Reading and Writing About Literature: A Portable Guide / Edition 3

by Janet E. Gardner

Overview

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Far less expensive than comparable guides, Reading and Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide is an ideal supplement for writing courses where literature anthologies and individual literary works that lack writing instruction are assigned. This brief guide introduces strategies for reading literature, explains the writing process and common writing assignments for literature courses, provides instruction in writing about fiction, poetry, and drama, and includes coverage of writing a research paper and of literary criticism and theory. This volume in the popular Bedford/St. Martin's series of Portable Anthologies and Guides offers a trademark combination of high quality and great value.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781457606496
Publisher:	Bedford/St. Martin's
Publication date:	08/03/2012
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.48(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.34(d)

About the Author

Janet E. Gardner, an associate professor of English at University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, has published numerous essays 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, and is at work on a nationwide study of drama and theatre pedagogy. She is the editor of 12 Plays: A Portable Anthology and co-editor of Literature: A Portable Anthology (both with Bedford/St. Martin’s).

Table of Contents

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

Annotating

*EMILY DICKINSON, "Because I could not stop for Death" (Annotated Poem)

Notetaking,

Journal Keeping,

Using Reference Materials,

Asking Critical Questions of Literature

Questions about the Text,

BEN JONSON, "On My First Son" (Annotated Poem)

Questions about the Author

Questions about the Cultural Context

Questions about the Reader

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

Introductions, Conclusions, and Transitions

Introductions

Conclusions

Transitions

Revising and Editing

*Global Revision

*Global Revision Checklist

*Local Revision

*Local Revision Checklist

Final Editing and Proofreading

Final Editing Checklist

Peer Editing and Workshops

Tips for Writing about Literature

Using Quotations Effectively

Adding to or Altering a Quotation

Omitting Words from a Quotation

Quotations within Quotations

Quotation Marks with Other Punctuation

Quoting from Stories

*Short Quotations

*Long Quotations

Quoting from Poems

*Short Quotations

*Long Quotations

Quoting from Plays

*Short Single-Speaker Passages

*Longer of More Complex Passages

*Verse Drama

Tips for Quoting

Manuscript Form

4. COMMON WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

Summary

*Response

*JAMAICA KINCAID, "Girl"

*TOM LYONS, "A Boy's View of 'Girl'"

Explication

ROBERT HERRICK, "Upon Julia's Clothes"

JESSICA BARNES, "Poetry in Motion: Herrick's 'Upon Julia's Clothes'"

Analysis

ROBERT BROWNING, "My Last Duchess"

ADAM WALKER, "Possessed by the Need for Possession: Browning's 'My Last Duchess'"

Comparison and Contrast

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, "After Death"

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"

*Midterm Essay

5. WRITING ABOUT STORIES

Elements of Fiction

Plot

Characters

Point of View

Setting

Theme

Symbolism

Style

Stories for Analysis

KATE CHOPIN, "The Story of an Hour" (Annotated Story)

CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Questions on the Stories

Sample Paper: 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

*Rhyme

*Assonance and Consonance

*Meter

*Form

*Stanzas

*Lineation

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

Sample Paper: An Explication

PATRICK MCCORKLE, "Shakespeare Defines Love"

7. WRITING ABOUT PLAYS

Elements of Drama

*Plot, Character, and Theme

*Diction

*Melody and Spectacle

*Setting

*How to Read a Play

*Director's Questions for Play Analysis

A Play for Analysis

SUSAN GLASPELL, Trifles

Questions about the Play

Sample Paper: An Analysis

SARAH JOHNSON, "Moral Ambiguity and Character Development in Trifles"

8. WRITING A LITERARY RESEARCH PAPER

Finding Sources

Online Indexes

Periodicals

Books

Interlibrary Loan

The Internet

Evaluating Sources

Working with Sources

Quoting,

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Commenting

Keeping Track of Your Sources

Writing the Paper

Refining Your Thesis

Organizing Your Evidence

Starting Your Draft

Revising

Editing and Proofreading

Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism

What to Document and What Not to Document

Documenting Sources: MLA Format

In-Text Citations

Preparing Your Works Cited List

*General Guidelines on Preparing a Works Cited Page

Sample 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

Index of Terms