...Using Narrative Text in the Secondary Classroom Once upon a time, in a school, very much like your own, American History and all its contents were studied alongside tales of triumph, and defeat. In this history class, the students supplemented curriculum delivered through lectures and textbooks, with materials from sources such as diary entries, editorials, and historical fiction. This is an example of how narrative text can coexist with expository information found in content area classrooms in today's high schools. While the need for expository text is vital to the success of a student to understand the content (i.e., Social Studies) curriculum, narrative literature and various other texts are a great way to supplement the learner with information from which they can draw a better understanding of the state standards. Explained below is a definition of narrative literature, advantages and disadvantages of using narrative text in the high school Social Studies classroom, and five possible uses for using narrative texts in the high school classroom. Narrative Literature Narrative literature can be both fiction such as novels, as well as non-fictional works such as memoirs (Burke). Often, narrative literature includes many of the following: a plot, character, problems, and themes. In fictional work, one generally finds a setting, with a beginning, a reaction, and an ending (Roe, Stoodt-Hill, & P. C. Burns, 2004). Narrative literature can, and does exist on its own in...
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...Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Men or Children? The gangster is a fictional story written by Colson Whitehead in 2008. It is a short story about African- American teenagers and its setting is in Sag Harbor, in 1985. The story begins with a question, “When did you get out?” The opening question emphasizes the title of the story on a particular notion to the reader. In the fictional story, the gangster, Benji and Reggie are twin brothers of ten months apart. They grew up together inseparably in every aspect. It was common for them to be seen together and when they were not, people always question them on where the other is. High school and puberty brought the difference between them physically. They would be seen away from each other severally, and they even looked different physically with Benji being skinny while Reggie looked chubby. Benji and Reggie are brought up in an upper middle class family, and their parents own a beach house in Sag harbor where they go to during the summers. In the summer of 1985, Benji was 15 years old, and Reggie was 14 years old. During the summer when the whole family left for their beach house, the boys would be left alone for some time when their parents went back to the city to work during the weekdays. Benji and Reggie are described, in the story, as Siamese twins when they were young, describing their inseparable nature. This is clearly brought out by the language used as quoted “Where is the surgeon, who is gifted enough to...
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...economy. Germany had spent six years preparing for war, and a large portion of the economy was already devoted to military production. During the war, as Germany acquired new territories (either by direct annexation or by installing puppet governments in defeated countries), these new territories were forced to sell raw materials and agricultural products to German buyers at extremely low prices. Fiction as Reconstruction of History: Narratives of the Civil War in American Literature by Reinhard Isensee Even after more than 140 years the American Civil War continues to serve as a major source of inspiration for a plethora of literature in various genres. While only amounting to a brief period in American history in terms of years, this war has proved to be one of the central moments for defining the American nation since the second half of the nineteenth century. The facets of the Civil War, its protagonists, places, events, and political, social and cultural underpinnings seem to hold an ongoing fascination for both academic studies and fictional representations. Thus, it has been considered by many the most written-about war in the United States. The War That Never Goes Away: The Significance of the Civil War for the Cultural Imagination in the United States Despite the overwhelming body of academic work on the Civil War produced in the United States (and beyond) most of the American public (as well as the international audience) has been exposed to it through cultural...
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...written in North America, more precisely in the USA, it would automatically be given this epithet. But it should be taken into account that this idea is quite broad and doesn’t reflect the real essence of the term. However, there is also another definition that gathers this essence: American Literature is the one that represents the Americanism, the singularity of the USA philosophy and culture. This way, instead of focusing on who the author is, it is focused on the content of the writing. In that which concerns Fiction, the following documents are the ones considered as narrative: Speeches Letters Short Stories Essays Political Documents Sermons Novels Diaries 1 FIRST LITERARY EXPRESSIONS The first documents in which the idea of Americanism is very present are the Sermons. They respond to the strict Protestantism settled in the New Continent after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritans in the Mayflower (1620) and the Arabella (1630). They established a theocratic community whose main and only point of reference was the Bible. That is why the idea of the ‘city upon a hill’ is still very present in American mentality. As we all know, their community was also governed by the concept of Predestination. This belief was based in the idea that we are saved or condemned since the very moment we are born or even, since the very moment when the Universe was created. Therefore, the way they...
