- ISBN: 9781319035327 | 1319035329
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 12/9/2016
Coherently discuss (argue) the meaning of literature, why certain books exist, and whether or not any of it maatters by honing your abilities to read carefully, analyze texts and evaluate sources with A Brief Guide to Arguing about Literature.
John Schilb (PhD, State University of New York—Binghamton) is a professor of English at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he holds the Culbertson Chair in Writing. He has coedited Contending with Words: Composition and Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age, and with John Clifford, Writing Theory and Critical Theory. He is author of Between the Lines: Relating Composition Theory and Literary Theory and Rhetorical Refusals: Defying Audiences’ Expectations. John Clifford (PhD, New York University) is a professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Editor of The Experience of Reading: Louis Rosenblatt and Reader-Response Theory, he has published numerous scholarly articles on pedagogy, critical theory, and composition theory, most recently in College English; Relations, Locations, Positions: Composition Theory for Writing Teachers; and in The Norton Book of Composition Studies.
A Brief Guide to Arguing about LiteraturePreface for Instructors
Contents by Genre
1. What is Argument?
Paul Goldberger, Disconnected Urbanism
New Understanding Rhetoric
The Elements of Argument
Sample Argument for Analysis
David W. Barno, A New Moral Compact
Writing a Response to an Argument
New Strategies for Analyzing an Argument So You Can Write a Response to It
An Argument for Analysis
New Regina Rini, Should We Rename Institutions that Honor Dead Racists?
New 2. Writing Effective Arguments
Strategies for Developing an Effective Style of Argument
Structuring Your Argument; Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay
Student Response to an Argument
Justin Korzack, How to Slow Down the Rush to War
Arguments for Analysis
New Lee Siegel, Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans
New Sophia McDougall, All Princesses Know Kung Fu
3. How Do You Argue about Literature?
What Is Literature?
Why Study Literature in a College Writing Course?
Two Stories for Analysis
Daniel Orozco, Orientation (story)
Jamaica Kincaid, Girl (story)
Strategies for Making Arguments about Literature
Sample Student Argument about Literature
Ann Schumwalt, The Mother’s Mixed Messages in “Girl”
Looking at Literature as Argument
John Milton, When I Consider How My Light Is Spent (poem)
Robert Frost, Mending Wall (poem)
Literature and Current Issues
New Rivka Galchen, Usl at the Stadium (story)
New Jon Ronson, from “How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life (argument)
New Jennifer Jacquet, from Is Shame Necessary? (argument)
4.. The Reading Process
Strategies for Close Reading
A Poem for Analysis
Sharon Olds, “Summer Solstice, New York City” (poem)
Applying the Strategies
Reading Closely by Annotating
X. J. Kennedy, Death of a Window Washer (poem)
New Further Strategies for Close Reading
New Identify Characters’ Emotions to Get Ideas
New Edward Hirsch, Execution (poem)
Use Topics of Literary Studies to Get Ideas
Lynda Hull, Night Waitress (poem)
T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (poem)
New Allison Alsup, Old Houses (story)
5. The Writing Process
William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper (poem)
Strategies for Exploring
Strategies for Planning
Strategies for Composing
First Draft of a Student Paper
Abby Hazelton, The Passage of Time in “The Solitary Reaper”
Strategies for Revising
A Checklist for Revising
Revised Draft of a Student Paper
Abby Hazelton, The Passage of Time in “The Solitary Reaper”
Strategies for Writing a Comparative Paper
Don Paterson, Two Trees (poem)
Luisa A. Igloria, Regarding History (poem)
List Similarities and Differences
Consider “Weighting” Your Comparison
A Student Comparative Paper
Jeremy Cooper,” Don Paterson’s Criticism of Nature’s Owners”
6. Writing about Literary Genres
Writing about Stories
Eudora Welty, A Visit of Charity
The Elements of Short Fiction
Plot and Structure/Point of View / Characters /Setting /Imagery/Language/Theme
Final Draft of a Student Paper
Tanya Vincent, The Real Meaning of Charity in “A Visit of Charity”
Writing about Poems
Mary Oliver, Singapore
Yusef Komunyakaa, Blackberries
Edwin Arlington Robinson, The Mill
The Elements of Poetry
Speaker and Tone / Diction and Syntax / Figures of Speech / Sound/ Rhythm and Meter /Theme
Final Draft of a Student Paper
Michaela Fiorucci, “Negotiating Boundaries”
Comparing Poems and Pictures
Analyzing Visual Art/ Writing an Essay that Compares Literature and Art/ A Sample Paper Comparing a Poem and a Picture
Karl Magnusson, Lack of Motion and Speech in Rolando Perez’s “Office at Night”
Edward Hopper, “Office at Night”
Rolando Perez, “Office at Night
Writing about Plays
August Strindberg, The Stronger
The Elements of Drama
Plot and Structure/ Characters/ Stage Directions and Setting /Imagery /Language/ Theme
Final Draft of a Student Paper
Trish Carlisle, “Which Is the Stronger Actress in August Strindberg’s Play?”
