The modern Chinese

What trends or patterns do we see in the modern Chinese novel? What choices have modern
Chinese novelists made in deciding what stories to tell or how to tell them? The potential
answers to these questions—and thus your options for what to focus on in this writing
assignment—are multiple.
In your final paper, you will develop a theory of “the modern Chinese novel of _________.”
You fill in the blank. Your goal is to identify a similarity in storytelling techniques used in
several novels assigned for this course, and to analyze the significance of this pattern.
Storytelling encompasses narration, structure, characterization, tone, motif, symbolism, setting,
and other elements that we have discussed during the semester.
A theory, for the purposes of this assignment, is an abstract proposition or generalization that
explains an observable pattern in a systematic fashion. In elaborating your theory, you will
identify three distinctive characteristics one finds in all “modern Chinese novels of
_________.” You will draw evidence to support your theoretical framework from either three or
four of the novels assigned in this course. (Should you want to write on more than four novels, or
on more than three distinctive characteristics, you must obtain written permission from me in
advance.) Your examples and argumentation should prove the existence of the overarching
pattern, supported by analysis of three distinctive characteristics of the novels you discuss.
As with prior assignments, this assignment asks you not just to describe but to persuade; that is,
to stake out a contestable position and then to present reasons and evidence to convince your
reader to accept your argument. Be creative!
You are encouraged to write about novels you have not written about in previous papers. For this
assignment, if you’ve written about none or one of the novels before, the highest score you can
receive is 100 points; if you’ve written about two of them before, 80 points; if three, 70 points.
Assignment guidelines follow on the next two pages.