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...Narrative A narrative is a sequence of events that a narrator tells in story form. A narrator is a storyteller of any kind, whether the authorial voice in a novel or a friend telling you about last night’s party. Point of View The point of view is the perspective that a narrative takes toward the events it describes. First-person narration: A narrative in which the narrator tells the story from his/her own point of view and refers to him/herself as “I.” The narrator may be an active participant in the story or just an observer. When the point of view represented is specifically the author’s, and not a fictional narrator’s, the story is autobiographical and may be nonfictional (see Common Literary Forms and Genres below). Third-person narration: The narrator remains outside the story and describes the characters in the story using proper names and the third-person pronouns “he,” “she,” “it,” and “they.” • Omniscient narration: The narrator knows all of the actions, feelings, and motivations of all of the characters. For example, the narrator of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina seems to know everything about all the characters and events in the story. • Limited omniscient narration: The narrator knows the actions, feelings, and motivations of only one or a handful of characters. For example, the narrator of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has full knowledge of only Alice. • Free indirect discourse: The narrator conveys a character’s inner thoughts...
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...structure of narrative writing. 2. Recognize how to write a narrative essay. Rhetorical modes simply mean the ways in which we can effectively communicate through language. This chapter covers nine common rhetorical modes. As you read about these nine modes, keep in mind that the rhetorical mode a writer chooses depends on his or her purpose for writing. Sometimes writers incorporate a variety of modes in one essay. In covering the nine rhetorical modes, this chapter also emphasizes these as a set of tools that will allow you greater flexibility and effectiveness in communicating with your audience and expressing your ideas. rhetorical modes The ways in which we effectively communicate through language. 1.1 The Purpose of Narrative Writing Narration means the art of storytelling, and the purpose of narrative writing is to tell stories. Any time you tell a story to a friend or family member about an event or incident in your day, you engage in a form of narration. In addition, a narrative can be factual or fictional. A factual story is one that is based on, and tries to be faithful to, actual events as they unfolded in real life. A fictional story is a made-up, or imagined, story; the writer of a fictional story can create characters and events as he or she sees fit. However, the big distinction between factual and fictional narratives is based on a writer’s purpose. The writers of factual stories try to recount events as they actually happened, but writers of fictional stories depart...
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...Wilder) Laura Ingalls Wilder is best known for her “Little House on the Prairie” series and for her contribution to children’s literature. There were several things that factored into shaping Wilder as a writer a major one being her personal experience of growing up on the frontier with her family. It was not until later in her life that she wrote the series and the series had gotten published. Over the following years of its publication her books have made it on library and school reading lists as well as been awarded. In American literature Laura Ingalls Wilder is one of the most...
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...Aymanam, located on the outskirts of the town of Kottayam, on the other side of the River Minachil. Most of the action of The God of Small Things takes place in a village called “Ayemenem,” set near a river called “Meenachal.” Roy’s fictionalized village and river strongly resemble the real-life Aymanam and Minachil, and her narrative contains numerous references to the actual landscape of south-central Kerala, its people and their common customs, their music and dance, their religions and social organization, and their economic and political activities. The narrative also mixes its fictional elements with factual elements on a larger scale. Some of the novel’s “imaginary” episodes occur in the real town of Kottayam (about 2 miles from Ayemenem/ Aymanam, across the river) and in the historic port-city of Cochin (now Kochi, about 50 miles away to the northwest). The novel’s political discussion frequently blends fictional characters and organizations with real politicians and political parties: Comrade Pillai, for example, is an invented figure, but E.M.S. Namboodripad, the Communist Party, and the Congress Party are historical entities. The mixture of fictional and factual elements in The God of Small Things has led many Indian readers to interpret it as a “semi-autobiographical” novel. But attempts to relate characters, places, events, and patterns in the book primarily to Roy’s personal life can seriously distort its...
