Indices

Rev. ed of: 10th ed., 2005.

PREFACE xiv LETTER TO STUDENTS xvii PART 1 Jumping In 1--WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE: A CRASH COURSE 3 The Pleasures of Reading--and of Writing about Literature 3 The Writing Process 5 . A Checklist of Basic Matters 9 2--THE WRITER AS READER: READING AND RESPONDING 10 Kate Chopin, "Ripe Figs" 10 The Act of Reading 11 Reading with a Pen in Hand 13 Recording Your First Responses 14 Audience and Purpose 15 A Writing Assignment on "Ripe Figs" 16 The Assignment 16 A Sample Essay: "Images of Ripening in Kate Chopin's 'Ripe Figs' " 16 The Student's Analysis Analyzed 18 Critical Thinking and the Study of Literature 19 3--THE READER AS WRITER: DRAFTING AND WRITING 21 Pre-writing: Getting Ideas 21 Annotating a Text 21 More about Getting Ideas: A Second Story by Kate Chopin, "The Story of an Hour" 22 Kate Chopin: "The Story of an Hour" 22 Brainstorming for Ideas for Writing 24 Focused Free Writing 25 Listing 26 Asking Questions 27 Keeping a Journal 28 Critical Thinking: Arguing with Yourself 29 Arriving at a Thesis and Arguing It 31 Writing a Draft 33 A Sample Draft: "Ironies in an Hour" 33 Revising a Draft 35 . A Checklist for Revising for Clarity 36 Two Ways of Outlining a Draft 37 . A Checklist for Reviewing a Revised Draft 38 Peer Review 39 The Final Version 41 Sample Essay: "Ironies of Life in Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour' " 41 The Analysis Analyzed 43 Quick Review 44 From First Responses to Final Version: Writing an Essay about a Literary Work 44 4--TWO FORMS OF CRITICISM: EXPLICATION AND ANALYSIS 45 Explication 45 A Sample Explication: Langston Hughes's "Harlem" 45 Working toward an Explication of "Harlem" 46 Some Journal Entries 48 The Final Draft: "Langston Hughes's 'Harlem' " 50 The Analysis Analyzed 51 . Checklist: Drafting an Explication 52 Analysis: The Judgment of Solomon 52 Thinking about Form 54 Thinking about Character 55 Thoughts about Other Possibilities 55 Comparison: An Analytic Tool 57 . A Checklist: Revising a Comparison 60 Finding a Topic 60 Considering the Evidence 61 Organizing the Material 61 Communicating Judgments 62 Review: How to Write an Effective Essay 63 1. Pre-writing 63 2. Drafting 64 3. Revising 65 4. Editing 66 . Editing Checklist: Questions to Ask Yourself When Editing 67 5--OTHER KINDS OF WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE 69 A Summary 69 A Paraphrase 71 A Review 72 A Review of a Dramatic Production 73 A Sample Review: "An Effective Macbeth" 74 PART 2 Standing Back: Thinking Critically about Literature 6--LITERATURE, FORM, AND MEANING 81 Literature and Form 81 Literature and Meaning 84 Arguing about Meaning 84 Form and Meaning 85 Robert Frost, "The Span of Life" 85 Suggestions for Further Reading 88 7--WHAT IS INTERPRETATION? 90 Interpretation and Meaning 90 Is the Author's Intention a Guide to Meaning? 91 Characteristics of a Good Interpretation 92 An Example: Interpreting Pat Mora's "Immigrants" 93 Thinking Critically about Literature 95 A Student Interpretation of Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" 96 Sample Essay: "Stopping by Woods and Going On" 97 Suggestions for Further Reading 100 8--WHAT IS EVALUATION? 101 Criticism and Evaluation 101 Are There Critical Standards? 102 Morality and Truth as Standards 103 Other Ways to Think about Truth and Realism 105 Suggestions for Further Reading 107 9--WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE: AN OVERVIEW 108 The Nature of Critical Writing 108 Some Critical Approaches 109 Formalist Criticism (New Criticism) 110 Deconstruction 112 Reader-Response Criticism 113 Archetypal (or Myth) Criticism 115 Historical Criticism 116 Marxist Criticism 116 The New Historicism 117 Biographical Criticism 118 Psychological (or Psychoanalytic) Criticism 118 Gender (Feminist, and Lesbian and Gay) Criticism 119 Suggestions for Further Reading 123 PART 3 Up Close: Thinking Critically about Literary Forms 10--WRITING ABOUT FICTION: THE WORLD OF THE STORY