A short guide to writing about literature / Sylvan Barnet, William E. Cain.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barnet, Sylvan.

Contributor:

Cain, William E., 1952-

Series:

Short guide series

The short guide series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Rhetoric--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

English language.

Literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Literature.

Criticism--Authorship--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Criticism.

Exposition (Rhetoric)--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Exposition (Rhetoric).

Report writing--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Report writing.

Criticism--Authorship.

Genre:

Handbooks and manuals.

Physical Description:

xx, 380 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm.

Edition:

Tenth edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Pearson/Longman, [2006]

Summary:

The tenth edition of A Short Guide to Writing about Literature continues to offer students sound advice on how to become critical thinkers and enrich their reading response through accessible, step-by-step instruction. This highly respected text is ideal as a supplement to any course where writing about literature or literary studies is emphasized. New to the Tenth Edition: A prefatory "Letter to Students" introduces students to the importance of writing about literature. New Chapter 1: What Is Literature, and Why Write About It? Chapter 2 features new material on critical thinking. Epigraphs have been added to the beginning of each chapter to engage the attention of students and instructors. Seventeen "Rules for Writers" have been addded to various chapters. Tips and practical suggestions are highlighted throughout the text. Four checklists have been added: basic matters, revising for clarity, revising for conciseness, and reviewing a revised draft. Two poems, one by Emily Dickinson and one by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and a fable by Aesop have been added.

Contents:

Letter to Students xix

Part 1 Jumping In

1 What Is Literature, and Why Write About It? 3

/ Aesop "The Vixen and the Lioness" 4

/ Emily Dickinson "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" 5

Why We Write about Literature 6

The Writing Process 8

A Checklist of Basic Matters 11

2 The Writer As Reader: Reading and Responding 12

/ Kate Chopin "Ripe Figs" 12

The Act of Reading 13

Reading with a Pen in Hand 15

Recording Your First Responses 16

Audience and Purpose 17

A Writing Assignment on "Ripe Figs" 18

The Assignment 18

A Sample Essay: "Images of Ripening in Kate Chopin's 'Ripe Figs'" 18

The Student's Analysis Analyzed 20

Critical Thinking and the Study of Literature 21

3 The Reader as Writer: Drafting and Writing 23

Pre-writing: Getting Ideas 23

Annotating a Text 23

More about Getting Ideas: A Second Story by Kate Chopin, "The Story of an Hour" 24

Kate Chopin: "The Story of an Hour" 24

Brainstorming for Ideas for Writing 26

Focused Free Writing 27

Asking Questions 30

Keeping a Journal 31

Critical Thinking: Arguing with Yourself 32

Arriving at a Thesis and Arguing It 34

Writing a Draft 36

A Sample Draft: "Ironies in an Hour" 36

Revising a Draft 38

A Checklist for Revising for Clarity 39

Two Ways of Outlining a Draft 40

A Checklist for Reviewing a Revised Draft 41

Peer Review 42

The Final Version 44

Sample Essay: "Ironies of Life in Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour'" 44

A Brief Overview of the Final Version 46

From First Responses to Final Version: Writing an Essay about a Literary Work 47

4 Two Forms of Criticism: Explication and Analysis 48

Explication 48

A Sample Explication: Langston Hughes's "Harlem" 48

Working toward an Explication of "Harlem" 50

Some Journal Entries 51

The Final Draft: "Langston Hughes's 'Harlem'" 53

A Brief Overview of the Essay 54

Topics for Discussion 55

A Checklist: Drafting an Explication 56

Analysis: The Judgment of Solomon 56

Thinking about Form 58

Thinking about Character 59

Thoughts about Other Possibilities 59

Comparison: An Analytic Tool 60

A Checklist: Revising a Comparison 63

Finding a Topic 64

Considering the Evidence 65

Organizing the Material 65

Communicating Judgments 66

Review: How to Write an Effective Essay 67

1 Pre-writing 67

2 Drafting 67

3 Revising 68

4 Editing 70

Editing Checklist: Questions to Ask Yourself When Editing 70

5 Other Kinds of Writing About Literature 72

A Paraphrase 74

A Parody 76

A Review of a Dramatic Production 77

A Sample Review: "An Effective Macbeth" 78

Part 2 Standing Back: Thinking Critically about Literature

6 Literature, Form, and Meaning 87

Literature and Form 87

Literature and Meaning 89

Arguing about Meaning 90

Form and Meaning 91

/ Robert Frost "The Span of Life" 91

The Literary Canon 93

Literature, Texts, Discourses, and Cultural Studies 94

7 What is Interpretation? 97

Interpretation and Meaning 97

Is the Author's Intention a Guide to Meaning? 98

Characteristics of a Good Interpretation 99

An Example: Interpreting Pat Mora's "Immigrants" 100

Thinking Critically about Literature 102

A Student Interpretation of Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" 103

