Reading and Writing about Literature with 2021 MLA Update

[* Indicates sections or material new to this edition]

Preface for Instructors
Brief Contents
1. INTRODUCTION TO READING AND WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE
Why Read Literature?
Why Write about Literature?
What to Expect in a Literature Class
Literature and Enjoyment

2. THE ROLE OF GOOD READING
The Value of Rereading
Critical Reading
The Myth of "Hidden Meaning"
Active Reading
     Annotating

*WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Second Coming (Annotated Poem)
     Note Taking
     Journal Keeping
     Using Reference Materials
Questions for Active Reading: Fiction
Questions for Active Reading: Poetry
Questions for Active Reading: Drama
Asking Critical Questions of Literature
BEN JONSON, On My First Son (Annotated Poem)
Checklist for Good Reading

3. THE WRITING PROCESS
Prewriting
     Choosing a Topic
     *Developing an Argument
*The Thesis
       Gathering Support for Your Thesis
Organizing Your Paper
Drafting the Paper
Revising and Editing
     Global Revision Checklist
     Local Revision Checklist 
     Final Editing Checklist
Peer Editing and Workshops
Tips for Writing about Literature
Using Quotations Effectively
Quoting from Stories
Quoting from Poems
Quoting from Plays
Formatting Your Paper
4. COMMON WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Summary
Response
     *ZORA NEALE HURSTON, Sweat
     *STUDENT ESSAY: Taylor Plantan, “A Response to ‘Sweat’”
*Explication
     ROBERT HERRICK, Upon Julia's Clothes
     STUDENT ESSAY: Jessica Barnes, "Poetry in Motion: Herricks Upon Julias Clothes" 
*Analysis
     ROBERT BROWNING, My Last Duchess
     STUDENT ESSAY: Adam Walker, “Possessed by the Need for
Possession: Brownings My Last Duchess"
Comparison and Contrast
     CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, After Death 
      STUDENT ESSAY: Todd Bowen, "Speakers for the Dead: Narrators in My Last Duchess and After Death" 
Essay Exams
      WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 73”
      ROBERT HERRICK, To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time
      STUDENT ESSAY EXAM: Midterm Essay

5. WRITING ABOUT STORIES
Elements of Fiction
      Plot
      Character
      Point of View
      Setting
      Theme
      Symbolism
      Style
Stories for Analysis
      CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, The Yellow Wallpaper
      KATE CHOPIN, The Story of an Hour (Annotated Story)
      STUDENT ESSAY: An Essay that Compares and Contrasts: Melanie
Smith, "Good Husbands in Bad Marriages"

6. WRITING ABOUT POEMS
Elements of Poetry
      The Speaker
      The Listener
      Imagery
      Sound and Sense
Two Poems for Analysis
      WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 116 (Annotated Poem)
      T.S. ELIOT, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (Annotated Poem)
      STUDENT ESSAY: An Explication: Patrick McCorkle, "Shakespeare Defines Love" 

7. WRITING ABOUT PLAYS
Elements of Drama
      Plot, Character, and Theme
      Diction
      Spectacle
      Setting
How to Read a Play
      Watching a Play
      The Director’s Vision
      SUSAN GLASPELL, Trifles
      STUDENT ESSAY: An Analysis: Sarah Johnson, "Moral Ambiguity and Character Development in Trifles" 

8. WRITING A LITERARY RESEARCH PAPER
Finding Sources
Evaluating Sources
Working with Sources
     Quotations
     *Paraphrases and Summaries
     Commentaries
     Keeping Track of Your Sources
Writing the Paper
     Refine Your Thesis
     Organize Your Evidence
     Start Your Draft
     Revise
     Edit and Proofread
*Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism
What to Document and What Not to Document
Documenting Sources: MLA Format
     In-Text Citations
     Preparing Your Works Cited List 
     *STUDENT ESSAY: Research Paper: Rachel McCarthy, “The Widening Gyres of Chaos in Yeats’s ‘The Second Coming’”

9. LITERARY CRITICISM AND LITERARY THEORY
Formalism and New Criticism
Feminist and Gender Criticism
Queer Theory
Marxist Criticism
Cultural Studies
Postcolonial Criticism
Historical Criticism and New Historicism
Psychological Theories
Reader-Response Theories
Structuralism
Poststructuralism and Deconstruction
*Ecocriticism

Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
Acknowledgments
Index of Terms