Introduction

Before you start writing a literature review or analysis, you must have an introduction. Here are some guidelines on how you should start your short story review or analysis. We have chose the short story "The Necklace" to be included in all examples.

i) WRITING AN INTRODUCTION

You should ;

• Define or identify the general topic, issue or area of concern, thus providing an appropriate context for reviewing the literature.
• Point out overall trends in what has been published about the topic; or conflicts in theory, methodology, evidence and conclusions; or gaps in research and scholarship; or a single problem or a new perspective of immediate interest.
• Establish the writer's reason (point of view) for reviewing the literature. Explain the criteria to be used in analyzing and comparing literature and the organization of the review and when necessary, state why certain literature is or is not included.

As examples ; 

"The Necklace" which is "La Parure" in French, is perhaps the most famous short story by French author, Guy de Maupassant. It's been called Madame Bovary in miniature, and tells the tale of a dissatisfied middle-class woman whose dreams of wealth and glamour end in disaster. Maupassant first published it on February 17, 1884 in a daily newspaper called Le Gaulois.

Another example is taken from "The Phantom of The Opera", which is a Gothic novel by Gaston Leroux. It combines horror and romance, usually in subterranean or castle setting. They include some combination of grotesqueness and innocence, and hypnotism or magic comes into it a lot as well. The novel was originally published as a serialization which ran from 1909 to 1910. It was written in French and was translated to English early on. Leroux wrote that he had researched the story and is telling what really happened.

We hope this helps ! Regards.