Writing about Literature

Why Write About Literature
Reading a Work of Literature
Getting Started
Invention
Planning
Working Draft
Revising
Final Paper

Why Write About Literature

Writing about literature in many ways resembles writing an argument: You make a claim about the work and support your claim with evidence from the text, as well as reasoning and analysis. The purpose of a response to literature is to persuade your readers that your analysis and interpretation of the work is valid, reasonable, and logical.

When you write about literature, you participate actively in the construction of knowledge about the text. That is to say, the text alone tells only part of its message. The writer of the work has done his or her part to convey its meaning by using symbols, language, setting, plot, character, foreshadowing and the like to suggest the text's message. Unlike "hard sciences," however, literature cannot be empirically tested in the laboratory; its meaning comes from its readers. In fact, literature begs for readers to read, react to, think about, and interpret the text. Having engaged in those steps, the process continues with another step: communicating to others the meaning you, as a reader, have constructed from the text. Your interpretation and analysis, then, adds to the body of meaning about the text.

Since the purpose of writing about literature in college is to interpret and analyze the text, your essay should follow certain conventions including:

• Using third-person pronouns.
• Stating a thesis clearly (often called a claim) that is supported by reasons and evidence from the text.
• Using present tense verbs to discuss a work rather than past tense—even if the work was written centuries ago. For readers and scholars of literature, the work is "alive," still current, which calls for the use of present-tense verbs.

Why do schools put emphasis on literature? First, literature is a way to experience a way of life, a time period, a culture, an emotion, a deed, an event that you are not otherwise able, willing (as say in the case of murder), or capable of encountering in any other manner. Literature, then, opens doors to new and different life experiences.

Second, the critical reading skills that you bring to reading short stories, poems, novels, plays, as well as nonfiction are the same types of critical reading strategies that serve you well in any other type of reading that you do—whether it be reading a computer manual, a biology text, a legal document or the like. In order to write well about literature, you must be able to read the text closely, looking at its structure, the words the author has chosen, the characters' motivations, the patterns of language and literary devices. Certainly, you don't read a biology text looking for literary devices and uses of language; rather, you read that text searching for an understanding of the structure of the interaction within an organism, how the organism relates to other organisms, the biochemical pathways involved in those interactions. However, in either case—reading a piece of literature or a technical document—you read closely and carefully, looking at not only what the writer is saying, but also looking at why it's being said and how it's being said. Reading literature, then, enhances your critical reading skills. Likewise, being able to write about literature demonstrates your ability to read critically and engage in the higher-level thinking skills of analysis and interpretation.

Often, students are intimidated when it comes to writing about literature. They feel that they do not know enough about literature to write about it or that the author is surely hiding some meaning in the text that they just can't find. Sometimes students feel as if the whole purpose of writing about literature is to be critical of the work—and that's difficult to do if you happen to really like the work. Responding to literature, however, does not have to be intimidating if you read carefully and thoughtfully. Keep your mind set on thinking about and analyzing the text, and if you write about an aspect of the work that sparks your interest, whether positively or negatively.

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Reading a Work of Literature

Reading literature in an effort to respond to it requires more than just a quick read-through. Reading with the intent of writing about the work often requires multiple readings of the text. The following strategies offer suggestions for reading a story, poem, play, or novel for coursework:

1. When reading through the work for the first time, read as you would at the beach: get the "gist" of the plot (yes, poems often have a plot, too), the characters, and a general idea of the meaning of the piece. Enjoy the work and don't be stressed out about any upcoming writing assignment!
   
   
2. During the second reading, pay particular attention to words that you do not know and look up those words in the dictionary. Bartleby.com features the American Heritage Dictionary online at http://www.bartleby.com/61/. If a word has multiple meanings listed, consider each of the meanings. Often writers will use antiquated or secondary meanings of words.
   
   You may find it helpful to write the meanings of the words in the margin of the text or on a separate note card, so that you can easily refer to them when reading, writing, and thinking about the work.
   
   Paying attention to word choice is especially important when reading poetry. Because poems are often short, every word counts, which means that poets select their words very carefully. Often in poetry, words may have duel meanings, each of which make sense within the poem although offering differing interpretations.
   
