Find and analyse symbols in the novel (objects, characters, figures or colors to represent abstract ideas or concepts)

6. Techniques that help to tie events and characters together:

· opening of loose ends which are eventually tied into the story;

· subplots that eventually relate to each other, to the main plot;

· miscellaneous minor characters who initially appear to have only a decorative role, but which become components of the main plot.

· Unexpected relationship between characters

· Forshadowing

Give examples of each of these techniques and analyse them.

Irony

Irony in the title

Find and analyse examples of irony in the novel.

Analyse the use of adjectives denoting colours, especially white and black shades.

Find the elements of Gothic novel in this work.

SEMINAR #10.

The Writers of High Victorian Literature and Late Victorian and Edwardian Literature

Prepare a short review of of the literary activities of one of the writers of this period and a review of the book you have read.

SEMINAR #11.

English Literature of the 20^th century (the period between 1910 – 1938)

Prepare a short review of of the literary activities of one of the writers of this period and a review of the book you have read.

SEMINAR #12.

Modernism In the English Literature

Prepare a short review of of the literary activities of one of the writers of this period and a review of the book you have read.

SEMINAR #13.

English Drama in the 20^th century

A. Read and analyse a play by one of the writers of the period.

 

B. Read a play by Harold Pinter

1. Speak on the time, setting, characters of the play.

2. Analyse the dialogue between the characters.

3. Analyse the language, style, figures of speech.

4. What features of modernistic literature can you see in the play?

5. Analyse the play as a “play of menace”.

SEMINAR #14.

English Literature of the 20^th century (1939-1960)

Prepare a short review of of the literary activities of one of the writers of this period and a review of the book you have read.

SEMINAR #15.

English Literature of the 20^th century (1960 – 2000)

Prepare a short review of of the literary activities of one of the writers of this period and a review of the book you have read.

Written Tasks for Independent Work

1. Write an essay on literary activities of one of the children’s writers:

 

1. A.A.Milne “Winnie-the Pooh”, “Once on a Time”.

2. Andrew Lang “The princess Nobody”, “The Yellow Fairy Book”.

3. Beatrix Potter “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”, “The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin”, “The Tale of Two Bad Mice”, etc.

4. Donald Bisset “Any Time Stories”, “Tales with a Tiger”, etc.

5. Edith Nesbit “The Enchanted Castle”, “The Magic World”, “The Book of Dragons”, etc.

6. Eleonore Farjeon “The Little Bookroom”.

7. Eric Linklater “The Wind in the Moon”, “The Pirates in the Deep Green Sea”

8. Hugh Lofting “The Story of Doctor Dolittle”

9. James M.Barrie “Peter Pan”.

10. Kathleen Foyle “The Little Good People”.

11. Lewis Carrol “Alice in Wonderland”, “Through the Looking Glass”.

12. Michael Bond “Paddington the Bear Books”, “Thursday Rider again”

13. Mother Goose – a collection of nursery rhymes.

14. Pamela L. Travers “Mary Poppins”

15. Roald Dahl “The Magic Finger”, “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, “The Witches”, etc.

16. Rudyard Kipling “The Jungle Book”, “The Second Jungle Book”, “Just So Stories”, “Rewards and Fairies”, etc.

17. Ruth Ainsworth “Rufty Tufty and the Surprise”, “Rufty Tufty in Danger”, etc.

18. Walter De La Mare “Broomsticks and Other Tales”

2. Write an analysis of one of the short stories of an English writer of the 20^th century

ANALYZING A SHORT STORY.

The parts of the content of a short story are character, action, and theme. Character determines action, action reveals character, and character in action illuminates the theme of the story.

One of the first things we learn when we meet someone is his name. Frequently, it tells us something about him, possibly his nationality. In a story, the name usually establishes whether we are going to become acquainted with a man or woman. A nickname may tell us about the character if it is associated with a personal characteristic. This association is an emphasis by the author that not only tells us something about the character but also suggests that something characteristically of this is going to happen to him.

