Description: INTRODUCTION. Introduction. What is literature? What does literature do? Why is literature important? 1. Interpreting Literature. The importance of interpretation. Close reading. Interpreting Robert Frost''s Fire and Ice. The process of interpretation: Interpretation and the author''s intention; Interpretation and the search for meaning. Interpretive strategies. Text-based interpretations: The Formalist approach: New criticism; Psychoanalytic criticism. Reader-based interpretation: Reader response criticism. Context-based interpretations: Feminist criticism; Political-Economic criticism; Cultural criticism; Historicism and new Historicism. Combining interpretive strategies. Using Intepretive Strategies. Interpreting Nikki Giovanni''s Master Charge Blues. A Formalist interpretation: New criticism; A psychoanalytic interpretation. A reader response interpretation. A feminist interpretation. A Political-Economic interpretation; A cultural interpretation; A historical interpretation. 2. Writing About Literature. The purposes of writing about literature. Developing insights: Beginning with close reading. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias. Questions for close reading. Taking notes, summarizing. Response journals. The process of writing interpretive essays: Prewriting; Freewriting, brainstorming, listing; Narrowing your topic; Interpretive strategies; Developing your thesis. Principles of evidence in literary studies: Backing up your thesis with details from the text; Patterns, implications, silent gestures, codes, and subtleties; Quoting from literary texts. Punctuating quotations. Punctuating a lengthy quotation. Using sources: What sources are available? How to use sources; Quoting from sources; Compiling a works cited list. MLA style: Citing works in your text. The form of an interpretive essay: Manuscript details; Prewriting, planning, outlining; Redrafting: Organization; Editing: Style; The length and structure of a critical essay. A sample essay interpreting Percy Bysshe Shelley''s Ozymandias using sources and combining Formalist and Historicist interpretive strategies. A sample essay interpreting Percy Bysshe Shelley''s Ozymandias using Reader Response strategies and no sources. II. SHORT FICTION. 3. Enjoying Short Fiction. What is short fiction? Fiction and identity. A story from The Decameron. Interpreting The Pot of Basil. Close reading: Beginning with questions. A close reading of Suzanne Jacob''s Two Cents. Meaning: Implied and explicit. Aesop: The Rooster and the Precious Gem. 4. Elements of Short Fiction. Why the elements are important. The elements of fiction: Which elements are important? The elements working together. Setting and Mood: Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red Death. Character and Psychology: Sean O''Faolain, Falling Rocks, Narrowing Road, Cul-de-Sac, Stop. Style and Theme. John Cheever, The Swimmer. Plot and Structure. Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. Point of View: Charles Baxter, Gryphon. Irony and Tone: James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Seeing the Elements Work Together: Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine. 5. Interpreting Short Fiction. Beginning with close reading: William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily; Close reading A Rose for Emily; Responses for an interpretation. Freewriting on A Rose for Emily; A sample interpretation of A Rose for Emily; Further strategies for interpreting A Rose for Emily. An Album of Short Fiction. Isabel Allende, Walimai. Margaret Atwood, Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother. Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson. Ann Beattie, The Cinderella Waltz. Becky Birtha, Johnnieruth. Scott Bradfield, The Dream of the Wolf. Raymond Carver, Night School. Window: Fiction and the Canon. Anton Chekhov, Concerning Love. Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour. Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek. Stephen Crane, The Open Boat. Anita Desai, Games at Twilight. Stanley Elkin, A Poetics for Bullies. Window: Fiction and Politics. Richard Ford, Communist. Window: Psychology: Freud and Fiction. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rappaccini''s Daughter.Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants. James Joyce, Araby. Counterparts. Jamaica Kinkaid, Lucy. Mary Lavin, Happiness. D. H. Lawrence, The Horse-Dealer''s Daughter. Window: Feminist Fiction. Ursula K. Le Guin, Sur: A Summary Report of the Yelcho Expedition to the Antarctic, 1909-10. Doris Lessing, To Room 19. Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party. Window: Fiction and Culture. Gabriel Garca Mrquez, Eyes of a Blue Dog. Alice Munro, The Moons of Jupiter. Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Window: History and Fiction. Tim O''Brien, Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. Flannery O''Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find. William Trevor, The Ballroom of Romance. Alice Walker, Everyday Use: For Your Grandmamma. Fay Weldon, Weekend. Eudora Welty in Depth. Eudora Welty, A Worn Path. Livvie. Lily Daw and the Three Ladies. Research materials: Critical studies; reviews; letters; interviews. III. POETRY. 6. Enjoying Poetry. How poems please us. Our delight in words and sounds. Discussion of a Poem: Lewis Carroll, The Jabberwocky; Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells; Edward Lear; How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear. Algernon Charles Swinburne, Nephelidia. 7. Elements of Poetry. Language: T.S. Eliot, McCavity the Mystery Cat, from Old Possum''s Book of Practical Cats; Elizabeth Sitwell, When Sir Beelzebub; E. E. Cummings, Poem, or Beauty Hurts Mr. Vinal; Bessie Smith, Empty Bed Blues. Imagery: Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro; Carol Rumens, An Easter Garland; Walter McDonald, The Food-Pickers of Saigon; Andrew Hudgins, Gauguin: The Yellow Christ; Henri Coulette, Correspondence. Tone: James Stephens, A Glass of Beer; Judith Rodriguez, Eskimo Occasions; A. E. Housman, Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff; Ben Jonson, On My First Son. Rhythm and Rhymes: Aphra Behn, Song; A. E. Housman, With Rue My Heart Is Laden; E. E. Cummings, Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town; Peter Meinke, Miss Arbuckle; Stevie Smith, Mother, Among the Dustbins; Howard Nemerov, Because You Asked About the Line Between Prose and Poetry. Metaphor and Figurative Language: William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73; Denise Levertov, Cancion; E. E. Cummings, she being brand new; Randall Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner; Edwin Honig, As a Great Prince; William Wordsworth, London, 1802; Gerald Costanzo, At Irony''s Picnic. Symbol: William Blake, The Tyger; Robert Frost, Fences; E. E. Cummings, l(a; Patrick Kavanagh, The Man Behind the Plow; William

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