Critical Literary Analysis Paper

Critical Literary Analysis Paper

For this final paper you will be writing a complete literary text analysis on a story written by the author you chose to focus on for your background paper earlier in the semester. A critical analysis paper will focus on an area of the work that you find interesting, significant, or feel merits discussion. The paper should be fairly formal, and should genuinely attempt to shed light on one or more aspects of the work. You may discuss the significance of character, plot, setting, symbol, etc,.
Your analysis will be at least 4-5 pages in length, double spaced, typed. Your paper will explore a problem or point of interest created by a work of literature (this includes, but is not limited to, character motivation, thematic elements, symbol, irony, etc.). Your ideas and insights will be based on information from your chosen story, calling upon specific examples to illustrate the idea or issue you are exploring. Your grade will be based on the quality and depth of your insights, and on the use of specific textual evidence as support.
The Purpose of Literary Analysis:
A literary analysis is not merely a summary of a literary work. Instead, it is an argument about the work that expresses your personal perspective, interpretation, judgment, or critical evaluation of the work.
This is accomplished by examining the literary devices, word choices, or writing structures within the work. The purpose of a literary analysis is to demonstrate how these elements convey meaning.

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What Do the Critics Do?
ARGUE a position, slant, or lens using textual evidence. Analysis is argument. And it is far from “mere opinion. It relies upon close reading and textual evidence, not “I FEELs, or “I THINK’s.”
Provide a working THESIS that encompasses that textual evidence:
Develop a unique, specific, debatable thesis:
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness addresses the exploitation of African natives and resources through the unconventional treatment of the light versus dark motif; as the light takes on ironic negative meanings, distinctions between the light and darkness become ambiguous.”
Avoid a non-debatable, predictable, or simplistic thesis:
In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, there are many motifs, the most prevalent being light versus darkness.”
Identify a THEME (as it relates to the other elements of fiction) to assign meaning to the text