Digging into Literature

PART I INTRODUCING LITERARY ANALYSIS

1. Why Join Critical Conversations about Literature?

Discourse Communities as Parlors

Why Join the Critical Conversation on Literature?

"Texts" and Their "Authors" and "Critics"

"Text" in Literary and Cultural Analysis

Author vs. Literary Critic

Let’s Get Started: Joining the Discourse Community of Literary Critics

Review

 

2. What Is Literary Analysis?

A Literary Analysis Makes Interpretive Claims

A Literary Analysis Must Make Debatable Claims

A Literary Analysis Supports Arguments with Textual Evidence

A Literary Analysis Argues for a Thesis about the Text

A Literary Analysis Explores the Complexity of the Text

Complexity of Arguments vs Complexity of Expression

Review

Leslie Marmon Silko, "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" [story]

 

PART II STRATEGIES FOR CLOSE READING

3. From Surface to Depth

What is the Surface/Depth Strategy?

Sylvia Plath, "Morning Song" [poem]

Using Surface/Depth to Brainstorm

Step 1: Get a Good Grasp of the Surface (Literal) Meaning

Step 2: Dig Below the Surface

Using Surface/Depth to Write Persuasively

Using the Surface/Depth Linking Strategy

Using the Surface/Depth Contrasting Strategy

Plausible vs. Implausible Readings

A Note on Persuasive Interpretations

Review

Now Practice on Your Own

Louise Glück, "Gretel in Darkness" [poem]

4. Patterns

Using Patterns to Brainstorm

Using the Patterns Strategy before Having Clear Surface/Depth Arguments in Mind

Using the Patterns Strategy after Having Brainstormed Some Possible Surface/Depth Arguments

Using Patterns to Write Persuasively

Sample Essay Using Patterns and Surface/Depth Strategies

Sample Essay: Sylvia Plath’s "Morning Song" and the Challenge of Motherly Identity

Review

Now Practice On Your Own

Michael Ondaatje, "The Cinnamon Peeler" [poem]

Sample Essay: "Smell Me": Eroticism in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"

Sample Essay: Contradictory Desires in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"

5. Digging Deeper

Character Descriptions

Setting

Perspective

Comparisons

Ironies

Time and Sequence

Titles and Epigraphs

Specific Words

Sound

Breaks and Groupings

Visual Appearance

Review

Now Practice on Your Own

Rick Bass, "Antlers" [story]

 

6. Opposites

Opposites vs. Irony

Using Opposites to Brainstorm

Using Opposites to Write Persuasively

Review

Now Practice on Your Own

Alice Walker, "Everyday Use" [story]

 

PART III STRATEGIES FOR GOING BEYOND THE TEXT

7. Context

Common Types of Contextual Information

Using Context to Brainstorm

Finding Contextual Information

Finding Contextual Information Using General Web Searches

Finding Contextual Information Using Library Databases

Finding Contextual Information Using the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

Phillis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" [poem]

Now Practice on Your Own

William Wordsworth, "The World Is Too Much with Us" [poem]

Using Context to Write Persuasively

Options for the Scope of the Context Strategy

Sample Essay: Competing Parental Philosophies in Sylvia Plath’s "Morning Song"

Sample Essay: Smelling Sri Lanka in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"

Citing Contextual Information

Review

8.  Genre and Form

Genre vs. Verse Form

Making Arguments about Genre

Using Genre to Brainstorm

Using Unfamiliar Verse Genres: The Sonnet

The Sonnet Defined

Petrarchan and Shakespearean Sonnets

Using Genre to Write Persuasively

Learning More about Genres

Review

Now Practice on Your Own

Molly Peacock, "Desire" [poem]

 

9. Social Relevance

Using Social Relevance to Brainstorm

Using Social Relevance to Write Persuasively

Social Relevance and Other Strategies of Literary Analysis

Criticism Changes Over Time

Review

10. Theoretical Lens

Theoretical Lens vs. Context

Applying a Theoretical Lens: Double-Consciousness and Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes, "Theme for English B" [poem]

Sample Synopsis: The Veil and Double-Consciousness in Du Bois’s "Of Our Spiritual Strivings"

Using the Theoretical Lens Strategy to Brainstorm

Step 1: Choose a Theoretical Lens

Step 2: Work to Understand the Surface Meaning of Both Primary and Theoretical Texts

Step 3: Re-read the Primary Text Using the Surface/Depth Strategy

Step 4: Reflect on How the Primary Text Differs from the Theoretical Text

Using a Theoretical Lens to Write Persuasively

Sample Essay: Double-Consciousness in "Theme for English B"

Additional Theoretical Texts

Review

Now Practice on Your Own

11. Joining the Critical Conversation

Repeating the Conversation vs. Contributing Something New to the Conversation

Moving Beyond "Because the Experts Say So"

Entering the Discourse Community of Published Criticism

Add New Evidence

Add New Interpretations

Disagree with Previous Interpretations

Using the Critical Conversation to Brainstorm

Finding Published Criticism

Joining a Conversation When No One Has Written on a Text

Using the Critical Conversation to Write Persuasively

Remind Readers What Has Already Been Said about the Conversation You Are Joining

Distinguish Your Views from Those of the Critics You Cite

Support Your Views

Review

 

12. Using All the Strategies on a Single Work

David Henry Hwang, As the Crow Flies [play]

Now Practice on Your Own

 

PART IV. CRAFTING YOUR ESSAY

13. Developing a Thesis and Organizing Your Essay

Understanding the Role of the Thesis Statement

Analyzing the Well-Organized Essay

Sample Essay: Contradictory Desires in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"

Developing a Thesis by Freewriting and Reverse Outlining

Sample Freewrite: "The Man to Send Rain Clouds"

Developing a Thesis with an Outlining-First Strategy

Moving Between Drafting, Organizing, and Discovering

Review

Sample Essay: Hunter and Hunted: The Mixture of Animal and Human in "Antlers"

 

14. Presenting Textual Evidence Effectively

The Quotation Sandwich

Quoting vs. Paraphrasing

Mechanics of Quoting

Documenting Quotations and Paraphrases

Review

 

15. Revision and Peer Review

Global vs. Local Revision

How to Revise Globally

Revision Technique 1: Outline or Reverse Outline

Revision Technique 2: One-Paragraph Summary

Revision Technique 3: Paragraph Analysis

Receiving Feedback: Peer Review and the Critical Conversation

Review

APPENDIX A: Theoretical Lenses
W. E. B. Du Bois, from The Souls of Black Folk
Jerome Bruner, "Self-Making Narratives" (2003)
Michel Foucault, "Panopticism," from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975)
Annette Kolodny, from The Lay of the Land