Your first paper will place your author and their writing in a cultural context. In other words, you will come up with a theory about your author and their literary career. By Week 3 be prepared to share your choice of author and submit this worksheet to be graded as a quiz.
Author Paulo Coelho.
A. Why have you selected your author? B. What prior knowledge do you have about this author? (Min. 3 well-developed sentences) (20 pts)
I selected Paulo Coelho because one of my favorite books is The Alchemist, in which he is the author. Almost all of the books he has written have a spiritual journey that the characters take, and I, the reader, enjoy the thrill of connecting with each character. Paulo Coelho has a way with words that makes the reader feel motivated by his word choice. The only prior knowledge I had of Paulo Coelho initially was from Brazil. He generally had a rough childhood, and that he was the author of Alchemist, one of my favorite texts.
A. Identify the multi-media source have you located about this author by creating an APA style citation using scribbr.com. B. Then share 1 discovery you made from this source. (20 pts)
Pallardh, R. P. (n.d.). Paulo Coelho | Biography, Books, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paulo-Coelho
The discovery I made from this source is that Paulo Coelho was against his parents’ Roman Catholic upbringing, which made the parents admit him against his will to a psychiatric hospital.
List 3-5 compelling questions in each category:
BIOGRAPHICAL (20 pts)
Why is Paulo Coelho considered to be generally famous?
What are the most notable life stories in his childhood and adulthood life?
Who are the most notable people in Paulo Coelho’s life that influenced him, and in what ways did they influence him?
What life stories about Paulo Coelho shaped him into what he is today?
ARTISTIC/LITERARY (20 pts)
What are the inconsistencies in what Paulo Coelho stands for?
What stylistic device stands out most in his books?
Which of Paulo Coelho’s books has had a significant impact on my life? Moreover, what did the reflection entail?
CULTURAL (20 pts.)
Paulo Coelho is from which country?
What was Paulo Coelho’s native language?
Paulo Coelho committed to which religion in his childhood and upbringing?
How did Paulo Coelho deal with prejudice in his upbringing?
Biographical
Maree et al. (2018) mentioned that magical thinking in all the books of Paulo Coelho distinguished him from the other writers. The readers can self-reflect as they relate to each character in Paulo Coelho’s books.
Pallardh (n.d) noted that Paulo Coelho had a rough childhood where his parents admitted him to a psychiatric ward because he was rebelling against the Roman Catholic religion. Pallardh (n.d) also mentions that Coelho dropped out of law school to travel worldwide to find himself essentially. The people he met influenced him a great deal and the different cultures he encountered in his journey.
I believe that his rebellious phase when he grew up shaped him into what he is today. The texts and characters of most of his books reflect what he underwent while growing up, so we get to see what was going on in Coelho’s mind as he was growing up.
Maree et al. (2018) mentioned the different religious paths that Paulo had to take in his journey across the world, from black magic to smoking marijuana and witchcraft, which shaped his young adulthood.
References
Mayer, C., & Maree, D. (2018). The magical life and creative works of Paulo Coelho: A psychobiographical investigation. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 18(sup1), 65-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/20797222.2018.1511310
Pallardh, R. P. (n.d.). Paulo Coelho | Biography, Books, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paulo-Coelho
Literary
Some of Paulo Coelho’s books are too descriptive and fail to follow up on the fame of The Alchemist. In most of his texts, he gives slight hints to be attentive enough while reading his books. However, this is inconsistent in his other books and makes reading them tiring and boring if you expect the small details to be relevant in the end.
Haq et al. (2021) observed that Coelho used narrative techniques interchangeably throughout The Alchemist. This is consistent with his other texts making the reader immerse themselves in the text and eventually have a life realization from the reading.
The Alchemist has had a considerable impact on my life as I connected to Shepherd’s journey on a spiritual level. This helped me understand that all life’s obstacles can be handled in the long run with a clear mind.
Bibliography
Qanwal, S., Karim, S., & Haq, N. (2021). A Stylistic Discourse Analysis of Paulo Coelho’s Narrative Techniques in The Alchemist. Multicultural Education, 7(8). https:// doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5156208
Cultural
Pallardh (n.d) noted that Paulo Coelho was born in 1940 in Brazil. Brazil is a Portuguese-speaking nation.
Pallardh (n.d) also mentioned that Paulo Coelho was brought up in a Romantic Catholic family. His rebellious nature to the religion made his parents admit him to a psychiatric ward.
Bibliography
Pallardh, R. P. (n.d.). Paulo Coelho | Biography, Books, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paulo-Coelho
Paulo Coelho is a writer who draws his readers into the characters he is writing about in his books. The readers experience the emotional journey and spiritual fulfillment through the Characters’ life in the books. Most of Paulo Coelho’s books draw inspiration from his journey from childhood through to adulthood and his religious uncertainty and wavering faith. The spiritual journey and realization most characters in his books take to tap into the life’s experience of Paulo Coelho. From when he was a teenager protesting The Roman Catholic faith in his parents’ house through to the age he started taking Cannabis, he started believing in witchcraft and black magic.
The theme of characters’ Spirituality and their journeys in much of it is consistent in almost all of Paulo Coelho’s books.
Most of Paulo Coelho’s books draw inspiration from his childhood and adulthood as he was lost spiritually.
Paulo Coelho was not a spiritual person growing up as he was a rebellious child. He rebelled against his parents’ determination to raise him as a Roman Catholic Church believer.
Paulo Coelho believed in Witchcraft and black magic as he traveled the world in his early adulthood life.
Annotated bibliography
Mayer, C., & Maree, D. (2018). The magical life and creative works of Paulo Coelho: A psychobiographical investigation. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 18(sup1), 65-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/20797222.2018.1511310
Maree et al. (2018) explored magic and magical thinking, and texts underwent content analysis. The journal concludes that in Paulo Coelho’s case, the mix-up in his life where he discovered and started believing in dark magic, witchcraft, and religion is attributed to his growth as a person.
Mayer, C. H. (2019). An early calling, a late career: Psychobiographic investigations into Paulo Coelho’s career development. In New Trends in Psychobiography (pp. 245-264). Springer, Cham.
Mayer (2019) focuses on a single case study of the life of Paulo Coelho. The analysis of this study found out that Paulo Coelho’s life followed his career path development thanks to his Spirituality needs at each particular point in time. His calling and mainly his work revolves around his spiritual needs, which is evident in the books he has written and how the characters draw inspiration from his spiritual life.
Ganesan, K. (2007). The Spiritual Journey of a Prostitute in Coelho’s” Eleven Minutes”. International Journal of the Humanities, 4(3).
Ganesan (2007) observes that Paulo Coelho bases his work primarily on Spirituality and finding oneself. This journal text focuses on Paulo’s “Eleven Minutes,” which follows the life of a sex worker. The life journey and sexual experience of the sex worker are scrutinized and, in the end, observed as a spiritual one.
