Oliver Twist

    NARRATIVE CREATIVE EXERCISE - Oliver Twist   In the lecture in Week 11, we will explore the way Dickens changes his narratorial voice in order to better represent nineteenth-century London life. In this exercise: • Choose a location in your life which is familiar to you: it can be a private space (your room, your house, etc.), or somewhere public (lecture hall, shopping centre, highway, etc.) • Write a brief narrative piece (100-200 words), relating a scene that takes place in the location, using a first-person narrator. Then, write another narrative piece (100- 200 words), relating the same scene, using a third-person narrator. • Consider the different kinds of information each voice allows: what’s similar/ different? what details can/cannot be included? which voice is the more ‘truthful?’ Consider, too, which is the best voice to use to tell this particular story—and why that might be. • Write a reflective commentary on your pieces. Discuss the relationship between the content and the writing strategies you’ve chosen. For example, if you believe first- person narration is more successful, how does this more accurately depict the experience of the room? If you believe third-person is more successful, what might this say about your current episteme? Explain how your approach is similar/ different to Dickens in Oliver Twist – and why. • Don’t forget to state similarities between your work and Oliver twist - Dickens work and also differences. INCLUDE DIRECT TEXT for evidence. Interrogate further what other ways you could write? why did you choose these