Writing About Literature

by Roberts, Edgar V.

• ISBN13: 9780130978011
• ISBN10: 0130978019
• Edition: 10th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Pearson College Div

Summary

"Writing about Literature "serves as a hands-on guide for writing about literature, thus justifying the integration of literature and composition. The reading of literature encourages students to think, and the use of literary topics gives instructors a viable way to combine writing and literary study.

Table of Contents

To the Instructor	xiii
Preliminary The Process of Reading, Responding to, and Writing About Literature	1	(45)
What Is Literature, and Why Do We Study It?	1	(1)
Types of Literature: The Genres	2	(2)
Reading Literature and Responding to It Actively	4	(9)
The Necklace	5	(8)
Guy De Maupassant
Reading and Responding in a Notebook or Computer File	13	(3)
Writing Essays on Literary Topics	16	(1)
Three Major Stages in Thinking and Writing: Discovering Ideas, Making Initial Drafts, and Completing the Essay	17	(1)
The Discovery of Ideas (``Brainstorming'')	17	(6)
Assembling Materials and Beginning to Write	23	(3)
Drafting Your Essay	26	(4)
Writing a First Draft	30	(1)
Developing an Outline	31	(2)
Demonstrative Essay, First Draft: How Setting in ``The Necklace'' Is Related to the Character of Mathilde	32	(1)
Developing and Strengthening Essays through Revision	33	(4)
Checking Development and Organization	37	(2)
Using Exact, Comprehensive, and Forceful Language	39	(5)
Demonstrative Essay, Improved Draft: How Maupassant Uses Setting in ``The Necklace'' to Show the Character of Mathilde	42	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	44	(1)
Essay Commentaries	44	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing the Writing Process	44	(2)
Writing About Likes and Dislikes Responding to Literature	46	(10)
Recording Your Responses in Your Computer File, Notebook, or Journal	47	(1)
Stating Reasons for Favorable Responses	47	(1)
Stating Reasons for Unfavorable Responses	48	(3)
Writing About Your Responses of Likes or Dislikes	51	(2)
Demonstrative Essay: Some Reasons for Liking Maupassant's ``The Necklace''	52	(1)
Commentary on the Essay	53	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Responses to Literature	54	(2)
Writing About a Close Reading Analyzing Entire Short Poems or Selected Passages from Prose Fiction and Longer Poems	56	(10)
The Purpose and Requirements of a Close-Reading Essay	56	(1)
The Location of the Passage in a Prose Work or Longer Poem	57	(1)
Writing an Essay on the Close Reading of a Poem	58	(3)
Demonstrative Essay: A Close Reading of Thomas Hardy's ``The Man He Killed''	59	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	61	(1)
Writing About the Close Reading of a Passage of Prose Fiction or Narrative Poetry	61	(3)
Demonstrative Essay: A Close Reading of a Paragraph from O'Connor's ``First Confession''	63	(1)
Commentary on the Essay	64	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing the Close Reading of a Poem or Prose Passage	65	(1)
Writing About Character The People in Literature	66	(12)
Character Traits	67	(1)
How Authors Disclose Character in Literature	68	(1)
Types of Characters: Round and Flat	69	(2)
Reality and Probability: Verisimilitude	71	(1)
Writing About Character	72	(4)
Demonstrative Essay: The Character of Minnie Wright in Susan Glaspell's Trifles	74	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	76	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Character	77	(1)
Writing About Point of View The Position or Stance of the Work's Narrator or Speaker	78	(16)
An Exercise in Point of View: Reporting an Accident	79	(1)
Conditions That Affect Point of View	80	(2)
Determining a Work's Point of View	82	(3)
Mingling Points of View	85	(1)
Summary: Guidelines for Point of View	85	(2)
Writing About Point of View	87	(5)
Demonstrative Essay: Bierce's Control over Point of View in ``An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge''	90	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	92	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Point of View	93	(1)
Writing About Plot and Structure The Development and Organization of Narratives and Drama	94	(14)
Plot: The Motivation and Causation of Narratives and Plays	94	(2)
Writing About the Plot of a Story or Play	96	(3)
Demonstrative Essay (on Plot): Conflicting Values in Thomas Hardy's ``The Three Strangers''	97	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	99	(1)
The Structure of Narratives and Drama	99	(1)
