Literature & Composition: Reading - Writing - Thinking
Language: English
Pages: 1568
ISBN: 0312388063
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
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work and also analyze it in a way that deepens your appreciation of it. Writers worth their salt are bound to puzzle readers, spark a debate, invite diverse interpretations — and inspire rereading. • ACTIVITY • In each of the following poems, the speaker comments on readers. In what ways are the two speakers’ expectations about readers similar? What can you infer about each speaker’s beliefs about the value of literature? Consider how each speaker uses playful humor to make a serious point.
— into the landscape? How does the passage change from beginning to end? What’s important at this point is not necessarily answering the questions but simply asking them. By posing questions, you’re engaging with the text — you’re reading actively. • ACTIVITY • Read the following poem by A. E. Housman. Then create your own firstimpression questions. JAG_88063_02_ch02_pp0019-0058.in20 20 4/29/10 12:07:48 PM THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE 21 To an Athlete Dying Young A. E. HOUSMAN The time you won
sailors’ JAG_88063_02_ch02_pp0019-0058.in25 25 4/29/10 12:07:49 PM 26 CHAPTER 2 • CLOSE READING eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time
Effective Reader? 8 David Ignatow, The Bagel 8 Albert Goldbarth, Shawl 9 Billy Collins, Introduction to Poetry 10 Sherman Alexie, from Superman and Me Franz Wright, Learning to Read 12 11 Approaching Literature 12 Robert Frost, “Out, Out —” 13 Experience 13 Analysis 14 Extension 15 Julia Alvarez, Snow 16 xv JAG_88063_00_FM_pp_i-xxxviii.indxv xv 4/29/10 12:06:15 PM xvi 2 CONTENTS CLOSE READING Analyzing Poetry and Passages of Fiction 19 What Is Close Reading? 19 First-Impression
it’s a long, rambling sentence that could use some focus. At this point, you probably need to decide whether you’re going to argue that Glaspell takes a definite stand on these issues. The play ends inconclusively — Mrs. Wright is neither convicted nor exonerated — which makes it difficult to say that the play (or its author) takes a stand on these issues. A better route, then, is to argue that Glaspell asks her audience/readers to explore these issues: In Trifles, the murder mystery is the means