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...Oliver Nyambi considers The Uncertainty of Hope by Valerie Tagwira First published by: SAGE Open Jul 2014, 4(3) <http://bit.ly/1q7n9ui> ABSTRACT There is a subtle yet discernible connection between the post-2000 political power struggle and the gender struggle in Zimbabwe. In both cases, a patriarchal power hierarchy shaped by tradition and history is perpetuated and justified as the mark of the nation’s unique identity. In cultural, political, and economic spheres, the status of most urban Zimbabwean women is still reflected as inferior to that of most men. During this economic and political crisis period, the prevailing gender power-relations evolved into gendered appraisals of the impact of the crisis and this created the potential for rather universal and androcentric conclusions. The consequent eclipse of female-centric voices of the political and gender struggle tends to suppress women’s perspectives, consequently inhibiting a gender-inclusive imagining of the nation. This article argues that discourses about gender struggle in Zimbabwe’s post-2000 crisis have not sufficiently addressed the question of space; that is, the significance of the oppressed women’s physical and social space in shaping their grievances and imaginings of exit routes. Similarly, the article argues that representations of this historic period in literary fiction have accentuated the wider political and economic struggles at the expense of other (especially gender) struggles, thereby rendering...
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...four children. Her father, George Wofford, worked primarily as a welder, but held several jobs at once to support the family. Her mother, Ramah, was a domestic worker. Morrison later credited her parents with instilling in her a love of reading, music, and folklore. Living in an integrated neighborhood, Morrison did not become fully aware of racial divisions until she was in her teens. "When I was in first grade, nobody thought I was inferior. I was the only black in the class and the only child who could read," she later told a reporter from The New York Times. Dedicated to her studies, Morrison took Latin in school, and read many great works of European literature. She graduated from Lorain High School with honors in 1949. At Howard University, Morrison continued to pursue her interest in literature. She majored in English, and chose the classics for her minor. After graduating from Howard in 1953, Morrison continued her education at Cornell University. She wrote her thesis on the works of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, and completed her master's degree in 1955. She then moved to Texas to teach English at Texas Southern University. In 1957, Morrison returned to Howard University to teach English. There she met Harold Morrison, an architect originally from Jamaica. The couple got married in 1958 and welcomed their first...
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...comedy and stark tragedy, Woolf examines such themes as family, culture, and the individual in this remarkable portrait of modern life. Its unique and lyrical style, which has garnered the novel praise since its first publication, adds an artistic dimension to this surprisingly current novel. Indeed,The Voyage Out is a beautiful and telling work about self and society that rings as true today as in 1915. 1919, Night and Day [pic] [pic] Originally published in 1919, Night and Day contrasts the daily lives of four major characters while examining the relationships between love, marriage, happiness, and success. Like Virginia Woolf's first novel The Voyage Out, Night and Day is a more traditional narrative than her later novels. Unlike her first novel, however, Night and Day relies much more on its characters' internal struggles to push the its plot forward. What results is a character study of a very quiet group of people who are actually in the throes of deep anxiety and indecision. 1922, Jacob’s Room [pic] Who is Jacob Flanders? In Virginia Woolf’s 1922 novel, Jacob’s Room, we follow the life of a promising...