Formal Categories of Structure	100	(1)
Formal and Actual Structure	101	(2)
Writing About Structure in Narratives and Drama	103	(3)
Demonstrative Essay (on Structure): Conflict and Suspense in Thomas Hardy's ``The Three Strangers''	104	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	106	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Plot and Structure	107	(1)
Writing About Setting The Background of Place, Objects, and Culture in Literature	108	(9)
What Is Setting?	108	(1)
The Importance of Setting in Literature	109	(3)
Writing About Setting	112	(3)
Demonstrative Essay: Poe's Use of Interior Setting to Augment the Eeriness of ``The Masque of the Red Death''	114	(1)
Commentary on the Essay	115	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Setting	116	(1)
Writing About an Idea or a Theme The Meanings and the Messages in Literature	117	(10)
Ideas and Assertions	117	(1)
Ideas and Values	118	(1)
The Place of Ideas in Literature	118	(1)
How to Find Ideas	119	(3)
Writing About a Major Idea in Literature	122	(3)
Demonstrative Essay: The Idea of Love's Power in Chekhov's The Bear	124	(1)
Commentary on the Essay	125	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Ideas	126	(1)
Writing About Metaphors and Similes A Source of Depth and Range in Literature	127	(10)
Metaphors and Similes: The Major Figures of Speech	127	(2)
Characteristics of Metaphorical Language	129	(2)
``On First Looking into Chapman's Homer''	130	(1)
John Keats
Writing About Metaphors and Similes	131	(4)
Demonstrative Essay (on Metaphors): A Study of Shakespeare's Metaphors in ``Sonnet 30: When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought''	134	(1)
Commentary on the Essay	135	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Metaphors and Similes	136	(1)
Writing About Symbolism and Allusions Windows to a Wide Expanse of Meaning	137	(11)
Symbolism	137	(1)
Symbolism and Meanings	138	(2)
Allusion and Symbolism	140	(1)
Studying for Symbols and Allusions	140	(1)
Writing About Symbolism and Allusions	141	(5)
Demonstrative Essay: Symbolism and Allusion in William Butler Yeats's ``The Second Coming''	144	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	146	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Symbolism and Allusions	146	(2)
Writing About Tone The Writer's Control over Attitudes and Feeling	148	(12)
Tone and Attitudes	149	(1)
Tone and Humor	150	(1)
Tone and Irony	151	(2)
Writing About Tone	153	(5)
Demonstrative Essay: Chopin's Use of Irony in ``The Story of an Hour''	156	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	158	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Tone	159	(1)
Writing About a Problem Challenges to Overcome in Reading	160	(7)
Strategies for Developing an Essay About a Problem	160	(3)
Writing About a Problem	163	(2)
Demonstrative Essay: The Problem of Frost's Use of the Term Desert Places in the Poem ``Desert Places''	164	(1)
Commentary on the Essay	165	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Literary Problems	166	(1)
Writing About Poetic Form The Shape of the Poem	167	(16)
Characteristics of Closed-Form Poetry	167	(1)
Types of Closed Forms	168	(5)
The Eagle	170	(3)
Alfred
Lord Tennyson
The Use of the Closed Form to Shape and Polish Meaning	173	(1)
Sonnet 116: ``Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds''	173	(1)
William Shakespeare
Open-Form Poetry	174	(2)
Reconciliation	175	(1)
Walt Whitman
Visual Poetry	176	(1)
Easter Wings	176	(177)
George Herbert
Writing About Form in Poetry	177	(4)
Demonstrative Essay: Form and Meaning in George Herbert's ``Virtue''	179	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	181	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Poetic Form	181	(2)
Writing Essays of Comparison-Contrast and Extended Comparison-Contrast Learning by Seeing Literary Works Together	183	(14)
Guidelines for the Comparison-Contrast Method	184	(3)
The Extended Comparison-Contrast Essay	187	(1)
Writing a Comparison-Contrast Essay	187	(4)
Demonstrative Essay (Comparing and Contrasting Two Works): The Treatment of Responses to War in Amy Lowell's ``Patterns'' and Wilfred Owen's ``Anthem for Doomed Youth''	189	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	191	(4)
Demonstrative Essay (Extended Comparison-Contrast): Literary Treatments of Conflicts Between Private and Public Life	192	(3)
Commentary on the Essay	195	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Comparison and Contrast	196	(1)