7. Writing Researched Arguments
New Begin Your Research by Giving It Direction
Search for Sources in the Library and Online
Evaluate the Sources
New Record Your Sources’ Key Details
Strategies for Integrating Sources
New Avoid Plagiarism
Strategies for Documenting Sources (MLA Format)
MLA In-Text Citation
MLA Works Cited
Three Annotated Student Researched Arguments
An Argument that Uses a Literary Work to Examine Social Issues
Sarah Michaels, “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a Guide to Social Factors in Postpartum Depression
An Argument that Deals with Existing Interpretations of a Literary Work
Katie Johnson, The Meaning of the Husband’s Fainting in “The Yellow Wall-Paper”
An Argument that Places a Literary Work in Historical and Cultural Context
Brittany Thomas, The Relative Absence of the Human Touch in “The Yellow Wall-Paper”
Contexts for Research: Confinement, Mental Illness and “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
Cultural Contexts
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”
S. Weir Mitchell, From The Evolution of the Rest Treatment
John Harvey Kellogg, From The Ladies’ Guide in Health and Disease
8. Writing with Critical Approaches to Literature
Contemporary Schools of Criticism
New Criticism; Feminist Criticism; Psychoanalytic Criticism; Marxist Criticism; Deconstruction; Reader-Response Criticism; Postcolonial Criticism; New Historicism; Queer Theory
Working with the Critical Approaches
James Joyce, Counterparts (story)
Molly Fry, A Refugee at Home (student paper)
New James Joyce, Eveline PART TWO: Literature and Arguments
9. Families
Mothers and Daughters: Stories
Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing
Amy Tan, Two Kinds
Alice Walker, Everyday Use
Siblings in Conflict: Stories
Tobias Wolff, The Rich Brother
James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues
Returning Home from War: Stories
New Ernest Hemingway, Soldier’s Home
New Lauren Groff, Good People
Reconciling with Fathers: Poems
Lucille Clifton, forgiving my father
Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays
Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz
Li-Young Lee, My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud
Grandparents and Legacies: Poems
Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Grandfather at the Indian Health Clinic
Nikki Giovanni, Legacies
Linda Hogan, Heritage
Alberto Ríos, Mi Abuelo
Judith Ortiz Cofer, Claims
Gays and Lesbians in Families: Poems
Essex Hemphill, Commitments
Audre Lorde, Who Said It Was Simple
Minnie Bruce Pratt, Two Small-Sized Girls
New Richard Blanco, Queer Theory: According to My Grandmother
Literature and Current Issues: Should Working Women “Lean in”?
New Deborah Garrison, Working Late on a Tuesday Night (poem)
Arguments on the Issue
New Sheryl Sandberg, from Lean In
New Rosa Brooks, Recline, Don’t Lean In: Why I Hate Sheryl Sandberg
Literature and Current Issues: Why Do Children Rebel Against Parental Expectations?
