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Preparing
for a Literature Class
At some point in our lives, almost all of
us have read literature for the sheer joy of it. While I hope
that this course in no way diminishes the pleasure of reading
for any of you, I will be challenging to read beyond that level
of enjoyment and think analytically about literary texts. Analytical
reading requires time, patience, and something of a shift in
how you think about language and literature.
To do this kind of critical reading, you
will need an "it's OK to write on this" copy of everything
we read in this course. Writing on, around, over, and about
a text allows you to physically interact with it in a way that
mirrors and facilitates the intellectual interactions you should
have. So, scribble on and mark up your text. Highlight it; takes
notes on, about, and around it. Use the method for physically
recording your observations about a text that best suits your
style.
Consider the following example of my own
reading notes for the first few pages of J.D. Salinger's "For
Esme with Love and Squalor":
As I read the text, I noted images, words,
and patterns that I thought significant or interesting. Typically,
I circle or underline these words to make them stand out on
the page. [If I encounter a word I need to look up, I box that
word]. When I return to the text later, either for class discussion
or to write an essay, I can then quickly find patterns or locations
in the text that I can use cite during a discussion or in an
essay. Particularly moving, amusing, or odd quotes also attracted
my attentions. Identifying quotes that employ language in an
interesting way, participate in an important pattern of images
or ideas from the story, or raise crucial thematic or cultural
point sets me up for success in the classroom. The search for
these quotes challenges me to think analytically about the reading
and the identification of the quotes prepares me to contribute
to the seminar discussion. When my professor asks if anyone
found anything in the story they wish to discuss, I can turn
to one of my underlined quotes, raise my hand, and jump start
the conversation in class.
What should I look for when I read?
At the high school level, many classes focus
on your personal reaction to stories and then ramp you up
to a discussion of plot, character, and theme. These responses
to literature offer a starting point for college literature
instruction, but in this course you will need to move beyond
these levels of reading and focus on the language, structure,
and cultural contexts of a text.
Language
Closely reading the language of a text means
searching carefully for meanings and patterns of words,
images, figurative language, rhymes, and sound patterns
As you think about the language of a text
you read, consider the following:
- What words, images, or figures of speech
have a particular resonance in the text and why? (Do some
words have especially significant connotative associations?
Do some stand out as particularly central to understanding
a character, theme, or cultural issues?)
- How do the words, images, and figures of
speech in the text connect to each other. What kinds of
patterns and relationship do you see? And to what broader
questions of character, theme, or culture do these patterns
lead you?
Structure
Reading for the structure of a text means
scrutinizing the arrangements of events, ideas, words, characters,
images, etc. When we read for the structure of a story we
look for its underlying logic or, more typically, the tensions
within the logical system the text attempts to present.
In this type of reading, we focus on the idea that authors
represent ideas through language. This dependence on language--a
fluid medium deeply imbedded in both the writer and the
reader's cultural experience--opens up a wide range of interpretive
possibilities in any text. For this reason many contemporary
structural analyses of texts tend to focus on two terms
we will frequently discuss in this course:
binary oppostions are made up of
allegedly opposing sets of ideas, words, images, characters,
etc. In, "For Esme with Love and Squalor," for
example, the story sets up binaries between children and
adults, war and peacetime, squalor and love, etc. Even
as it sets up these binaries however, the Salinger story
(and most other interesting writing) complicates or undercuts
those binaries--calling them into question at the same
time it props them up or attempts to deploy them for some
thematic or rhetorical goal. Search for these binaries
and some crucial insights into the text and its agenda
will quickly emerge.
aporia: Critical readers also have
an interest in moments when a text collides with itself
or reveals its tensions, contradictions, and inconsistencies.
These "aporia," often discovered through the
search for various binaries or other epistemological or
rhetorical structures, provide another powerful directional
toward the most provocative aspects of a literary work.
As Julian Wolfreys and William Haker write in Literary
Theories: A Case Study in Performance (New York: New
York University Press, 1996):
"The text is not some neatly defined
object, but it is marked to its very heart by numerous
contradictions, tensions, inconsistencies, gaps in the
logic...such gaps, such aporia (are) "the very
condition of narrative itself" (8).