Writing a Review Essay Developing Ideas for General or Particular Audiences	197	(10)
Writing a Review Essay	197	(4)
First Demonstrative Essay (A Review for General Readers): Hawthorne's Story ``Young Goodman Brown'': A View of Mistaken Zeal	200	(1)
Commentary on the Essay	201	(2)
Second Demonstrative Essay (Designed for a Particular Group; Here, a Religious Group): Hawthorne's Story ``Young Goodman Brown'' and Religious Intolerance	201	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	203	(2)
Third Demonstrative Essay (A Personal Review for a General Audience): Security and Hawthorne's Story ``Young Goodman Brown''	203	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	205	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing the Writing of Reviews	205	(2)
Writing About Film Drama on the Silver Screen, Television Set, and Computer Monitor	207	(15)
A Thumbnail History of Film	207	(2)
Stage Plays and Film	209	(1)
The Aesthetics of Film	210	(1)
The Techniques of Film	210	(5)
Writing About a Film	215	(4)
Demonstrative Essay (on Film): Welles's Citizen Kane: Whittling a Giant Down to Size	217	(2)
Commentary on the Essay	219	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Film	220	(2)
Writing Examinations on Literature	222	(12)
Answering the Questions That Are Asked	222	(2)
Systematic Preparation	224	(3)
Two Basic Types of Questions About Literature	227	(7)
Writing and Documenting the Research Essay Using Extra Resources for Understanding	234	(30)
Selecting a Topic	234	(2)
Setting up a Bibliography	236	(1)
Online Library Services	237	(1)
Taking Notes and Paraphrasing Material	238	(10)
Documenting Your Work	248	(4)
Strategies for Organizing Ideas in Your Research Essay	252	(10)
Demonstrative Research Essay: The Structure of Mansfield's ``Miss Brill''	254	(8)
Commentary on the Essay	262	(1)
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing How to Undertake Research Essays	263	(1)
Appendix A Critical Approaches Important in the Study of Literature	264	(15)
Moral/Intellectual	265	(1)
Topical/Historical	266	(1)
New Critical/Formalist	267	(2)
Structuralist	269	(1)
Feminist	270	(1)
Economic Determinist/Marxist	271	(1)
Psychological/Psychoanalytic	272	(2)
Archetypal/Symbolic/Mythic	274	(1)
Deconstructionist	275	(1)
Reader-Response	276	(3)
Appendix B The Use of References and Tenses in Writing About Literature	279	(9)
Integrating Passages and Ideas into Your Essay	279	(5)
Using the Present Tense of Verbs When Referring to Actions and Ideas in a Work	284	(1)
MLA Recommendations for Documenting Electronic Sources	285	(3)
Appendix C Works Used for Demonstrative Essays and References	288	(80)
Stories
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge	288	(6)
Ambrose Bierce
The Story of an Hour	294	(2)
Kate Chopin
The Three Strangers	296	(13)
Thomas Hardy
Young Goodman Brown	309	(9)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Miss Brill	318
Katherine Mansfield
The Necklace [in Chapter 1]	5	(316)
Guy de Maupassant
First Confession	321	(5)
Frank O'Connor
The Masque of the Red Death	326	(5)
Edgar Allan Poe
Poems
Dover Beach	331	(1)
Matthew Arnold
The Tyger	332	(1)
William Blake
Kubla Khan	333	(1)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Desert Places	334	(1)
Robert Frost
Channel Firing	335	(1)
Thomas Hardy
The Man He Killed	336
Thomas Hardy
Easter Wings [in Chapter 13]	176	(161)
George Herbert
Virtue	337	(1)
George Herbert
Negro	337	(1)
Langston Hughes
Bright Star	338
John Keats
On First Looking into Chapman's Homer [in Chapter 9]	130	(209)
John Keats
Rhine Boat Trip	339	(1)
Irving Layton
Patterns	339	(3)
Amy Lowell
Anthem for Doomed Youth	342	(1)
Wilfred Owen
Ballad of Birmingham	343	(1)
Dudley Randall
Echo	344	(1)
Christina Rossetti
Sonnet 30: When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought	345	(1)
William Shakespeare
Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayest in Me Behold	345
William Shakespeare
Sonnet 116: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds [in Chapter 13]	173
William Shakespeare
The Eagle [in Chapter 13]	170	(176)
Alfred
Lord Tennyson
The Boxes	346
Shelly Wagner
Reconciliation [in Chapter 13]	175	(172)
Walt Whitman
Lines Written in Early Spring	347	(1)
William Wordsworth
The Second Coming	348	(1)
William Butler Yeats
Plays
The Bear: A Joke in One Act	349	(9)
Anton Chekhov
Trifles	358	(10)
Susan Glaspell
A Glossary of Important Literary Terms	368	(10)
Acknowledgments	378	(1)
Index of Authors, Topics, Directors, Producers, and Chapter Titles	379

