Reading and Writing About Literature

Brief and affordable, Reading and Writing About Literature acquaints you with strategies for reading literature while explaining the writing process for fiction, poetry, drama, and research papers.

Janet E. Gardner (PhD, University of Massachusetts, Amherst) was formerly an associate professor of English at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, where she taught courses in drama, British and world literature, and writing. She has published numerous articles, reviews, and chapters on contemporary drama, especially modern British drama and the work of Caryl Churchill. She has received several grants and awards for research into current teaching technologies.

Joanne Diaz is an associate professor in the English department at Illinois Wesleyan University.  Her collections of poetry include My Favorite Tyrants (winner of the Brittingham Prize, University of Wisconsin Press, 2014) and The Lessons (winner of the Gerald Cable First Book Award, Silverfish Review Press, 2011). Her poems have appeared in AGNI, The American Poetry Review, At Length, The Missouri Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, and Third Coast. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation.  As a contributor to the Bedford/St. Martin’s LitBits Blog, she shares her insights on literature, writing, and pedagogy.

Preface                                
 
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        
EMILY DICKINSON, "Because I could not stop for Death" (Annotated Poem)  
Asking Critical Questions of Literature
BEN JONSON, "On My First Son" (Annotated Poem)      
Checklist for Good Reading 

3. THE WRITING PROCESS          
Prewriting
The 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 
Manuscript Form     

4. COMMON WRITING ASSIGNMENTS  
Summary
Response
         JAMAICA KINCAID, “Girl”
         STUDENT ESSAY: Tom Lyons, "A Boy's View of 'Girl'"
Explication  
         ROBERT HERRICK, "Upon Julia's Clothes"
         STUDENT ESSAY: Jessica Barnes, "Poetry in Motion: Herrick's 'Upon Julia's Clothes'"      
Analysis       
         ROBERT BROWNING, “My Last Duchess”
         STUDENT ESSAY: Adam Walker, Possessed by the Need for Possession: Browning's '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
Stories for Analysis
         CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, “The Yellow Wallpaper”     
         KATE CHOPIN, "The Story of an Hour" (Annotated Story)         
Questions on the Stories     
         STUDENT ESSAY: An Essay that Compares and Contrasts: Melanie Smith, "Good Husbands in Bad Marriages"

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

7. WRITING ABOUT PLAYS        
Elements of Drama 
How to Read a Play 
Director's Questions for Play Analysis
         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
Writing the Paper
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: Jarrad S. Nunes, "Emily Dickinson's 'Because I could not stop for Death': Challenging Readers' Expectations"

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        
 
Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms    
Index of Terms        

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