1 / 8

Access Literature

Access Literature. Assignment 1 Bridget Jones’s Diary introduction. Background research . Author –Helen Fielding (journalist for The Independent) First novel Cause Celeb (1994) Bridget Jones’s Diary began as a newspaper column in 1995 Bridget became an ‘everywoman’ for a generation .

harry
Télécharger la présentation

Access Literature

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Access Literature Assignment 1 Bridget Jones’s Diary introduction

  2. Background research • Author –Helen Fielding (journalist for The Independent) • First novel Cause Celeb (1994) • Bridget Jones’s Diary began as a newspaper column in 1995 • Bridget became an ‘everywoman’ for a generation • Often thought to be a commentary on the 1990’s • Sequel The Edge of Reason, 1999

  3. Sources and influences • Fielding’s most openly acknowledged source is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen • Has also been compared with Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (1985, 1992, 1993 and 1999), Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity (1992) and Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City(1996) • Classics in comedy writing like Diary of a Nobody (1892) by George and Weedon Grossmith

  4. Context of twentieth century women writers • Narrative voice is intimate (diary) and first-person like Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963) • Both texts focus on female experience and struggles against femininity • Diary format like Doris Lessing in The Golden Notebook (1962) • Confessional tone of voice – truths about gender condition? • Comic, whimsical romance which detracts from its serious points?

  5. Narrative voice/ structure of the novel • Neat structure – one year and New Year’s resolutions • Can be read in chunks – episode/chapter • Real diaries written in continuing present with no clear sense of how the last entry might read – more conscious of the authorial control as sub-plots converge • First-person narrative contradictions – empathy with the protagonist/ unreliable? Reader feels superior to Bridget?

  6. Character development What do we know about her? • Singleton • Subjective • Blind to faults in others? (Male characters? Female friends? Parents?) • Humorous • Romantic heroine?

  7. Emerging themes in the novel? • Critical comment on the single life? • Pride and Prejudice intertextual references • Family, class and society • Post-feminism and self-help culture • Body issues • Men and masculinity

  8. Planning Assignment 1 • 9th Oct – BJD annotation and analysis • 16th Oct –Approaching the essay and workshop –structuring and organising notes/effective quotations • 23rd Oct –half-term (working on first draft) • 30th Oct- Assignment 1 workshop –First draft assignment deadline –partial completion • 6th Nov – Assignment 1 workshop – Feedback and amendments • 13th Nov – final submission DEADLINE for Assignment 1: What is Literature? Begin Short Story introduction For feedback on first draft upload to Access Literature Moodle site or e-mail me: lcraddock@halesowen.ac.uk

More Related