Excerpts

To the Instructor In this tenth edition ofWriting About Literature,I have kept and strengthened those features that so many of you have valued over the years. As in the past, I base my approach not on genres, with specific assignments to be determined, but rather on topics for full-length essays on texts in any genre. While the constant emphasis is on writing complete essays about literature, the chapters may also be used as starting points for classroom study and discussion, and thus may also be adapted for shorter writing assignments. In a one-semester course the book offers selective choices for study and writing; whereas in a two- or three-semester sequence, it is extensive enough to offer the possibility of complete or close-to-complete use. The various chapter discussions may actually be considered as essay assignments, for that is how they were developed. Many years ago, when I was just starting out as a teacher of literature, and, inevitably, as a teacher of writing, I learned that there was a direct connection between the ways I made my assignments and the quality of student work. The more I explained to students what I wanted from them, the better their final essays turned out to be. Soon, however, I found myself taking up entire classroom periods in making assignments, and it was then that I began to write and hand out my directions, thus saving considerable classroom time. When I put these directions together,Writing Themes About Literature,nowWriting About Literature,was the result, first published in 1964. Every assignment was tried out in the classroom, and I was able to make changes and improvements based on the questions I was asked and also based on the written assignments my students turned in. Organization As in each past edition ofWriting About Literature,each chapter consists of two parts. The first is a discussion of a literary approach, and the second consists of suggestions for writing, together with a demonstrative essay or essays showing how students might deal with the approach. A major characteristic preserved in this edition is that, after the preliminary discussion in Chapter 1, the chapters are arranged in a loose order of increasing difficulty. Beginning with Chapter 2, which helps students connect their reading with their responses and preferences, the chapters contain topics relevant to all the genres. The comparison-contrast chapter (Chapter 14), for example, illustrates the ways in which the earlier techniques may be focused on any of the chapter-title topics in the book. The chapter also demonstrates how an extensive comparison-contrast technique may be applied simultaneously to fiction, poetry, and drama. The later chapters, such as those on form in poetry, on film, and on research (Chapters 13,16, and 18, respectively), are increasingly involved, but they also combine and build on the various techniques of analysis presented in the earlier chapters. Although you might assign the chapters in sequence throughout your course, you may also choose them according to your objectives and needs. One instructor, for example, might pass over the earlier chapters and go directly to the later ones. Another might choose the chapter on comparison-contrast for separate assignments such as comparative studies of symbolism, structure, character, and point of view. Still another might use just a few of the chapters, assigning them two or more times until students overcome initial difficulties. No matter how the chapters are used, the two parts--discussion and illustration--enable students to improve their skills as readers and writers. The illustrative parts of the chapters--the demonstrative essays--are presented in the belief that the wordimitationneed not be preceded by adjectives likeslavishandmere.These demonstrative essays represent suggestions and guidance for thematic de