"...the aporia of the narrative foreground
the gaps, the silences , the elisions which occur in
our culture, whether within the micro culture of the
family or the macro-culture of society..."(8).
Cultural Contexts
Framing readings of the language and
structure of a text with an understanding of its cultural
contexts, the critical reader draws conclusions about the
philosophical, political, psychological, sexual, and aesthetic
issues explored by a text.
Given recent trends in literary criticism,
the emphasis in this class on the aesthetic category of
"literature," and our interests in constructions
of individual and national identity, the following may serve
as useful prompts for you while you read:
- What relationship does the text have
with the cultural assumptions of its day? Does it challenge
and question or endorse and sustain? Some mixture of the
two? What does the text in its context tell us about culture
and society?
- About which philosophical questions
and issues does the text seem particularly concerned?
- In what ways does the text appear engaged
with the economic and political assumptions, values, and
conflicts of its day?
- What issues of gender and sexuality
does the text raise given its cultural contexts?
- Does the text struggle with moments
of contradiction and tension on the levels of language,
logic, or ideas? If so, where and why?
- Which passages in the text strike
you as particularly powerful or effective and why?
- How would you characterize the language
and style of the text? Which passages or lines stand out
as exemplary or representative of the style and method
of the writer? How do these questions of style and language
intersect with the broader political, philosophical, and
aesthetic questions raised by the text?
Allusions, other
references, and vocabulary
You should have a few handy desk or
computer references that you refer to regularly--a dictionary,
a one volume encyclopedia, thesaurus/synonym dictionary
etc.--to find out the meaning of vocabulary, names, events,
dates, and terminology with which you are not familiar.
For those who study frequently while on-line, bookmarking
the Encyclopedia Britannica
(http://www.search.eb.com/) can serve the same function
(this site includes both a great encyclopedia and a so-so
dictionary). bartleby.com
offers another great site to refer to for quick look ups
of facts, names, dates, terms, etc.
The Oxford
English dictionary offers the best resource for exploring
not only the definitions but also the history and etymology
of words. From a Redlands computer, you can link to this
site at http://dictionary.oed.com
If you have tried to figure out a reference
on your own and cannot find anything, please do not hesitate
to bring it up in class or over the email conversation before
and after class.
Before Class: Organize
and/or refine your thoughts and ideas
Before you venture out of your room, library,
Jacuzzi (or whatever other den of quiet pleasure you turn to
as your reading sanctuary) and venture forth to our classroom,
you should think about what you hope to accomplish in the eighty
minutes we will spend together.
- What opinions have you formulated and
how will you share them?
- Which passages from the text most intrigued
you, alarmed you, puzzled you, or inspired you? (you may wish
to use stickies to note these passages so that you can find
them quickly during a class discussion)
- What do you want to know more about or
what would you like to have clarified? (if you really want
to wow your instructor and advance the conversation in class,
try doing some of the leg work on these questions yourself.
Perhaps you will find a quote from a critic or a term, concept,
or idea from history that will spark the class in ways your
humble instructor might never imagine)
The unifying idea here: pay close attention
to the text. Scrutinize the language and search out patterns
and related ideas.
Participating
in Class
The participation of each student will determine
the success of our collective study of American literature and
the political, aesthetic, and cultural issues the study of that
literature will raise. For this reason, class participation
constitutes 10% of the course grade. Students will receive a
weekly participation grade via email.
Weekly Class Participation
Rubric
A = Distinguished (1.0)
- student makes exceptional contributions to
class discussions
- student demonstrates thoughtful and thorough
preparation for class each day
- student is on time and present for the entire
class period
B = Very Good (.85)
- student makes constructive contributions
to all class discussions during the week
- student demonstrates preparation for all classes (annotated
readings, successful completion of quizzes, has all required
materials, etc.)
- student is on time and present for all classes
C = Satisfactory (.75)
- students is present for both classes but
otherwise does not achieve one of the "B" criteria
D = Needs Development (.65)
- studend is present for both classes but otherwise
does not achieve two of the "B" criteria
F = Failing (.5)
F = Failing (0)
- student missed both classes
Last
Updated:
16 February, 2003
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