Answers For Literature course on Great books

Olivia: Hi, Joey. How are you doing? I heard you were sick.

Joey: Oh, hi, Olivia. Yeah, I had a virus last week, and I missed a whole pile of lectures, like the first one on the Great Books in Literature where Dr Castle gave us all the information about the semester project.

Olivia: I can give you copies of the handouts, I've got them right here.

Joey: That's OK. I already collected the handouts but I'm not very clear about all the details... I know we each have to choose an individual author... I think I'm going to do Carlos Castaneda... I'm really interested in South American literature.

Olivia: 1Have you checked if he's on the list that Dr Castle gave us? We can't just choose anyone.

Joey: Yeah. I checked, it's OK. Who did you choose?

Olivia: Well, l was thinking of choosing Ernest Hemingway, but then I thought no, I'll do a British author not an American one, so I chose Emily Bronte.

Joey: OK... and first of all it says we have to read a biography of our author. 2I guess it's OK if we just look up information about him on the Internet?

Olivia: 2No, it's got to be a full-length book. I think the minimum length is 250 pages. There's a list of biographies, didn't you get that?

Joey: Oh right, I didn't realise we had to stick with that. So what do we have to do when we've read the biography?

Olivia: Well, then we have to choose one work by the writer... again it's got to be something quite long, we can't just read a short story.

Joey: 3But I guess a collection of short stories would be OK?

Olivia: 3Yes, or even a collection of poems they said, but I think most people are doing novels. I'm going to do Wuthering Heights, I've read it before but I really want to read it again now I've found out more about the writer.

Joey: And then the video... 4we have to make a short video about our author and about the book. How long has it got to be?

Olivia: 4A minute.

Joey: What? Like, sixty seconds? And we gotta give all the important information about their life and the book we choose...

Olivia: Well you can't do everything... I wrote it down somewhere... yes, Dr Castle said we had to "find or write a short passage that helps to explain the author's passion for writing, why they're a writer". 5So, we can back this up with reference to important events in the writer's life if they're relevant, but it's up to us really. The video is meant to portray the essence of the writer's life and the piece of writing we choose.

Joey: So when we read the biography, we have to think about what kind of person our writer is...

Olivia: Yes, and the historical context and so on. So for my writer, Emily Bronte, the biography gave a really strong impression of the place where she lived and the countryside around.

Joey: Right, I'm beginning to get the idea.

Joey: Er, can I check the other requirements with you?

Olivia: Sure.

Joey: The handout said after we'd read the biography, we had to read the work we'd chosen by our author and choose a passage that's typical in some way that typifies the 6author's interests and style.

Olivia: Yes, but at the same time it has to relate to the biographical extract you choose... there's gotta be some sort of theme linking them.

Joey: OK. I'm with you...

Olivia: And then you have to think about the video.

Joey: So are we meant to dramatise the scene we choose?

Olivia: I guess we could, but there's not a lot of time for that... I think it's more how we can use things like sound effects to create the atmosphere, the feeling we want.

Joey: 7And presumably visuals as well?

Olivia: Yeah, of course -- I mean, I suppose that's the whole point of making a video -- but whatever we use has to be historically in keeping with the author. We can use things like digital image processing to do it all.

Joey: So we can use any computer software we want?

Olivia: Sure. And it's important that we use 8a range -- not just one software program. That's actually one of the things we're assessed on.

Joey: OK.

Olivia: Oh, and something else that's apparently really important is to keep track of the materials we use and to acknowledge them.

Joey: Including stuff we download off the Internet presumably?

Olivia: Yeah, so our video has to list all the material used with 9details of the source in a bibliography at the end.

Joey: OK... And you were talking about assessment of the protect -- did they give us the criteria? I couldn't find anything on the handout.

Olivia: Sure. He gave us them in the lecture. Let's see... you get 25 percent just for getting all the components done -- that's both sets of reading, and the video. 10Then the second part is actually how successful we are at getting the essence of the work, they call that 'content' and that counts for 50 percent. Then the last 25 percent is on the video itself, the artistic and technical side.

Joey: Great! Well, that sounds like a lot of work, but a whole lot better than just handing in a paper. Thanks a lot, Olivia!

Olivia: You're welcome.