English assignment

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"Waiting for Her": http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/WaitHer.shtml

"Family Portrait": https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PHnzcKFa65FeknAtpRNte61gIRokSXnmbs2dyKDOQHM/edit

This week's discourse focuses on literary theory, with an emphasis on Psychological Criticism. As you read in the course hand-out, Psychological Criticism can be summarized as follows,

"Critics view literature through the lens of modern psychology, exploring human behavior (conscious, subconscious and unconscious), literary language and symbolism. Psychological criticism often employs three approaches: the creative process of the author, the author's motivation and behavior, and the psychoanalysis of an author's fictional characters. Sociological Criticism examines literature in the cultural, economic and political context in which it is written or received, and explores the relationship between artist and society."

For this Moodle forum, please read the online short stories "Waiting for Her" and "Family Portrait" and compose one 500 word (minimum) analysis of both stories, from the perspective of a psychoanalytic critic. As you consider your response, you might ask yourself the following: "What unconscious desires does each author express in their writing?"

As you transport yourselves into the minds of the authors, through their works, look for ideas that are interwoven in each story. In your response reflect upon the interconnectedness and commonality of unexpressed desires among most people.

Here are a couple of links that provide additional information on Psychological Criticism:

http://www.usask.ca/english/frank/psycrit.htm

and

http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/psycho.crit.html

The links are not required reading, but they might prove helpful to you in composing your responses.