James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (04/17/91)
Index Number: 15000
[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]
As I said my story is twenty-two minutes long. When I began
to do the analysis on my story, I didn't know where to start. I
didn't know how to analyze it. How would I decide which aspects of
language use were interesting and which were bea utiful? Where were
the complex parts of the story? What was it about the story that
really had an impact? I didn't know where to begin! I used an
already established theory for the analysis and study of stories and
applied it to my story.
First I had to find the story's structure, if there was any!
I found that my story did indeed have a story structure. Then I
looked for the characters and motifs of the story, the reasons for
the story, what the story teaches the viewer. I also looked at
themes. What were the underlying meanings behind the events in the
story? These were the things I analyzed in the story. I also had to
decide whether or not there were different parts to my story. If
there were parts to the story, then the beginnings and end of each
part needed to be located. This is called a discourse analysis, an
analysis of the internal structure of my story.
After the story was broken down into several parts, it was
easier to begin to analyze each part in terms of language, culture,
and story characters.
Within a story's discourse analysis, there are three levels of
analysis. There are lines, stanzas, and topic units. I found all
three of these levels within my story. The next step is to do a
literary analysis. A literary analysis includes lookin g at the
language used, the cultural influences, and the basic plot of the
story.
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