In this 650-750-word assignment, you will produce a summary of a piece of criticism and discuss
it in relation to a text we have studied in class. The purpose of this assignment is to exercise
your ability to work through a piece of writing about literature, identify its claims, and to bring
your understanding of it to bear upon a primary source. Such skills will be necessary for the
final essay of this course.
The assignment consists of two parts.
1) Read the excerpted section IV of Ansgar Nünning’s “‘But why will you say that I am
mad?’ On the Theory, History, and Signals of Unreliable Narration in British Fiction”
(posted on Blackboard under Readings). Summarize Nünning’s main points in a succinct
fashion (approx. 350 words). Be sure to include parenthetical page references to the
points you are summarizing, and be careful not to plagiarize his language (you may use
quotations, but keep them brief).
2) Apply one or more of Nünning’s criteria for identifying unreliable narration to one of the
stories we have studied this semester (approx. 350 words). Be sure to choose a story that
has an unreliable narrator. You must quote the story and explain how the criteria can be
applied to it. Please format this assignment the same way you did the last one. Once again, no Works Cited is required provided that you do not use more than the excerpt and the story.