Literature, Life-Writing, and Identity

Identity Unit Foci

Each of the selections for each focus will be analyzed on a chart so that students can compare and contrast the pieces and develop familiarity with some significant literary elements. The chart will have five columns: Name and author, format, point of view, tone and reaction.

Format

Students will be expected to clearly identify the hallmarks of specific types of non-fiction and understand sub-genre subtleties such as the difference between memoir and autobiography. Creative nonfiction in the form of memoirs and personal essays will be prevalent in this unit as they reveal the narrator’s experiences and the emotional consequences of events. Expository writing is informational whereas persuasive writing takes a stance on a particular issue. Biography is a written account of another individual’s life; autobiography is a written account of an individual’s life, written by that person. A memoir is an autobiography that focus on a specific aspect of an individual’s life or a focused period of time.

Students will often fail to think beyond basic form, yet sophomore year is the ideal time for them to really consider the advantages and drawbacks to differing forms. How a piece of writing is constructed and organized is of paramount importance. Furthermore, they should note how sentence structure and the elements of style can be manipulated to affect a reader. Students will be expected to articulate why an author’s choice of form is significant. The genre-bending of media and form, evident in an author like Claudia Rankine, will be explored with the specific purpose of understanding how form alters the message. As we progress throughout this curriculum unit, students will constantly be brought back to consider how the form married with the content and how that affected the message.

Point of View

Although there is an expectation of basic fluency with point of view in the ninth grade standards, most students do not have a sophisticated understanding and are only able to identify the point of view in a rudimentary manner. A brief review of pronouns is advantageous prior to reviewing this concept of the author’s deliberate choice of vantage point from which to relay their ideas. First person only allows the reader to know what the character knows and is often identifiable by the use of pronouns like I, me or we. Second person is infrequently encountered as it addresses the reader directly though the use of the pronouns you and yours. There are three types of third person point of view and all use the pronouns he, she, it or they. Third person objective is characterized by a narrator who remains a detached observer, hence the character’s thoughts and feelings are never known. Third person limited is a narrator who is limited to a single character’s viewpoint, thoughts, and feelings. Third person omniscient is the point of view that allows unlimited information about all of the character’s actions, thoughts, and feelings.

Students will be expected not only be able to identify the basic point of view though which a narrative is presented, but also to understand how that choice interacts with the audience of the piece. For example, some of the letters written in second person are really for an audience larger than the individual “you” to whom the letter is addressed. The way in which that deliberate choice makes an author like Baldwin or Coates able to dislocate us and make the content affect us on a personal level.⁹

Focalization is another term students can use to demonstrate a more sophisticated view of point of view or perspective. Focalization is similar to point of view in that an omniscient narrator would be non-focalized, events viewed from a single narrator’s perspective are internally focalized, and external focalization occurs when the narrator merely observes the protagonist and exists outside of the consciousness. Although this theory was developed by Gerard Genette to relate to literature, it can easily extend to other types of texts such as film and television.

Tone

Tone is an especially difficult concept for students to master and they often struggle to differentiate between tone and mood. This unit will provide ample practice with finding key words and noting how syntax, sentence structure, and form express so much of how the author feels about their topic. Even in nonfiction, an author’s tone influences the mood and atmosphere of their writing. The easiest initial step to determining the author’s tone (usually described as an adjective) is to have students note that they do comprehend tone when it is in a verbal exchange. Demonstrating how volume, voice tone, facial expression, timing and gesture are readily identified develops confidence among students as they explain why they know I’m feeling a certain way. Tone is not an action, it is an attitude, but you often have to read between the lines to determine the author’s tone.¹⁰ In order to determine this attitude, students systematically search for the level of formality, diction, syntax, imagery, and word choice.