A230B: Reading and Studying Literature II

In The Beach of Falesa, Robert Louis Stevenson was attempting something new in his literary career moving away from the adventure romance mode of writing towards a realistic one, inspired by his encounter with a new and developing South Pacific society after his emigration to Samoa in 1889. Writing to a friend, Stevenson describes his excitement at being able to write his story in the realistic mode: “it is the first realistic South Sea story: I mean with real South Sea character and details of life.” Discuss how the literary work is realistic in its depiction of the island life, its portrayal of religious beliefs and the supernatural, its use of language, and its representation of the ‘contact zone.’ Comment on whether the ending of the story is realistic or not.

Important guidelines:

1. Use of E-library is a credit to your essay. Make sure the sources are academic.

2. Divide your articles into 5-6 body paragraphs and discuss each question in a separate paragraph with examples and quotations from the work.

3. The word count should rage from 1500-1700 words.

4. Revise the final document before submitting your TMA to avoid typos and grammatical mistakes.

5. Use the Harvard style of documentation.

Helpful sources:

1. Stevenson, Robert Louis. Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson, edited by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Floating Press, 1906.

2. Lansdown, Richard. Strangers in the South Seas, edited by Richard Lansdown, University of Hawaii Press, 2005.

3. Jolly, Roslyn. “Stevenson's 'Sterling Domestic Fiction',: 'The Beach of Falesá'.” The Review of English Studies, vol. 50, no. 200, 1999, pp. 463–482. www.jstor.org/stable/517392.

4. Stowell, Frank S. “Notes on the Realistic Novel.” The English Journal, vol. 18, no. 7, 1929, pp. 548–552. www.jstor.org/stable/803283.

5. MOONEYHAM, LAURA. “ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON AND THE ‘HIGH...RATHER DRY LADY.’” George Eliot - George Henry Lewes Studies, no. 22/23, 1993, pp. 61–68. www.jstor.org/stable/42827661.