Sample Essay: "Stopping by Woods and Going On" 104

8 What Is Evaluation? 109

Criticism and Evaluation 110

Evaluative Language and the Canon 110

Are There Critical Standards? 111

Morality and Truth as Standards 111

Other Ways to Think about Truth and Realism 113

9 Writing about Literature: An Overview 116

The Nature of Critical Writing 117

Some Critical Approaches 117

Formalist Criticism (New Criticism) 118

Deconstruction 120

Reader-Response Criticism 121

Archetypal (or Myth) Criticism 123

Historical Criticism 124

Marxist Criticism 125

The New Historicism 125

Biographical Criticism 126

Psychological (or Psychoanalytic) Criticism 127

Gender (Feminist, and Lesbian and Gay) Criticism 128

Part 3 Up Close: Thinking Critically about Literary Forms

10 Writing about Fiction: The World of the Story 139

Plot and Character 139

Writing about a Character 141

A Sample Essay on a Character: "Holden's Kid Sister" 144

A Brief Overview of the Essay 146

Foreshadowing 146

Organizing an Essay on Foreshadowing 148

Setting and Atmosphere 149

Symbolism 150

A Sample Essay on Setting as Symbol: "Spring Comes to Mrs. Mallard" 152

"Spring Comes to Mrs. Mallard" 153

Point of View 157

Third-Person Narrators 157

First-Person Narrators 159

Notes and a Sample Essay on Narrative Point of View in James Joyce's "Araby" 161

"The Three First-Person Narrators of Joyce's 'Araby'" 162

A Brief Overview of the Essay 165

Theme: Vision or Argument? 166

Determining and Discussing the Theme 166

Preliminary Notes and a Sample Essay on the Theme of Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" 167

"Rising into Love" 170

A Brief Overview of the Essay 174

Basing the Paper on Your Own Responses 175

A Note on Secondary Sources 175

A Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing about Fiction 179

A Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing about a Film Based on a Work of Literature 182

11 Writing about Drama 185

A Sample Essay 186

"The Solid Structure of The Glass Menagerie" 187

Types of Plays 192

Tragedy 193

A Checklist: Writing about Tragedy 196

Comedy 196

A Checklist: Writing about Comedy 198

Aspects of Drama 198

Theme 198

Plot 200

A Checklist: Writing about Plot 203

Characterization and Motivation 205

Costumes, Gestures, and Settings 207

A Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing about Drama 211

A Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing about a Film Based on a Play 213

12 Writing about Poetry 214

The Speaker and the Poet 214

/ Emily Dickinson "Wild Nights-Wild Nights" 215

The Language of Poetry: Diction and Tone 216

/ Edna St. Vincent Millay "I, being born a woman and distressed" 217

Writing about the Speaker: Robert Frost's "The Telephone" 219

/ Robert Frost "The Telephone" 219

Journal Entries 221

Figurative Language 224

/ John Keats "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" 225

Preparing to Write about Figurative Language 228

/ William Blake "The Sick Rose" 229

/ Robert Herrick "Upon Julia's Clothes" 230

Annotating and Thinking about a Poem 231

The Student's Finished Essay: "Herrick's Julia, Julia's Herrick" 232

Some Kinds of Structure 234

/ William Wordsworth "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" 235

/ John Donne "The Flea" 236

Verbal Irony 237

Paradox 237

Explication 238

A Sample Explication of Yeats's "The Balloon of the Mind" 239

/ William Butler Yeats "The Balloon of the Mind" 239

Rhythm and Versification: A Glossary for Reference 242

Rhythm 242

Meter 244

Patterns of Sound 247

Stanzaic Patterns 248

Blank Verse and Free Verse 249

/ Walt Whitman "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" 250

Preparing to Write about Prosody 251

Sample Essay on Metrics: "Sound and Sense in A. E. Housman's 'Eight O'clock'" 252

"Sound and Sense in A. E.

Housman's 'Eight O'clock'" 253

A Brief Overview of the Essay 257

A Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing about Poetry 258

13 Writing about an Author in Depth 261

A Case Study: Writing about Langston Hughes 262

/ Langston Hughes "The South" 263

/ Langston Hughes "Ruby Brown" 265

/ Langston Hughes "Ballad of the Landlord" 266

"A National Problem: Race and Racism in the Poetry of Langston Hughes" 267

A Brief Overview of the Essay 271

Part 4 Inside: Style, Format, and Special Assignments

14 Style and Format 275

Principles of Style 275

Get the Right Word 276

Write Effective Sentences 280

A Checklist for Revising for Conciseness 281

Write Unified and Coherent Paragraphs 284

A Checklist: Revising Paragraphs 289

Write Emphatically 290

Notes on the Dash and the Hyphen 291

Remarks about Manuscript Form 291

Basic Manuscript Form 291

Quotations and Quotation Marks 293

15 Writing a Research Paper 298

What Research Is Not, and What Research Is 298

Primary and Secondary Materials 299

Locating Material: First Steps 299

Other Bibliographic Aids 302

Taking Notes 302

Two Mechanical Aids: The Photocopier and the Word Processor 303

A Guide to Note Taking 303

Drafting Your Paper 305

Focus on Primary Sources 306

Documentation 307

What to Document: Avoiding Plagiarism 307

A Checklist for Avoiding Plagiarism 309

How to Document: Footnotes, Internal Parenthetical Citations, and a List of Works Cited (MLA Format) 310

Sample Essay with Documentation: "The Women in Death of a Salesman" 322

A Checklist: Reading the Draft of a Research Paper 331

Electronic Sources 332

Encyclopedias: Print and Electronic Versions 332

The Internet/World Wide Web 332

Evaluating Sources on the World Wide Web 333

A Checklist: A Review for Using the World Wide Web 333

Documentation: Citing a Web Source 334

A Checklist: Citing World Wide Web Sources 334

Appendix A Two Stories 338

/ James Joyce "Araby" 338

/ Eudora Welty "A Worn Path" 342

Appendix B Literary Research: Print and Electronic Resources 349.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-355) and indexes.

ISBN:

0321330730

OCLC:

57352762