Close Reading: An Introduction to Literature

Written for an Introduction to Literature course, Close Reading allows students to examine the language and structure of a text, as well as the ideas or feelings it expresses, and to investigate the intricate links between form and content.  It helps students to see such issues as sound and rhythm, imagery and figurative language, voice, the way characters are portrayed, the importance of setting, plot structure - all the elements that make literature 'literary' - changes the way in which they approach their study of literature.   Covers poetry, fiction, and drama. 

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction to Close Reading                              PART 1   POETRY Chapter 1 Introduction to Aspects of Poetry Aspects of Poetry        Lyric poetry and narrative poetry        Formal characteristics of poetry        Ambiguity  Vocabulary         Denotations and connotations        Semantic fields Specialized vocabulary Exercises on vocabulary  Imagery   Figurative Language Simile and Metaphor Allegory  Anaphora Antithesis Apostrophe Hyperbole Irony Metaphor Metonymy Oxymoron        Paradox        Personification        Simile        Symbol        Synecdoche        Understatement        Exercises on imagery and figurative language Sounds        Alliteration        Assonance        Onomatopoeia          Exercises on sounds Rhythm        Types of rhythm        Enjambment  Exercises on rhythm    Versification        The verse line        Meter        Meter and rhythm         Meter and syntax        Punctuation         Enjambment        Exercises on meter         Rhyme                  Blank verse         Stanzas               Fixed forms                Sonnet        Exercises on rhyme and stanza forms        Free verse Speaker, Voice and Tone         First-person lyric            Tone        Exercises on speaker and tone   Structure                         Division into parts        Closure                  Exercises on structure                    Chapter 2 Writing A Close Reading of a Poem Preparing to Write a Close Reading of a Poem        Preparatory Reading            Annotating the poem        Your audience        Quoting titles        Quoting from the poem        Paraphrasing        Clarity and Style  Writing a Close Reading of a Poem        Title        The introduction        Theme        The detailed analysis        The conclusion        Revision                                              Avoiding Plagiarism  Summary of elements to discuss in a poem   Chapter 3 CLOSE READINGS OF POEMS                              Model Close Readings of Poems  “Death, be not proud” by John Donne       “When I heard the learn’d astronomer” by Walt Whitman       “Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney              “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden   Commentary on model close reading #4    Towards Close Reading: Poems accompanied by questions   “That time of year thou may’st in me behold” by William Shakespeare   “She Walks in Beauty” by Alfred, Lord Byron    “Meeting at Night” by Robert Browning      “A noiseless patient spider” by Walt Whitman  “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost    “Naming of Parts” by Henry Reed    “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” by Adrienne Rich   “Harlem (A Dream Deferred)” by Langston Hughes    PART 2     PROSE   Chapter 4 Introduction to Aspects of Prose  Aspects of Prose                                                           Plot                                                                            Flashbacks                                                               Foreshadowing                                                   Conflict                                                                Exposition, Development, Crisis, Dénouement                        Scene and summary                                                       Exercises on plot                                                    Characterization                                                                Psychological, social and philosophical functions                             Ways of knowing a character         Exercises on characterization                                      Point of View                                                                  The narrator                                                             First and third person narration        Unreliable narrators                                                       Omniscient narration                                                      Limited omniscience                                                       Stream of consciousness                                                     Objective narration                                                 Exercises on point of view                                          Setting                                                                        Realistic and symbolic settings                                      Atmosphere and mood                                     Exercises on setting                                               Style                                                                           Syntax                                                                 Punctuation                                                               Choice of vocabulary             Description         Narrative            Persuasion         Dialogue         Repetitions of words                                                      Other stylistic devices                                                    Symbols                                                                   Irony   Exercises on style                                                   Theme                                                                        Exercises on theme     Chapter 5 Writing A Close Reading of a Prose Passage       Preparing to write a close reading of a prose passage                         Preparatory work                                                          Annotating the text                                                                Your audience          Quoting from the text                                              Writing a close reading of a prose passage                                            Title             The introduction                                                         The detailed analysis                                                      The conclusion                                                   Revision           Avoiding Plagiarism                                                         Summary of Elements to discuss in a prose passage                       Chapter 6 CLOSE READINGS OF PROSE PASSAGES                     Model Close Readings of Prose Passages                                      “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe                                  “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov                          “The Storm” by Kate Chopin                                     Commentary on model close reading #3                                    Towards Close Reading: Prose passages accompanied by questions              “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne                           “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin                                    “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov                          “Araby” by James Joyce  “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner   “A & P” by John Updike                                                    “A Pair of Tickets” by Amy Tan    PART 3     DRAMA Chapter 7 Introduction to Aspects of Drama                                 Aspects of drama                                                                 Drama as performance                                            Suspension of disbelief                                            Mimesis                                                                Tragedy and comedy        Stage directions                                                  Dialogue                                                                          Natural and informative dialogue         The language of