Master Study Guide—The AISG Study Guide for Death and the Maiden
Directions: Analyze the play for its conventions, context, or literary elements related to your assigned topic. You will need to include details or even passages from the play in your analysis (with page numbers) to support your conclusions.
l Your resulting analysis for your group might be anywhere from 2 to 5 pages or longer. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, or even charts in your analysis.
l Start with the sources you already have (either Moodle’s “Helpful Links” or Course Docs). After that, feel free to consult a variety of sources including drama and educational websites, Wikipedia, online study guides, online interviews, critic reviews, reader reviews (on Amazon.com), and so on, but DON’T plagiarize or copy directly them. Any plagiarism will be dealt with harshly.
l The HL students in each group are in charge of each group, and the first person listed in each group is the group leader.
Step 1: The first HL student listed is the group leader. Please create an Etherpad for your group and invite all group members (and Rene Zou) to the Etherpad.
Step 2: Divide up the responsibilities and do initial research to define terms and conduct research. Make sure you begin with the sources I recommend. After that, expand your research to include a variety of sources. (And don’t forget the AISG Library database, which has many credible and reliable sources of information.)
Step 3: Brainstorm and collaborate with your group members as you engage in the analysis of your assigned topic. Type up your analysis into an MS Word document.
Step 4: Polish up your Etherpad, save it as an MS document, and then submit it to Rene Zou before Saturday, April 19 by midnight.
Step 5: Rene will synthesize everything into a single MS Word document (with page numbers), polish it up, and submit it to Moodle before class on Monday, April 21.
Assigned Literary Topics Death and the Maiden:
Topic 1: The Context of Composition (7 students)—the historical/cultural/social context in which the play was written and first performed in 1991. Things to consider: the author’s biography and how it may have helped shaped the play’s themes, plot, or characters; the period of dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet; the authorial intent; how this play fits into the author’s body of work; the author’s literary influences (see the dedication at the beginning of the play); literary trends or movements that may have influenced this play.
l Places to start: “The Afterward” by Ariel Dorfman; Chapter 6 “The Composition of Composition” (under Course Docs); many of the links in “Helpful Links” apply to this topic; the Lit Movements cheat sheet I gave you.
· Kristin Ali, Jeremy Lam (HL), Jung Min Cho & David Won (C), Ivan Lo, Sabrina Pu, & Momoi Suda (E)
Topic 2: The Context of Interpretation (6 students)—start by identifying the target audience’s historical/cultural/social context in 1991, then the most appropriate types of literary criticism that serve as a lens through which this work can be viewed. Finally, is this work still relevant to modern audiences today (due to our historical/cultural/social context)? Why or why not?
l Places to start: “The Afterward” by Ariel Dorfman; Chapter 5 “The Composition of Interpretation”; “Literary Criticism Helpful Links” on Moodle; the Lit Criticism Cheat Sheet I gave you.
l Students: Darren Tirto, Christie Zheng (HL); Jackline Raggi & Alex Zhou (C); Ashley Kim & James Guo (G)
Topic 3: Drama and its conventions (6 students)—Start by defining drama. You may need a paragraph to do so. Which conventions that are typical of plays are followed and which conventions are flouted? In other words, how is this play similar or different to most other plays in terms of the structure of the play (i.e. Acts and scenes), the number of characters, the use of stage directions at the beginning of each scene or during dialogues, transitions between scenes, interaction with the audience, monologues, soliloquies, or asides, the use of a narrator, any unusual props (like a mirror), etc? Be sure to indicate reasons and effects of these conventions
l Places to start: “Dramatic Conventions” (Helpful Links)
l Christine Yang, Jacob Curry (HL), Hee Chul Byun & Keisha Burns (C), Mickey Ting & Clarence Lee (G)
Topic 4: The setting of the story as revealed in the play (6 students)—What is revealed in the stage directions, dialogue, plot, music, or set design about where and when the play is set as well as the cultural/political/social setting? NOTE: don’t confuse “context” with “setting.”
· Connie Li, Tony Leung (HL); Joong Hoon Lee & Patrick Chang (C); Diana Seo & Daniel Kim (G)
Topic 5: Themes (6 students)—Define the term theme and thoroughly analyze three of the most important themes found in the play. Don’t just state the theme as a simple topic like “Truth” or as a conflict. Instead indicate what statement the play is making about this topic or conflict (e.g. In any country recovering from dictatorship rule, the truth should come to light so that people can have closure begin the healing process). Be sure to provide references from the play along with their page numbers.
l Jameson MacPhie, Tammy Hong (HL); Crystal Justason & George Sawamura (C); Halin Cho, Emily Tai, & Justin Tan (E)
Topic 6: Characters (6 students): Define all the relevant terms associated with the study of characters: direct and indirect characterization, protagonist, antagonist, foil, round character or flat character, dynamic or static character. Then write a character analysis of the three characters in the play: Paulina, Gerardo, and Dr. Miranda. Please consider whether or not these characters represent any groups of people from Chile?
· James Fan, Nidhi Bhasin (HL), Stephanie Park (02parks@) & Vikas Sharma (C); Martin Chou & Tien Tien (E)
Topic 7. The most important conflicts in the book (6 students)—Begin by defining the words conflict, internal conflict, external conflict, and central conflict. Then identify and discuss the external conflicts and the internal conflicts in the play. Make sure you use references from the play to support your points. Which conflict is the central conflict (usually tied to a main theme)?
· Victoria Gonzalez, Eric Lu (HL), Alice Cha, Shu-yu Hsiao (C); Kevin Kim, Jeffery Kim
Topic 8. Tone and Mood (6 students)—Begin by defining and delineating the terms tone and mood. Then thoroughly discuss the tone of the play and the mood of the play.
l Places to Start: See the document “Overview of Tone and Mood” (Course Documents)
l Kirk Cheng, Jie Yi Lim (HL); Kaylina McKelvey & Michael Woldemariam (C); Hugo Setyadji & Mano Lee (E)
Topic 9: Stylistic Features (9 students): Thoroughly analyze the most important stylistic features found in the play (at least 4), and be sure to indicate each feature’s effects. Possible features could be the use of language in the play, an important dramatic convention of the play, a symbol, a motif, the main conflict, the use of characterization, etc.
Questions that will help you articulate the effects are as follows: Why does the author include this feature? How does this feature help the play to achieve its purpose? How does this feature support or comment upon a main theme of the play? How does this features shape the way the audience interprets the play?
· Chris Zhang, Caleb Sng (HL); Kayla Mohr, Karthik Padmanabhan & YeaSeul Park (C); Christy Choi & Lion Lee (E); Clark Lee & So Hee Park (02sop@) (G)
Webster Lang & Lit—SL & HL AISG