For the final exam (which is due via email sometime before the end of the Exam Period Saturday, May 10 at 4pm), you’ll need to write a critical introduction for your novella. This should be in the 8-10 page range (double spaced). In this you’ll want to contextualize what you’ve done and think about what should happen next (were you to revise). Here are some particular questions and suggestions that might help you write:
1. Help situation your reader. Where did you start? What was your original plan? Give us the literary context you imagined this novella living in. What were/are the antecedents/influences? What is the style? Perhaps most importantly: why did you begin in this place? I would like you to use some of the texts (both creative and craft-based) we’ve discussed in class.
2. What problems/challenges did you anticipate and what problems/challenges did you actually encounter?
3. How did you address yourself to those challenges? And how successfully (do you think)?
4. If you were starting over, would you do things differently? What?
5. Where will you go from here, in terms of revision? This should be at least 2-3 pages of the document.
The exam isn’t just a response to each of these questions. It’s an essay about your novella.