ENGL 301 (Section 006, Schedule #26694)
Virginia Commonwealth University
Fall 2012
M 1-1:50pm :: Hibbs 329
Prof. David Golumbia
Office: 324D Hibbs Hall
Fall 2012 Office Hours: W 11:30-1pm, 2-3pm

English Studies: Reading Literature:
Story Today

First Short Paper Assignment

The assignment is to write a short analytical essay of at least 1000 words on one of the topics listed below.

The essay should be 4 to 5 pages in length, but please use your word processor to count the number of words. An English paper should include quotations from the work you are analyzing, and short quotations DO count toward the total word count for the essay. Long quotations (of 50 or more words) should not generally be counted toward the 1000 word total for the assignment.

This is not a research paper, and you are not expected to consult outside sources except for the primary book or piece of media you choose to interpret. Any sources, including that primary source, should be properly cited in your paper, using any acceptable bibliographic citation format. One very simple format is to use a list of Works Cited at the end of the paper, and indicate by author, work and page number in parentheses the exact quotations within the paper itself. For example, you might make an observation about Titus saying "the moon turned out to completely suck" (Anderson, Feed, 3). Then at the end of your paper put your bibliography:

Works Cited

Anderson, M.T. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2002.

Other standard forms of citation (such as footnotes) are also acceptable, but failing to properly indicate sources technically constitutes plagiarism.

Speaking of plagiarism, all work for this assignment and the rest of this course is expected to be your own, and should not include elements from other sources (such as online commentaries on the works you write about), unless you also put them in quotation marks and clearly indicate your sources as described above.

Your essay should address one of the following questions. In general, you should work to develop your own argument, one independent of specific points or analyses raised during class discussion. It's OK and probably unavoidable to reflect some of what we talk about in class, but in general you should do your best to develop an independent topic that shows of your own reasoning.

1. (Open topic): analyze any work of literature or aspect of a work of literature, asking what role story and narrative technique play. Check with me via email about the work of literature you choose before you begin writing.  
2. Trace the story of one of the auxiliary characters in The House on Mango Street, discussing: a) what role the character plays with regard to the overall point of the book; b) what message or information is conveyed via that character that is not directly conveyed to the reader via Esperanza herself--that is, why is it more effective to have the events of that character's life happen to that character rather than to the narrator of the book?; c) what point of view and narrative strategies are used to tell that person's story and how these affect the reader's understanding of his/her story.
3. Apply some of the notions of "story" as defined in Guber's Tell To Win to one of the literary or media works we've discussed this term. You may also choose to use some of the definitions of story or narrative in the Wikipedia or critical readings we used. Are the notions of "story" the same or different? In what ways? Are there two different kinds of story, the Guber kind and the literary kind, or just one kind? Do literary or media or game stories have "calls to action" in them, and if so, what are they?
4. Use a specific video game to explore the idea of "ludology" (games are a unique media form that is largely independent of story) vs "narratology" (story and narrative are the primary way games make sense to/function for us as players). As we've discussed in class, these perspectives are not really opposed, but in what specific ways would one approach or the other be especially useful for the game you are analyzing. You should choose a game that has at least some narrative content; the point is not simply to say that "this game has no narrative in it," but to construct an interesting argument.
5. Carefully explore the concepts of point of view and the difference between "narrator" and "main character" in an episode of Community (you may use the one we watched, "Digital Estate Planning," or another one). How do these concepts work in similar and different ways in a television narrative, as opposed to a written or spoken narrative?