... when limiting the study of a work based on popular tastes. Quality from my perspective has to to with how the literary piece catches my attention. George Orwell's 1984 is a dystopian fiction revealing a society illustrative of certain well-known social terms such as the following: government, society, political party, totalitarianism, deviance, punishment, mob, social control, power, language, propaganda, status ... symbols beliefs, crime. and self-concept. The misconception that they're living in a perfect world––a utopia. This is typical of the older dystopian fiction genre, as no...

• Word Count: 638
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Didactic Fiction in Alcott's Little Women And Barrie's Peter Pan On the surface, children's literature appears to be very straightforward and light-hearted, failing to carry within a particular story any deeper inherent ... pass along to their children) at once. Such is the complexity of children's literature. The argument I put forward in this paper is such: children's literature is a vital tool in didactic fiction, as in the words of Phillip Pullman, it teaches lessons "about what it means to be human, to grow up, to suffer and learn- (assignment handout, 11/3/03). I will argue ... custom...

• Word Count: 1473
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... a feminist text that explores interesting ideas about power, corruption and life's facades. Day's crime thriller 'The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender' explores the basic characteristics of traditional detective fiction along the streets of Sydney while introducing an inversion of the genre. The literary elements of plot development, characterisation, setting and themes, combined with the characteristics of the text, allow ... his memoirs after his death, implying the victory of the villain. Readers are able to identify a relatable plot development between The Life and Crimes of Har...

• Word Count: 1114
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... set its members on the edge of Hindu society. After a few years in Canada, he started writing stories and gained immediate attention, receiving two Hart House literary prizes and Canadian Fiction Magazine's annual Contributors' Prize in 1985. Two years later, Penguin Books Canada published a collection of eleven stories titled Tales from Firozsha Baag, which appeared in 1989 in the United ... on the uneventful lives of a group of Parsis who live in a ramshackle Bombay apartment block. While some readers interpreted the collection's final story, "Swimming Lessons," as a forerunner to futu...

• Word Count: 4673
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... set its members on the edge of Hindu society. After a few years in Canada, he started writing stories and gained immediate attention, receiving two Hart House literary prizes and Canadian Fiction Magazine's annual Contributors' Prize in 1985. Two years later, Penguin Books Canada published a collection of eleven stories titled Tales from Firozsha Baag, which appeared in 1989 in the United ... on the uneventful lives of a group of Parsis who live in a ramshackle Bombay apartment block. While some readers interpreted the collection's final story, "Swimming Lessons," as a forerunner to futu...

• Word Count: 4675
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... nature of its story certainly puts it in a category of post-modernist writing. Rushdie has painted a picture of social agenda utilizing the literary tools of fiction, fantasy, allegory, and a dash of imagination to bring us an example of modern-day metafiction. Trying to put things in context, and indeed trying ... role in his literary time line and covertly addresses many issues in the literary genre of metafiction. On a fundamental level metafiction is described as fiction about fiction, but more intrinsically it is a piece of writing that contains a self-referential element. The topic...

• Word Count: 1165
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... manuscripts, the Postscript is partly a poetics designed to "help us understand how to solve the technical problem which is the production of a work." (Eco, 1984) Eco explains how the historical fiction writer must become immersed in historical evidence: to tell a story, "you must first of all construct a world, furnished as much as possible, down to the slightest detail." In his case ... architectural plans and registers of the holdings of medieval libraries, and even counting the steps in a fourteenth-century stairway. Eco's Postscript is also a manifesto proclaiming the authority of ...

• Word Count: 4697
• Approx Pages: 19
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... experienced any of the instances in the novel detracted from the overall credibility of the story, forcing the reader to view it as merely fiction rather than historical fiction. Other novels about slavery, such as "The Narrative of Frederick Douglass," contain all factual information about the life of a slave and ... " in such a way that she went into detail about everything Sethe went through, but even with this incredible detail, the story still remains fiction. Douglass did not go into detail about his experiences, making the reader imagine the details, but the reader knows that what...

• Word Count: 1397
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... commented on the absence of love in Australian fiction. Even though most novels include heterosexual relationships, these are usually secondary to other relationships and are rarely a novels central concern." Discuss ... fictional works; Coonardoo, by Katherine Susannah Prichard and My Brother Jack, by George Johnston deal with the idea of love. It is however said that Australian fiction is mainly absent of love, apart from the typical heterosexual relationships which are usually secondary to other relationships that are the novels central concern. I find that ... their downfall and thi...

• Word Count: 1679
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... spontaneity for its chaotic qualities, imagination for its objection to reason and liberalism for its opposition to traditionalism. Gothic fiction appears as a specific response to the Age of Reason's order. During the late eighteenth-century, several different kinds of new fiction arose to challenge the Augustan tradition; leading the way was the Gothic novel. An interest in those things, which ... novel in that "Gothic characters must feel enclosed by menacing buildings and by other circumstances of enclosure within the Gothic structure Claustrophobic confinement is the psychic imperat...

• Word Count: 1271
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... spontaneity for its chaotic qualities, imagination for its objection to reason and liberalism for its opposition to traditionalism. Gothic fiction appears as a specific response to the Age of Reason's order. During the late eighteenth-century, several different kinds of new fiction arose to challenge the Augustan tradition; leading the way was the Gothic novel. An interest in those things, which ... novel in that "Gothic characters must feel enclosed by menacing buildings and by other circumstances of enclosure within the Gothic structure Claustrophobic confinement is the psychic imperat...