   Try the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) when looking up words from older works. The OED contains every English word and gives historical meanings of words not in use anymore, or with meanings that may have changed. Many university and public libraries have access to the OED online. Check your school library's home page to see if access to the OED is available. Or, you can order a monthly subscription by going to http://dictionary.oed.com.
   
   
3. Think about the setting of the work and its culture. Is the work set in the 20th century? Another time? Is it set in the U.S. or another country? In what region of the U.S. or world? What are customs, traditions, and lifestyles like in that particular region and that particular time? What is the socio-economic status of the characters—are they rich, middle class, poor? What is the ethnicity of the characters? Considering these issues gives valuable insight into the work's meaning and perspective.
   
   
4. During subsequent readings, methodically begin to pay attention to how characters interact with one another, how the writer uses words to convey meaning, how the characters speak, who is telling (or narrating) the story, the kinds of images the writer uses, or any other aspect of the text that seems important to you. Ask yourself along the way what you think about each aspect and why you think that way. Many students find it helpful to keep a reading journal as well, when they read through a text. In a reading journal, you can record your thinking about the work. As you continue analyzing the text, add to your notes.
   
   
5. Annotating the text (by underlining or circling passages and writing in the margins) is helpful because your annotations can refer you to particular sections of the work later. Since you will need to draw the evidence for your interpretation from the work itself, having already marked sections of the work will aid you in garnering your evidence when writing the paper later.

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Getting Started

If you are assigned to write about a piece of literature, your instructor may give you a specific assignment or topic. Generally, though, your essay should be an argument that provides your interpretation/analysis of the work and supports that claim with appropriate and sufficient details (evidence) from the work. Unless your instructor specifies otherwise, your interpretation should come from your own reading and thinking about the work—not from critical or literary analyses you have read about it. You will write this literary analysis for your classmates and teacher as a way of broadening their understanding of the work you have selected.

Invention

Exploring Your Topic

To get ready to write your analysis, it may help you to examine what you already think about the text after your initial reading. Write about your initial reaction to the text you’ve selected. Doing so will give you a place to begin further analysis of the work. When you write, don’t worry if your answers seem incomplete or insufficient; however, try to respond to these questions with as much detail as you can at this point. As you review your writing, though, and re-read the text, keep in mind the gaps in this crash-through writing. Those gaps will provide clues to particular points in the text that you will want to analyze further. Consider the following questions as points of departure for your crash-through journal writing:

• What is my "gut reaction" to this text? Do I like the work? What, specifically, do I like or dislike about it?
• Do I like the characters? Why? Are there any characters that I dislike? Why?
• How are the experiences of this character (or these characters) like or unlike my own experiences? Does the difference in our experience make the work more difficult to understand? Does the similarity in our experience make me connect with the character(s) more closely?
• What is the setting of the work? What do I know about this setting? How is it like or unlike my own experience?
• What recurring images or objects did I notice in the work? What might they mean? Do those objects have any cultural significance?
• What is the title of the work, and why did the author choose that title? What alternative titles might the author have chosen and why?
• Who is "telling" the story? Why did the author select this character to tell the story? How would the story be different if told from someone else's point of view?
• Why might the author have written this work?

You can answer these questions as part of Activity 3

Considering Cultural and Historical Perspectives

One way to analyze literature is to think about the cultural and historical perspectives of the piece. With a work that was written either several years, decades, or even centuries ago, it is often easy for us to forget to place that particular piece of literature in a specific historical framework. It is easy to forget that the world was different than how it is today and that cultural and social mores have changed.

For example, if we're reading Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, we might be appalled at the way the townspeople treated African-Americans in their community. We might wonder why the jury consisted of all white men, with no women or African-Americans. To understand the novel, we might need to research civil rights in the South during the 1950s to begin to understand why this particular text was so important in its time, and why that impact is still felt today. Understanding Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, a novel about horrible working and sanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry in Chicago early in the 20th century, may require that we learn more about the implementation of goverment regulations regarding the handling and processing of food products, as well as "labor laws" protecting workers. At the time Sinclair wrote his novel, such regulations were not in place. Workers were not guaranteed any safety or health controls in the workplace. No government regulations existed concerning the processing of food products. However, as a result of the book, many of these issues came into the forefront of American thinking, resulting in change.

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