited.
•
limited omniscient - a story in which the third-person narrator associates with a
major or minor character.
•
first person - the story is told by a character using the first person "I".
•
objective or dramatic - the opposite of the omniscient; displays authorial
objectivity; compared a roving sound camera. Very little of the past or the future is
given; the story is set in the present.
Protagonist: the protagonist is the central character, sympathetic or unsympathetic. The
forces working against her/him, whether persons, things, conventions of society, or traits
of their own character, are the antagonists.
Setting: the space in which the events of the story take place: The elements which go to
make up a setting are a) the geographical location, the scenery; b) the time in history when
the action takes place, the season, etc.; and c) the general environment of the characters:
the social, moral, and emotional conditions surrounding them.
Stanza: A division of a poem made by arranging the lines into units separated by a space,
usually of a corresponding number of lines and a recurrent pattern of meter and rhyme. A
poem with such divisions is described as having a stanzaic form, but not all verse is divided
in stanzas.
Structure: the organization of a text understood as the way its component parts, such as
events and characters, are related to each other.
Symbol: a literary symbol means more than what it is. It has layers of meanings. Whereas
an image has one meaning, a symbol has many. Names and objects can be used as
symbols. The story itself must furnish a clue that a detail is to be taken symbolically symbols nearly always signal their existence by emphasis, repetition, or position. The
meaning of a literary symbol must be established and supported by the entire context of
the story. A symbol has its meaning inside not outside story. To be called a symbol, an item
must suggest a meaning different in kind from its literal meaning.
Theme: a central, dominating, or controlling idea in a literary text.
Definitions of literary terms are taken from and based on
PAL: Perspectives in American Literature: A Research and Reference Guide. 7 Jan. 2004.
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/append/AXG.html
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“Notes on Literary Techniques.” Department of English Literature, The University of
Edinburgh. 7 Jan. 2004
http://www.englit.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergrd/lit_tech/imagery.htm
and a list of literary terms used in the undergraduate classes at Uppsala University
Other useful addresses:
http://www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/intranet/englishbasics/ProseTypes.htm
http://vos.ucsb.edu/
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/append/append.html
http://www.wwnorton.com/naal/
http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/
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