Write a 2,000-word university-level essay in response to the following question:
“The arrangement of the words matters; and the arrangement you want can be found in the picture in your mind. The picture dictates the arrangement. The picture dictates whether this will be a sentence with or without clauses, a sentence that ends hard or a dying-fall sentence, long or short, active or passive.”
— Joan Didion, Why I Write (in Brian Dillon’s Suppose a Sentence, p.116)
Consider the relationship between sentence structures and images in your chosen texts.
This essay must:
- Analyze sentence structure and imagery as key expressive tools in Monique Roffey’s The Mermaid of Black Conch and A.K. Blakemore’s The Manningtree Witches.
- Include close textual analysis (close reading of specific passages).
- Engage with critical material where appropriate (but not necessarily the quote from Didion).
- Be analytical and stylistically sophisticated, attending to how syntax and imagery reflect each author’s narrative voice, atmosphere, and thematic concerns.
- Incorporate secondary criticism from relevant literary sources
- Ensure a clear essay structure: introduction, body paragraphs with focused arguments, and a conclusion.