L-Letter1

Part 1: Before you start your essays, discuss the following questions in your groups and write the first part of a “Letter of Intentions”.

a) Explain briefly the chosen topic. b) What’s the purpose of the essay? c) Who is it intended for? d) What effects do you want it to have on your readers? e) What have you read on this specific topic? Are there any authors or key concepts that you would like to use in your critical writing?

 Our essay will be about a very famous short story in the American Literature, "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the use of symbols and symbolic language in the story. Therefore, it is intended not only for those that have American Literature as its subject of study but also for whoever is interested in the topic. Therefore we intend it to be a very complete text, full of useful information. Also, it will be very clear and comprehensible.  Besides reading the short story itself we are searching for analyses of it. We would like to analyze what both academic texts and popular analyses say about it. We intend to use the video adaptation of the story to compare the interpretations of the symbols with the written analysis. We hope our essay will be able to provide information for those who seek it and at the same time be pleasant to be read.

We are going to use our previous knowledge about the topic and include some authors's ideas about the symbolism in //A Rose for Emily//. We intend to list the symbolic elements in the story and explain them based on the critiques we have read. For instance, we will use some of the ideas presented in "Changing Portraits in 'A Rose for Emily' by Janice A. Powell. She claims that Faulkner creates many figurative portraits of Emily and organizes them chronologically showing the changes which occur throughout her life.  In literature it is necessary a lot of background reading and one never should read //Innocently,//once we begin to have a critical mind throughout the academic studies. We aim to enhance this critical thinking by showing deeper and different layers of meaning this text can present. Usually literary texts speak beyond words an in this case it speaks through simbolic language. We´re also going to present some of Curry´s ideas  (Renee R. Curry Source: The Mississippi Quarterly. 47.3 (Summer 1994): p391. Document Type: Article), about gender differences.