Paper #1 (minimum 500 words): How to terrify your readers.
The first step in completing the assignment is to read either The Cask of Amontillado or The Pit and the Pendulum.
In creating this story, Poe made certain choices. He was very audience-aware and always worked to have a specific impact on the reader: one of psychological and physiological terror.
Your thesis (and the argument that follows) will be an exploration of how Poe does this.
We’re reverse-engineering the storytelling in Poe’s work, as it were. What are the storytelling techniques/the structural underpinnings that get the story from text on a page to an affecting narrative that has some impact on the audience?
Consider the story contract and how Poe does (or does not) fulfill it. What does he do with the structure of the story to make you feel a certain way? What about his word choice? Pacing? Sentence length? Paragraphing?
You’re looking at how the story is told, and less what happens. We’re not looking at themes, as we would in a literary analysis. Plot is now secondary. Please avoid plot summary in your essays. We’re trying to figure out how the narrative is put together and how this impacts the reader.