Literary Moments: A Personal Inventory (Assignment)

We write better about literature when we tap into the wellsprings of literary experiences that have engaged us personally. Before my students commit to subjects of literary analysis or expression, I want them to go through a reflective process in which they curate a set of literary moments that have stuck with them, for whatever reason.

Select from among the following prompts to produce an annotated list of about six items, each of which should have an annotation of about 25-75 words relating that experience in brief. If possible, use a quotation from that literary work in question. Title each entry and put in brackets, following the title, the type of literary moment (that is, which of the following prompts you used). See the examples at the bottom.

You are only half done once you've posted. Be sure that you read and respond to at least three of your peers' posts. Tell them which of their moments you'd like to hear more about, or the ones that relate to your own. Help each other get excited about possibilities for writing more.

A Tale of Two Shelfies

Let's personalize our literary explorations! Critics of literature usually begin as lovers of books. We surround ourselves with them. I'd like my students to post two different images, two "shelfies":

1. Post a picture of yourself with your books. Don't have your personal set nearby? Then pose yourself near a bookstore or library shelf that has books in the background that are the type that you've read or enjoyed. See my example, below
2. Post a picture of your books on Goodreads (perhaps from your profile there). This requires first that you join Goodreads, and then that you put some books onto the virtual bookshelves available to you there. (While you are on Goodreads, you might take the time to set up your profile or do some ratings or even reviews of favorite books. This will be a more formal assignment to do later.)

See my examples of each kind of shelfie below. Caption these two pictures or just leave a sentence comment below each of them. This is part of building our literary identities, and using books as a way of making friends and getting better acquainted.

Overview of Assigned Writing

In this course students will be practicing literary criticism from a variety of angles. One way is via blogging, here. And on this blog they will develop and post -- before moving into writing proper literary criticism -- a personal literary essay. After all, we need to find some interest and energy from within our personal experiences with the literary. The, about every other week, students will write literary criticism at increasing length and sophistication, starting with Literary Analysis I (a close reading); then Literary Analysis II (requiring a critical approach beyond formalism; then Literary Analysis III (requiring scholarly sources pertaining to the literary work(s) in question. All of that will lead up to the big one, their culmination assignment for the semester, an 8-10 page Research Paper worthy of presenting at an academic conference.

Let's Write Literary Criticism

Welcome!
This is a blog associated with a course in advanced writing taught at Brigham Young University during the Winter term of 2020. Students will make posts

• to develop content and drafts for formal writing
• to get feedback from fellow students and to dialogue with them
• to practice online communication (including visual design)
• to respond to literary readings
• to report on research efforts and to provide information about research methods
• to narrate their process as writers.

I will also use this blog as the instructor as a way of reflecting on (or preparing for) our classroom discussions.