Table of contents Предисловие Tasks for seminars Sentences and extracts for analysis

Seminar 8

Stylistic Analysis of the Text

1. 
   Main approaches to stylistic analysis of the text.
   
2. 
   The context.
   
3. 
   Types of narration.
   

Text for analysis

1. 
   Doctorow E. The Water Works.
   

Tasks

I. Choose one of the approaches and analyse the story.
What is the conflict? What parts are involved into the conflict? Comment on the atmosphere in the text. What means does the author choose to create the atmosphere? What impression does the description of the weather and the building make on the reader? What stylistic means does the author employ to portray the water? What verbs prevail in the portrayal? Why?
Has the episode with the toy boat any symbolic meaning? In what emotional key is the death of the boy presented in the story? What feelings do the water workers express taking his body out of water? Why?
Dwell on the image of the protagonist. What is the protagonist’s job? Why did he come to the water works? What did he do there?
What can you say about the narrator of the story? Why did he call the protagonist “my man”? What did he do there? Did he take an active part in the events? Where did he watch the water workers’ actions from? How did the horse and the water workers react at him? Why has the author chosen such a narrator?
Who is winning in the conflict? What is the theme of the story? What is its idea?

Seminar 9

The System of Macroimages in the Text.

1. 
   The image of the author.
   
2. 
   The image of the narrator.
   
3. 
   The character of the story.
   
4. 
   The image of nature.
   
5. 
   The thing image.
   
6. 
   The artistic detail.
   
7. 
   Intertextuality.
   

Text for analysis

1. 
   Frame J. The Bath.