Imagine going through a time in your life where everything is confused. People are asking you to make big adult decisions like "what are you going to do with the rest of your life?" "what college are you going to go to?" "you know high school determines the REST OF YOUR LIFE!?" Oh, wait...you are there. We are going to explore the Bildungsroman: the coming of age novel. Before we head into our novels, here are some notes about the important elements of the Coming of Age genre (and your life): Coming of Age Notes
As we are beginning to explore the bildungsroman, I want you to take a moment and think about a moment when you felt the flutterings of adulthood looming. Think about one moment in your life when you realized you weren’t a little kid anymore. Something that smacked you in the face as being a part of adulthood. You will write a short narrative exploring that moment.
We have studied Fahrenheit 451 with a textual analysis mindset. But remember, there are two other ways to study a text: contextual and identity theories. For this quarter, we are going to explore the different identity theories that can help us understand a text in a more complex manner. Remember, this is just an introduction to literary theories, you will delve deeper into these theories and others as you continue in the Honors program. For now, I want you to get the basics.
Finally, time to read your chosen novel! You will be looking at this novel through a textual and identity theory lens. You will still be doing all of the normal work we would do with a novel: reading responses, discussions, writing. Theme, tone, motif, character, style are still elements that are important to our study. Of course, we will be adding to this study the Literary Theories you have been studying. The packet below details the work you will complete along this journey.
The final essay for this unit is going to lead us back to the idea of a moment. You will choose a moment in the novel and explore its connection to the literary theory you want to explore. Of course, part of that exploration should deal with theme, etc...