Writing Assignment: Diagramming Structure
Due Date: Tuesday Feb. 17
Grading: Conventional (A-F)
Prompt: Now that you have read a variety of fairy tales along with Klages’ introduction to Structuralism, I hope you are beginning to notice distinct narrative patterns within such works. When you isolate the elements that contribute to such a pattern in a text you are focusing on its structural elements. While structuralist theory initially emerged from an analysis of linguistic patterns, such patterns can emerge from any system of signification. For this week’s focus on structuralism, I would like you to do two things:
Create a visualization of one pattern that you identify in one of the fairy tales that we read for class. This pattern can be an illustration of something we’ve discussed or something else entirely. Whichever pattern you identify, however, your task is to make a visual abstraction of it. Think of this as an analog form of “distant reading,†i.e., reading distantly without the help of data visualization software.
Write a paragraph that explains your diagram (1 page max, single-spaced).
