Your task overview:
Take everything we have read and discussed about southern gothic and this novel, in particular, and write your own narrative about a journey (perhaps gone wrong). You do not need to address the specific characters or events of the text; rather, you should be considering thematic, stylistic, and narrative concerns and use them as you create your own version.
Your task specifics:
Imagine that you’re part of a dynamic family unit located in some unique (remote/congested/dull/exciting/exotic) part of the American landscape. Whether it’s in the city or the country, your family exists in a kind of physical and/or psychological isolation. Your fictional family is on a journey…a trek.. a crusade if you will, and this is to be documented via the perspective of three family members.
Each family member documents (via the disembodied narrative voice) in his or her colorful way, his or her own participation and experience and provides insight into the other characters through documentation. Perhaps the past is never past..it’s always present. It’s almost uncanny, if you will. If this is starting to sound a lot like our favorite Faulkner novella, that’s because it should.
Choose a location in the United States from where your fictional family hails and from where it begins its journey. It’s up to you to decide what that particular journey will be, and while you’ll all begin from one place, only you (and your annoying travel companions) will decide where you end up.
*Consider how language is used, regionally, and its ability to empower even as it fails to express the full breadth of the human condition. ALSO consider how the characters in As I Lay Dying are, to a degree, alienated as they are nearly living on top of each other. They live closely bound yet apart, keeping their darkest secrets inside and often feeling vastly distant, both emotionally and intellectually.
Specific requirements:
This writing task will be multi-modal in nature, meaning you should incorporate various text fonts, colors, possible hyperlinks to articles, graphics, songs, videos, etc etc to portray your intended tonal shifts (consider the following fonts and characters: Vardaman, Cash, Darl might become Darl, Anse. Jewel, Dewey Dell (this font is called “Nothing You Could Do”). Perhaps even the font you choose for your character’s narration somehow emblematizes their voice, personality, agenda, etc.
FYI: There is an extension for Google docs called extensis fonts if you’d like to broaden your options.
Your narrative should be approximately three pages long, and while you might use dialect appropriate for your particular journey, please attend to mechanics and conventions.
Inclusion of fragmented perspectives, inclusion of (southern) gothic tropes and themes,