Besides his name, a person's appearance is another thing we notice about him when we meet him. In a story, a description of a character's physical appearance is a further development that contributes to our understanding of his personality. The author's description of a character's physical appearance may include the character's physique and facial features, his clothes, mannerisms, gestures, or way of speaking. Another way to reveal the character is to show his emotional reactions. Also useful in characterisation is information about a character's attitude toward life, his faith, his standards of right and wrong, his beliefs, his physical and psychological environment. What other characters think of him is a clue to his personality, too. Character is revealed by the choices he makes, what he habitually would do or would not do, how conscious he is of his choices, and how intelligent he is.

In the short story the number of characters is necessary limited, and the story usually develops fully only one CENTRAL CHARACTER. Developing of other characters is determined by how they will contribute to a further revelation of the central character, of his motivations and the changes that take place in him. The central character usually changes in some way for better or worse during the course of a story. Some modern stories do not show such a change in a character, but this is not necessarily a flaw, since the inability of a character to change may be the point of the story. But if the central character does not change, something else must: either another character dependent on the central character, or the course of the action. If, on the other hand, the static nature of the action is essential to the theme, then the change will have to be in the central character. The principle of change is what unites character and action to effect theme. Without the change of some sort, a narrative is merely a happening and not a short story.

Next to analysing how character is revealed, one must analyse how action is developed. Action is what happens to the characters.

The action may be external, the thing that happens to a character as a result of forces outside himself - other characters or his environment or his fate; or it may be internal - the forces that cause conflict within his own personality. In most stories the action is both external and internal, but in some it may be one or the other.

The beginning of the action in a short story is the initial incident, or episode, the middle of the action is the development and the end of the action is the denouement. Between the development of the action and its denouement, a change takes place, either in the central character, another character, or the direction of action. The moment of actual change is the turning point, or climax.

The beginning of the action creates or poses a problem or a conflict. The end of the action is what happens as a result of the solution of the problem. The art of most stories is the expression of the tensions that create the problem. The development of these tensions provides the reader with emotional pleasure of suspense.

Action that proceeded the " now " of the story is explained in the exposition, or background, of the action of the story. This reference to past happenings, necessary for the reader to know in order to understand what is happening in the story, maybe at the beginning of the narrative and during subsequent episodes.

The meaning of the story is what is generally referred to as the theme. The theme may be the central emphasis, may be explicitly stated by the author, as it often is in fable, but in modern short stories theme is usually implied.

Answering these questions will help to define the theme:

1. What have I discovered as a result of reading this story?

2. How does every prominent detail or character and incident of action addup to something?

3. Is there evidence in the story itself to substantiate any generalisation I have made?

4. Does any detail of the story contradict the generalisation I am making? If so, is s in the story, or am I failing to take it into proper focus?.

5. Why does the author repeat certain details? Is there a significant pattern of details?

6. What emotion I feel, and why has the author thought to arouse this particular emotion in me?

POINT OF VIEW

One of the most important literary devices is point of view. It is the author's selection of a narrator, who tells the story. There are many kinds of point of view from which an author may choose to narrate a story. The most commonly used are:

First-Person Central.

The Reader is led into not only the world of the story but also the mind of the first - person Narrator, who is the Central character. The Central character's thoughts, feelings, actions, and observations of what is happening around him and of Minor character's actions supply all the evidence of the story. This kind of narration may be objective, external, and dramatic, if it is limited only to what the Central character tells or what he does and observes. It can, in addition, be subjective, internal, and analytic, if the Central character also discloses his thoughts and feelings, imaginings, and evaluations.

 

First Person Minor

The Reader is led into the world of the story by the first person Narrator, who is a minor character observing the external actions of the Central character and telling the Central character's story. The first-person-minor Narrator also observes the external actions of the Minor character with whom the Central character comes in contact This method of narration is objective, external, and dramatic

Third - Person Limited.

It is the point of view in which the unidentified author refers to his characters in the third person but limits himself by telling only what can be seen or heard from inside of the world of the story. Speaking impersonally, not entering the minds of the characters, the author is like a television camera making an objective report.

4. Third - Person Central:

The Reader is led by the Narrator not only into the world of the story, but also into the mind of the Central character, whose thoughts, feelings, actions, and observations of what is happening around him - including the actions of Minor character - and to him and within him are recorded and evaluted.

Third - Person Omniscient.

It is the all-knowing, all-seeing narrator, the author himself with full power of authority. It is a point of view possible only in the imaginative world of literature. The author may tell about all of the characters and may relate at which none of the characters are present.