Bbl 3211: New Literatures in English s1

BBL 3211: NEW LITERATURES IN ENGLISH

Semester 2, 2011/2012 Written Assignment (30%)

Choose only ONE question below. Write a short essay between 1500 to 2000 words (Times New Roman 12, double-spaced, typed) based on your chosen question:

(1) Like all human beings, literary characters do not exist in isolation. Just as they become human by interacting with other characters, they gain identity because of their cultural and political allegiances, their possessions, their jobs, and where they live and so on and so forth. Plays, stories, and narrative poems must therefore necessarily include descriptions of places, objects, and backgrounds – the setting. Setting is the natural, manufactured, political, cultural, and temporal environment, including everything that characters know and own. Characters may either be helped or hurt by their surroundings, and they may fight over possessions and goals. Further, as characters speak with each other, they reveal the degree to which they share the customs and ideas of their times. Choose ONE short story (short stories for assignment) in which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the setting functions in the work as a whole.

(2) A theme is the central idea, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Therefore, you must figure out the theme yourself. Choose ONE short story (short stories for assignment) and write on one major theme which you can extract from the characters, action, and setting that make up the story.

Short stories for assignment: K.S. Maniam’s “Mala” or Jean Rhys’s “The Day They Burnt the Books”

Word of caution: Please do not forget to cite the source of information that you have used in your work at the end of your essay under works cited/references/bibliography.

Due date: Due two weeks before final examination. As usual, please ensure that you submit the hardcopy to UPMET. In addition, you also need to email a softcopy of your work (in word document) to [email protected] Failure to submit the soft copy may result in deduction of marks.

Thank you and have a great semester!