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...The songs are so melodious and catchy that after just one listen, they may be stuck in the listener’s head. Even though the songs may be catchy, it may take a few listens to fully understand what the singer is actually talking about through the lyrics. No two songs on the album are quite the same and each has their own story to tell. Many songs in the album deal with dark and sinister topics since Ryan Ross, the composer, was going through a tough breakup with his girlfriend whom he caught cheating on him. These topics include prostitution, unfaithfulness in marriage, drugs, and death. The band may not have an opinion of the topics it provides like other bands in its genre, but it talks about the topics from the standpoints of the characters it creates through the lyrics. These topics may seem too heavy to put over a techno beat, but Panic! seems to somehow make it work. As mentioned before, the album has a theatrical, carnivalesque feel to it. This is mainly brought out by the narrative style lyrics in the first song on the track where Brendon Urie speaks directly to the audience like he is a ringleader in a circus or a narrator at a play. He prompts the audience to snap their fingers and to tap their toes to the beat as if they are right in front of him...
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...Poetry, prose, sonnets, drama, plays, short stories and novels are concepts that first came to my mind when I think in the question “What is literature?” The definition of literature has change over time. The only thing that is certain about the meaning of literature is that the definition will change. The concepts about what is literature about also change over time. In order to get a clear understanding of exactly what literature is, first we need to know its definition. According to the Merriam-Webster, literature is defined by “the body of written works produced in a particular language, country, or age; the body of writings on a particular subject: printed matter.” Literature has to do with letters, but some people often think that literature is only one thing, not knowing that it is composed by several elements that we use every day. These important elements include poems, prose, sonnets, drama, plays, short stories and novels. Poetry is created from the soul. It comes from your emotions and it needs every piece of creativity inside you. It has been called the art of “saying the unsayable” because trough this you can express your feelings with no limit, and nobody can tell you that is wrong. If you make a poem and you think it is not good enough, well it is no good. You as the author or the reader, can only judge if it is good or but for you but maybe for some one else it is the opposite as it is for you. A good place to start when looking back at how poetry...
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...Mikhail Bulgakov One of the Greatest Writers of Magical Realism Jahvauntea Howard ITT Technical Institute Magical Realism Magical Realism is a is a genre where magic elements are a natural part in an otherwise mundane, realistic environment. Although it is most commonly used as a literary genre, magic realism also applies to film and the visual arts. One example of magic realism (Fictional Fantasy) occurs when a character in the story continues to be alive beyond the normal length of life and this is subtly depicted by the character being present throughout many generations. On the surface the story has no clear magical attributes and everything is conveyed in a real setting, but such a character breaks the rules of our real world. History & Background of Magical Realism While the term magical realism in its modern sense first appeared in 1955, the German art critic Franz Roh first used the phrase in 1925, to refer to a painterly style also known as Neue Sachlichkeit (the New Objectivity), an alternative championed by fellow German museum director Gustav Hartlaub. Roh believed magic realism is related to, but distinctive from, surrealism, due to magic realism's focus on the material object and the actual existence of things in the world, as opposed to the more cerebral, psychological and subconscious reality that the surrealists explored.[6] Magic realism was later used to describe the uncanny realism by American painters such as Ivan Albright, Paul Cadmus, George...
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...CHAPTER 3 COLONIAL HISTORY TRACKED Colonialism trumpeted the cultural superiority and rightness of the White. The European empire is said to have held sway over more than eighty-five percent of the rest of the globe by the time of the First World War, having consolidated power and control over several centuries. One of the ways by which colonialism maintained power was by writing its own histories. These histories were conceived within grand narratives of progress, expansion and enlightenment. Inevitably, they both systematically and accidentally recast, ignored and silenced other competing histories from the places and cultures with which they came into contact. Post - colonial studies has consequently set itself the task of examining and challenging those narratives, developing other ways of telling histories, and re – evaluating other ways of remembering. If post- colonial literature means the interrogation of the subaltern to the “center”, no other book is representative of the post-colonial theory and practice as Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace. The novel won the 2001 Frankfurt e – book Award of fifty thousand dollars Grand Prize for Fiction. Abreast of the contemporary academic debates about colonialism and culture, Ghosh is well-equipped in challenging the institutionalized perspectives...
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