Principles of Storytelling

Paper details:

Choose one of the stories you have read so far in class, and re-tell it from another character’s perspective or in a different narrative genre. Do not change the events in the story or add characters that are not already mentioned, and maintain as much as possible the same levels of discourse used by the original author. Be sure to take into consideration such key narrative elements as conflict, motivation, point of view, framing devices, and voice, etc.

For example, you might retell the story in Jane Austen’s Emma from the perspective of a minor character like Jane Fairfax or Oedipus the King from that of an opposing figure like Creon or Teiresias. Or you could tell the story of Andreuccio of Perugia in the Decameron as a tragedy instead of a comedy.

Limit your storytelling to three pages. Then, in one to two pages, apply what you have learned in class to discuss the consequences and implications of altering stories in this way, and extend your conclusions to address the relevance of these insights to experience outside the classroom. Explain what you have learned from this assignment.