dialogue                                                     Gestures and facial expressions                                     Dramatic irony                                                   Monologues, soliloquies, asides                                     Exercises on dialogue                                            Characterization                                                                “Flat” and “rounded” characters                                           Stereotypes                                                              Exercises on characterization                                     Plot                                                                            Conflict                                                                Suspense, surprise                                                         Exposition, development, crisis, dénouement                                 Eercise on plot                                                  Theme                                                                        Exercises on theme                                               Setting                                                                        Historical period                                                            Realistic and symbolic settings                                Costumes, Props, Lighting, Sound Effects                                      Chapter 8 Writing a Close Reading of A Dramatic Passage                     Preparing to write a close reading of a dramatic passage                      Writing a close reading of a dramatic passage                         The introduction                                                         The detailed analysis                                                      The conclusion                                                   Revision                                                            Avoiding Plagiarism                                                Summary of Elements to discuss in a dramatic passage                  Chapter 9 CLOSE READINGS OF DRAMATIC PASSAGES                  Model Close Readings of dramatic passages                                 A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen                                     Trifles by Susan Glaspell                                                    Commentary on model close reading #2                                     Towards Close Reading: Dramatic passages accompanied by questions Hamlet by William Shakespeare                                              Othello by William Shakespeare                                              A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen                                     The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov                                      Trifles by Susan Glaspell                                                      PART 4   MOVING BEYOND CLOSE READING: OTHER TYPES OF WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE Chapter 10  Short Essays                                                         Types of Essay                                                             Preparatory Work                                                 Annotating the text and making notes                             Your audience                                                                                           Writing the essay        Title                                                                     Introduction                                                            Using quotations                                                            Paragraphs                                                               Conclusion                                                                Use of present tense and first person                                 Revision                                                                        Sample short essay                                                           Commentary on the essay                                               Sample short essay on a short story (“A Pair of Tickets”)                          Commentary on the essay                                                Sample short essay on a play (“Trifles”)                                      Commentary on the essay                                             Writing Aids                                                               Chapter 11 Research Papers                                                      Primary and secondary texts                                             Searching for secondary texts                                             Taking notes from secondary sources                                      Avoiding plagiarism                                                      Incorporating secondary sources into your paper                        Organizing your paper                                                    Integrating quotations                                                   Documentation                                                          Referring to works cited                                                      Chapter 12 Brief Introduction to literary criticism                            Historical criticism                                                         Biographical criticism                                                   Formalist (New) criticism                                                  Structuralist criticism                                                    Archetypal criticism                                                      Psychoanalytic criticism                                                     Deconstruction                                                          Feminist criticism                                                          Reader-response criticism                                            Appendix 1: The Phonetic Alphabet   Appendix 2:  Selection of poems: Blake, William        “The Sick Rose” “The Tyger” Browning, Robert               “Meeting at Night” Byron, George Gordon       “She Walks in Beauty” Coleridge, Samuel Taylor        “Kubla Khan” Dickinson, Emily                “Wild Nights” Donne, John                  “Death, be not proud” Dunbar, Paul                “We Wear the Mask” Frost, Robert                 “Acquainted with the Night” Hayden, Robert                  “Those Winter Sundays” Heaney, Seamus                “Mid-Term Break” Hughes, Langston             “Harlem (A Dream Deferred)” Keats, John                   “Ode on a Grecian Urn”                             “Ode to a Nightingale”                             “To Autumn” Magee, John Gillespie “High Flight”                             Marvell, Andrew               “To His Coy Mistress” McKay, Claude                 “The White City” Nemerov, Howard             “The Vacuum” Pastan, Linda                “To a Daughter Leaving Home’ Reed, Henry                  “Naming of Parts” Rich, Adrienne        “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” Rossetti, Christina              “Up-Hill” Shakespeare, William “That time of year thou may’st in be behold” Shelley, Percy Bysshe        “Ode to the West Wind” Tennyson, Alfred               “The Eagle”   “Ulysses”  Whitman, Walt              “A noiseless patient spider”  “When I heard the learn’d astronomer” Wordsworth, William   “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge”                             “It is a beauteous evening”                             “I wandered lonely as a cloud”   Appendix 3:  Selection of short stories :  Chekhov, Anton                 “The Lady with the Dog” Chopin, Kate                 “The Storm”                             “The Story of an Hour” Faulkner, Willliam              “A Rose for Emily” Hawthorne, Nathaniel  “Young Goodman Brown”  Joyce, James                 “Araby”                             “The Boarding House” Maupassant, Guy de         “The Jewelry”                             “The Necklace” Poe, Edgar Allen                 “The Black Cat”                             “The Cask of Amontillado” Tan, Amy                     “A Pair of Tickets” Updike, John                 “A & P” Appendix 4:  Selection of plays: Glaspell, Susan                  Trifles Appendix 5: Glossary of Literary Terms