New Hanif Kureishi, My Son the Fanatic (story)
Arguments on the Issue
New Roger Cohen, Why ISIS Trumps Freedom
New Abdelkader Benali, From Teenage Angst to Jihad
Arguments about a Poem: “Daddy”
Sylvia Plath, Daddy
Arguments about the Poem
Mary Lynn Broe, From Protean Poetic: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath
Lynda K. Bundtzen, From Plath's Incarnations
Steven Gould Axelrod, From Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words
Tim Kendall, from Sylvia Plath: A Critical Study
Contexts for Research: Human Obligations, Robot Consciousness, and “The Long Years”
New Ray Bradbury, The Long Years (story)
Contexts for Research
New Eric Schwitzgebel, We Have a Greater Moral Obligation to Robots than to Humans
New Kenneth Chang, Can Robots become Conscious?
New Dan Falk, How Long Before Robots Can Think Like Us?
New A. M. Turing, From “Computing Machinery and Intelligence
10. Love
Romantic Dreams: Stories
James Joyce, Araby
John Updike, A & P
New Leslie Marmon Silko, Yellow Woman
Is This Love? Stories
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily
Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
True Love: Poems
William Shakespeare, Let me not to the marriage of true minds
John Keats, Bright Star
New Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee?
e. e. cummings, somewhere i have never travelled
Passionate Love: Poems
Michael S. Harper, Discovery
Susan Minot, My Husband’s Back
Melancholy Loves: Poems
New Edna St. Vincent Millay, What My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why
W.H. Auden, Funeral Blues
New Pablo Neruda, The Song of Despair
New Robin Becker, Morning Poem
Seductive Arguments: Poems
New John Donne, The Flea
Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress
Literature and Current Issues: Are Millennials Narcissists?
New Tony Hoagland, What Narcissism Means to Me
Arguments on the Issue
New Brooke Lea Foster, The Persistent Myth of the Narcissistic Millennial
New Emily Esfahani Smith and Jennifer Aaker, Millennial Searchers
New Dr. Keith Ablow, We Are Raising a Generation of Deluded Narcissists
New Colson Whitehead, How ‘You do You’ Perfectly Captures Our Narcissistic Culture
Literature and Current Issues: Why Marry?
Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour (story)
Arguments on the Issue
Laura Kipnis, Against Love
Meghan O’Rourke, The Marriage Trap
New Bob Morris, Gay Marriage? How Straight
Arguments about a Play: Othello
William Shakespeare, Othello
Arguments about the Play:
A.C. Bradley, The Noble Othello
Millicent Bell, Othello’s Jealousy
Jeffrie G. Murphy, Jealousy, Shame, and RivalContexts for Research: Social Disruption, Personal Anxiety, and “Dover Beach”
Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach
Contexts for Research:
New Charles Dickens, from Hard Times
New Friedrich Engels, from The Condition of the Working Class in England
New James Eli Adams, Narrating Nature: Darwin
11. Freedom and Confinement
Oppressive Traditions: Stories
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery
New Caitlin Horrocks, The Sleep
Freedom for Animals: Poems
William Blake, The Tyger
D. H. Lawrence, Snake
Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish
Dean Young, Clam Ode
Trapped in Stereotypes: Poems
Chrystos, Today Was a Bad Day Like TB
Louise Erdrich, Dear John Wayne
Dwight Okita, In Response to Executive Order 9066
David Hernandez, Pigeons
Pat Mora, Legal Alien
Toi Derricotte, Black Boys Play the Classics
Naomi Shihab Nye, Blood A Creative Confinement: Poems by Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson, Wild Nights--Wild Nights!
New Emily Dickinson, Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--
New Emily Dickinson, Much Madness is divinest Sense
New Emily Dickinson, I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Domestic Prisons: Plays
Susan Glaspell, Trifles
Lynn Nottage, POOF!
Literature and Current Issues: Does Our Happiness Depend on Others’ Misery?
Ursula LeGuin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Arguments on the Issue
New David Brooks, The Child in the Basement
New John R. Ehrenfeld, The Error of Trying to Measure Good and Bad
Literature and Current Issues: What Aren’t You Free to Say?