• Word Count: 1271
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... old. His early stories were published in pulp magazines, but Bradbury later published stories in such mainstream magazines as the New Yorker, Mademoiselle, and the Saturday Evening Post. His science fiction and fantasy short story collections included "The Martian Chronicles", "The Illustrated Man", and "Dinosaur Tales". Bradbury's 1980 collection, the Stories of Ray Bradbury, covers a wide range of topics, none ... of which is truly science fiction. His novels included: Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, and "Something Wicked This Way Comes". Fahrenheit 451 was made into a movie in 1966, ...

• Word Count: 357
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... with tremendous insight into the dark side of the human mind, and one who speculates with serious consideration about the nature of truth and its relationship to both fact and fiction. This is not to say that Vietnam is merely incidental in O'Brien's work; the war in which he served obviously had a lasting and unresolved effect on his own identity, as ... -winning short-story cycle The Things They Carried (1990), powerful tales so much like memoirs that O'Brien feels compelled to emphasize in a prefatory note that what follows is "a work of fiction." Fiction is a complicated term in O'Br...

• Word Count: 781
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Before discussing whether social criticism in fiction can be effective or not without emotional involvement one must consider, in order to avoid forthcoming ambiguities which might blur the significance of the topic, what ... literature's history, be negative. However, that judgment, in the form of a series of propositions (backed by evidence) cannot come about directly and explicitly, otherwise it wouldn't be fiction, but essay writing what is in our hands. Thus, evidence for the criticism comes about in narrative facts but how are the judgment, the propositions worked out in ... fiction? I...

• Word Count: 752
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Dream of Electric Sheep could help it become canonical, for instance the review on the books cover, "One of the two or three most important figures in Twentieth Century U.S Science Fiction-. The contemporary novel Do Androids dream of electric sheep perhaps does not have the same status in literary circles as Wuthering Heights. This is not a comment on the calibre of ... an ever-increasing subject matter. Literature spans so many media in popular society that there could be a canon of film, of Science Fiction, of Romance, of Feminist literature, making the canon more accessible to all d...

• Word Count: 2215
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... love, pushing it to the extreme as he idolizes a woman he has never even seen. Don Quixote contains various explanations about the relative qualities of different types of literature, including fiction and historical literature. Most of the characters, including the priest and the canon of Toledo, sustain that literature should tell the truth and nothing but it. Several even propose that ... corrupting innocent minds such as Don Quixote's. Nevertheless, we see that even the true histories in the novel end up unveiling misjudgments. Cervantes declares that Don Quixote itself is not ficti...

• Word Count: 1783
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... in motion to this or that independent complex, the hero opens the appropriate line of a plot. Bibliography 1. Barnum, Carol M. "An Interview With John Fowles." Modern Fiction Studies. 2. Creighton, Joanne V. "The Reader and Modern and Post-Modern Fiction." College Literature. 3. Fowles, John. Foreword. The Timescapes of John Fowles. By H.W. Fawkner. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1984. 4. Richter, David H., ed. The Critical Tradition. Boston: Bedford ... ...

• Word Count: 2592
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Stephen King's Bag of Bones is a brilliant work of fiction. It brings so many genres of literature together including horror, romance, and suspense even with all this he still manages to keep the plot on track and the story meaningful ... around him . With Kings use of each of the elements of literature he takes a seemingly simple theme the battle between good and evil and transforms it into a great work of fiction. By choosing Bag of Bones as his title King begins to define the theme then he introduces and develops characters that further this theme and all the while he is ... ...

• Word Count: 768
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... past or in the present. Ondaatje is known for using postmodernism as an element in his novels. For example, when searching on google.com, and typing in the keywords, "postmodern fiction- and "Ondaatje- approximately 900 links appear. At Central Queensland University, there is a Postmodern Literature course and one of the focused novels is The English Patient. Postmodernism is "a style and movement ... as though the characters stories are almost autobiographical. This technique that Ondaatje uses through the point of view is historical metafiction. Historical metafiction is a cross betwe...

• Word Count: 1384
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... does Turgenev define Nihilism for us, he also gives us a very realistic piece of writing. The novel builds its foundation on actual historical occurrence, removing it from the realm of fiction. Turgenev's main aim according to me is not just to talk about the mechanical aspects of Nihilism and the Russian society but to focus more on the affect it had ... ...

• Word Count: 1276
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Frankenstein has the most precious and most lacking spirit that the later science fiction works barely have, the reflections on scientism. The merit which made it a classic book is its astonishing ability to predict. The vision it has is way beyond its era; it ... ...

• Word Count: 1916
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... contained..." (7). Analysis: Gifted with a talent and dedicated with a passion for writing, Briony uses this ability throughout the novel to document her comprehension of events in her lifetime, truth and fiction. Since childhood, she has been aware of such power hidden within the ink and strokes of the pen. As a writer, Briony uses her understanding of the complete and utter control ... ...

• Word Count: 1179
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... not incite sympathy. Bronte simply brands her as 'the maniac', giving no other side to the story. It is almost like the novel reverts to the simplicity of gothic fiction: helpless young woman, strong saviour and wild, evil beast attacking. The race here is used to increase the fear and tension in the scene, just another part of the terrifying ... ...

• Word Count: 2218
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... takes on a narrative, as told by an individual challenged with autism or a similar condition. In recent years, not only has the interest in autism grown, but also its depiction in fiction and biography. A myriad of authors are utilizing different techniques to "[open] our eyes to the autistic world view in its strangeness and richness" (Bates). The efforts of many ... ...

• Word Count: 922
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... a true story based on Behn's experiences in Surinam. She begins the novel by stating that she is an "eye-witness" and that the story is not a work of fiction [ CITATION Ken l 1033 ]. Throughout the novel, Aphra gives extreme detail to legitimatize the notion that she speaks nothing but the truth. At a time and place when men controlled everything, one ... ...

• Word Count: 2238
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate