Presentations next week!

Please be prepared to give your group presentation on Tuesday. Also, please share your presentation slides and/or notes with me, michael.youngs@apps.fmcc.edu, in your Google Drive.

Click here for some expectations I have about effective oral presentations. In addition, take a look at the links list and the rubric by which you'll be graded. Have fun!

Raymond Chandler

Doyle and Christie

Detective fiction tidbits

The Power of Concentration

Alternate ending to "The Witness for the Prosecution"

Explication

• The title of the story and the date of its original publication
• The author’s name and dates
• The name (if any) of the main character, together with a description of that character’s dominant traits or features
• Other characters, dealt with the same way
• A short description of the setting
• The narrator of the story (POV)
• A concise summary of the main events, given in chronological order
• A description of the general tone of the story (the author’s feelings toward the central character or main events)
• Some comments on the style in which the story is written (quotes are helpful)
• Genre conventions/inventions that we haven't seen before
• The work’s main theme in a sentence
• Leading symbols (if any), with an educated guess at what each symbol suggests
• Finally, an evaluation of the reading as a whole, concisely setting forth your opinion of it

Group Presentation

One of our major tasks this semester is to uncover the unique properties and patterns inherent in each popular genre. In a twenty-minute oral presentation,  each group will identify the history, traditions, traits, major players, and current state-of-affairs in a given mode. The following genres will be covered (I'll tackle Detective Fiction):

Horror
Science Fiction
Fantasy
Adventure
Romance

Due: 9/30-10/2

Edgar Allan Poe

Reading

Please read "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" p. 54 for class on Tuesday and "Silver Blaze" p. 81 for Thursday. A tentative reading list follows:

9/16
“The Witness for the Prosecution” p.101
“The Haunted Policeman” p. 118

9/18 “Cold Turkey” p. 185
“The Gutting of Couffignal” p. 229

9/23“Trouble is my Business” p. 253
“The Parker Shotgun” p. 294

9/25“The Hunt Ball” p. 364
“Chee’s Witch” p. 412

The Concept of Formula in the Study of Popular Literature