New Ariel Dorfman, The Gospel According to Garcia (story)
Arguments on the Issue
New Catherine Rampell, “Free Speech is Flunking Out on College Campuses”
New Geoffrey R. Stone and Will Creeley, “Restoring Free Speech on Campus”
New Nicholas Kristof, “Mizzou, Yale and Free Speech”
Contexts for Research: Domesticity, Women’s Rights, and A Doll’s House
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House
Contexts for Research
New Henrik Ibsen, Memorandum
New August Strindberg, Woman in A Doll’s House
New Emma Goldman, Review of A Doll’s House
New Joan Templeton, The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen
New Susanna Rustin, Why A Doll’s House Is More Relevant than Ever
12. Crime and Justice
Discovering Injustice: Stories
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown
Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson
New Ha Jin, Saboteur
Racial Injustice: Poems
Countee Cullen, Incident
Natasha Trethewey, Incident
Justice for Workers: Poems
New Philip Levine, What Work Is
New Marge Piercy, The Secretary Chant
New Philip Shultz, Greed
Punishments: Poems
Seamus Heaney, Punishment
Carolyn Forché, The Colonel
He Said/She Said: Poems
Robert Browning, My Last Duchess
Gabriel Spera, My Ex-Husband
A Dream of Justice: Poems by Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes, Open Letter to the South
Langston Hughes, Theme for English B
Langston Hughes, Harlem
How Can Injustice Be Resisted? Plays
Sophocles, Antigone
Ida Fink, The Table
Literature and Current Issues: Should Neuroscience Redefine Criminal Law?
New Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart (story)
Arguments on the Issue
David Eagleman, The Brain on Trial (argument)
Raymond Tallis, Why Blame Me? It Was All My Brain’s Fault (argument)
Literature and Contemporary Debates: How Just Is Capital Punishment?
Sherman Alexie, Capital Punishment (poem)
Arguments on the Issue
New George Will, "Capital Punishment's Slow Death"
New Bill Otis, George Will's Limp Case Against the Death Penalty
New Charles J. Ogletree, “Condemned to Die Because He’s Black”
Arguments about a Story: “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Arguments about the Story
Flannery O’Connor, from Mystery and Manners
Martha Stephens, from The Question of Flannery O’Connor
Stephen Bandy, from “’One of My Babies’: The Misfit and the Grandmother
John Desmond, from “Flannery O’Connor’s Misfit and the Mystery of Evil”
Contexts for Research: Innocence, Evil, and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”
Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been
Contexts for Research
New Don Moser, The Pied Piper of Tucson
New Joyce Carol Oates, Smooth Talk: Short Story into Film
New Margaret Talbot, from Gone Girl: The Extraordinary Resilience of Elizabeth Smart
13. Journeys
Fairy Tale Journeys: Stories
Charles Perrault, Little Red Riding Hood
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Little Red Cap
Angela Carter, The Company of Wolves
Wartime Journeys: Stories
Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
New Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Roads Taken: Poems by Robert Frost
Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost, Acquainted with the Night
Visionary Journeys: Poems
New Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan
New Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias
New William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium
Final Journeys: Poems
Mary Oliver, When Death Comes
John Donne, Death Be Not Proud
Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death
Literature and Current Issues: Do Immigrants Take Jobs from Native-Born Workers?
New Jimmy Santiago Baca, So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans (poem)
Arguments on the Issue
New Steven Camarota, Unskilled Workers Lose Out to Immigrants
New Maria E. Enchautegui, Immigrants Are Replacing, Not Displacing, Workers
New Ted Widmer, The Immigration Dividend
Literature and Current Issues: What Makes a Woman?
New Adrienne Rich, Diving Into the Wreck
Arguments on the Issue
New Elinor Burkett, What Makes a Woman?
New Jaclyn Friedman Who Decides What Makes a Woman?
New Leela Ginelle, Trans Women are Women. Why Do We have to Keep Saying This?
Contexts for Research: Race, Social Equality, and “Battle Royal”
Ralph Ellison, “Battle Royal”
Contexts for Research:
Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Exposition Address
W.E. B. DuBois, Of Mr. Booker T. Washington
Gunnar Myrdal, Social Equality
Index of Authors, Titles, Terms, and First Lines
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