Week 2:  Creating Images and Characters -

Creating Images and Characters

Now that we are acquainted and have shared some discussion and work, we are ready to focus on specific writing issues.  

1.  Online Lecture for Week 2

2.  Assigned Reading:  Excerpt from The Color Purple by Alice Walker 

This short section from The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a good place to start in our discussion of the creation of character and images.  In this piece, we have several of the standard literary techniques for establishing character.  The most visible, of course, is "dialect."  [Dialect is different from Dialog!]. But there are also a number of other strategies that establish the "voice" of Celie and, in a very short passage, tell us who she is.

 In Week 2, we will be experimenting with the dramatic voice -- and you can try something on the order of this in your Weekly Writing Exercise for the week.

other recommendations:

The first chapter of "Wuthering Heights" provides another excellent example of character definition -- Wuthering Heights beginning by Emily Bronte. Note the way that the narrator wants us to know that HE is a private person, but not nearly so hostile as Heathcliff!!

Re our "Lyric Voice" of last week, and the poem which has a prefaced note, you might want to look at a perfect example by Samuel Taylor Colderidge.  "Dejection, An Ode."

I don't want to burden you with too much reading here - enuf to look at a couple of examples.  However, if you have suggestions of sites we might look at, I can post them here!

3.  Weekly Writing Exercise:

First, read the model exercise that I have written for you in Exercises2.  Then, try your hand at writing a short piece that introduces a dramatic voice or character of your choice. You might want to read the pieces that your colleagues have written, as well.  Then, post your piece on the Discussion List.  

4.  Be thinking about a Formal Workshop Piece!  List will be up soon for you to sign up. 

  About Your Class // Class Syllabus // Workshop Pieces // Weekly Writing Exercises // Lecture Notes // Reading List // Recommended Reading // Assignments // Grading Policies // Contact Your Instructor // Announcements // Discussion

Marjorie Coverley Luesebrink, your Instructor, is a Professor of English in the School of Humanities and Languages

Irvine Valley College, Irvine, California