Choosing a style and design

Literary analyses are traditional assignments still typically done in an academic style and following specific conventions of language and MLA documentation. (cite in MLA) But such analyses also lend themselves surprisingly well to new media, especially when their topics focus on video or aural texts. So style and media can be important issues in literary and cultural projects.

Use a formal style for most assignments. As the student example in this chapter suggests, literary analyses you write for courses will be serious in tone, formal in vocabulary, and, for the most part, impersonal — all markers of a formal or high style. (define your style) Elements of that style can be identified in this paragraph from an academic paper in which Manasi Deshpande analyzes Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Here she explores the character of its Byronic hero, Heathcliff:

In witnessing Heathcliff’s blatantly violent behavior, the reader is caught between sympathy for the tormented Heathcliff and shock at the intensity of his cruelty and mistreatment of others. Intent on avenging Hindley’s treatment of him, Heathcliff turns his wrath toward Hareton by keeping him in such an uneducated and dependent state that young Cathy becomes “upset at the bare notion of relationship with such a clown” (193). Living first under Hindley’s neglect and later under Heathcliff’s wrath, Hareton escapes his situation only when Catherine befriends him and Heathcliff dies. In addition, Heathcliff marries Isabella only because Catherine wants to “‘torture [him] to death for [her] amusement’” and must “‘allow [him] to amuse [himself] a little in the same style’” (111). Heathcliff’s sole objective in seducing and running away with Isabella is to take revenge on Catherine for abandoning him. Heathcliff’s sadism is so strong that he is willing to harm innocent third parties in order to punish those who have caused his misery. He even forces young Cathy and Linton to marry by locking them in Wuthering Heights and keeping Cathy from her dying father until she has married Linton, further illustrating his willingness to torture others out of spite and vengeance.

Examines Heathcliff from the perspective of a potential reader, not from her own.

Complex sentences smoothly incorporate quotations and documentation.

Related points are expressed in parallel clauses.

Vocabulary throughout is accessible but formal. No contractions are used.

Use a middle style for informal or personal papers. Occasionally, for example, you may have to write brief essays called response or position papers, in which you record your immediate reactions to poems, short stories, or other readings. In these assignments, an instructor may want to hear your voice and may even encourage exploratory reactions. Here is Cheryl Lovelady responding somewhat personally to a proposal to revive the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof:

How can a play set in a small, tradition-bound Jewish village during the Russian Revolution be modernized? I would argue that Fiddler on the Roof is actually an apt portrayal of our own time. Throughout the show, the conflicted main character, Tevye, is on the brink of pivotal decisions. Perplexed by his daughters’ increasingly modern choices, Tevye prays aloud, “Where do they think they are, America?” Tevye identifies America as a symbol of personal freedom — the antithesis of the tradition that keeps his life from being “as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.” Forty years after the play’s debut, America has become startlingly more like the Anatevka Tevye knows than the America he envisions. Post-9/11 America parallels Anatevka in a multitude of ways: Political agendas ideologically separate the United States from most of the world; public safety and conventional wisdom are valued over individual freedoms; Americans have felt the shock of violence brought onto their own soil; minority groups are isolated or isolate themselves in closed communities; and societal taboos dictate whom people may marry.

Question focuses paragraph. Reply suggests strong personal opinion.

Basic style remains serious and quite formal: Note series of roughly parallel clauses that follow colon.

Follow the conventions of literary analysis. One of those norms is to set the action in a novel, poem, or movie in the present tense when you describe or summarize it: “Hamlet kills his uncle just moments before he himself dies.”

Another convention is to furnish the dates of birth and death for any major authors or artists you mention in an analysis. Similarly, give a year of publication or release date for any major works of art you mention. The dates usually appear in parentheses.

Joan Didion (b. 1934) is the author of Play It as It Lays (1970), Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), and The Year of Magical Thinking (2005).

Finally, since you’ll be frequently citing passages from literary works as well as quoting critics and reviewers, thoroughly review the rules for handling quotations. (use quotations) All quoted materials need to be appropriately introduced and, if necessary, modified to fit smoothly into your sentences and paragraphs.

Cite plays correctly. Plays are cited by act, scene, and line number. In the past, passages from Shakespeare were routinely identified using a combination of Roman and Arabic numerals. But currently, MLA recommends Arabic numerals only for such references.

FORMER STYLE

Hamlet’s final words are “The rest is silence” (Ham. V.ii.358).

CURRENT STYLE

Hamlet’s final words are “The rest is silence” (Ham. 5.2.358).

Explore alternative media. You can be creative with literary and cultural projects, depending on the tools and media available to you. (go multimodal) For example, an oral presentation on a literary text can be handled impressively using presentation software such as PowerPoint or Prezi. Or Google Maps might be used to trace the physical locations or journeys in literary works. Naturally, if your project is to be submitted in electronic form, you can incorporate photographs, images, or the spoken word into your project, as appropriate. “Appropriate” means that the media elements genuinely enrich your analysis.