Literary Interpretation

Focus on on either Jesmyn Ward’s, Sing, Unburied, Sing, or David Hwang’s M. Butterfly. Explain what you think that work is doing. What kind of impact is it attempting to produce in its readers? The text may be trying to communicate a particular idea or theme, and if so, please articulate what that idea or theme is. But you may conclude that the work does not in fact offer a clear message or that it expresses contradictory ideas. If so, then what does the literary work accomplish?  Does it make you feel something? Does it cause you to question certain assumptions? Does it elicit a particular kind of thinking? Does it change the way you perceive certain realities? Does it do a combination of these things? Finally, what kind of strategies in terms of its style (its form, its images, its word choice) does the text use in order to produce the effect that you are describing?

Obviously many works set out to explore multiple ideas, and produce multiple responses in readers, and you obviously cannot explore all of them in one essay. In your paper, concentrate on what you see as the most important, or the most valuable function that the work of literature is performing. Please support your analysis with evidence from the text.

4-6 pages, double-spaced.  First draft due May 4.  Second draft due May 20.