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Access Literature

Access Literature. Assignment 1 Bridget Jones’s Diary introduction. Background research . Author –Helen Fielding (journalist for The Independent) First novel Cause Celeb (1994) Bridget Jones’s Diary began as a newspaper column in 1995 Bridget became an ‘everywoman’ for a generation .

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Access Literature

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  1. Access Literature Assignment 1 Bridget Jones’s Diary introduction

  2. Background research • Author –Helen Fielding (journalist for The Independent) • First novel Cause Celeb (1994) • Bridget Jones’s Diary began as a newspaper column in 1995 • Bridget became an ‘everywoman’ for a generation • Often thought to be a commentary on the 1990’s • Sequel The Edge of Reason, 1999

  3. Sources and influences • Fielding’s most openly acknowledged source is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen • Has also been compared with Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (1985, 1992, 1993 and 1999), Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity (1992) and Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City(1996) • Classics in comedy writing like Diary of a Nobody (1892) by George and Weedon Grossmith

  4. Context of twentieth century women writers • Narrative voice is intimate (diary) and first-person like Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963) • Both texts focus on female experience and struggles against femininity • Diary format like Doris Lessing in The Golden Notebook (1962) • Confessional tone of voice – truths about gender condition? • Comic, whimsical romance which detracts from its serious points?

  5. Narrative voice/ structure of the novel • Neat structure – one year and New Year’s resolutions • Can be read in chunks – episode/chapter • Real diaries written in continuing present with no clear sense of how the last entry might read – more conscious of the authorial control as sub-plots converge • First-person narrative contradictions – empathy with the protagonist/ unreliable? Reader feels superior to Bridget?

  6. Character development What do we know about her? • Singleton • Subjective • Blind to faults in others? (Male characters? Female friends? Parents?) • Humorous • Romantic heroine?

  7. Emerging themes in the novel? • Critical comment on the single life? • Pride and Prejudice intertextual references • Family, class and society • Post-feminism and self-help culture • Body issues • Men and masculinity

  8. Planning Assignment 1 • 9th Oct – BJD annotation and analysis • 16th Oct –Approaching the essay and workshop –structuring and organising notes/effective quotations • 23rd Oct –half-term (working on first draft) • 30th Oct- Assignment 1 workshop –First draft assignment deadline –partial completion • 6th Nov – Assignment 1 workshop – Feedback and amendments • 13th Nov – final submission DEADLINE for Assignment 1: What is Literature? Begin Short Story introduction For feedback on first draft upload to Access Literature Moodle site or e-mail me: lcraddock@halesowen.ac.uk

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