ENGL 1102

Decoding the Text: A Guide to Literary Analysis and Composition

In a world increasingly driven by technology, data, and immediacy, the study of literature may seem, to some, an unnecessary and antiquated indulgence. Why pore over poetry or ponder the ambiguities of a novel when there are concrete skills to acquire and more tangible goals to achieve? This question is particularly relevant to college students who take literature courses only because they are required. Yet, it is precisely in the study of literature that we find an opportunity to slow down, reflect, and engage in the kind of deep thinking that is essential for intellectual and personal growth.

Read the Introduction »

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Directions: For each lesson below, follow all links and read them carefully. All assigned literary texts may be found on D2L, by doing a Google search, or in the required book. See your individual syllabus for due dates and additional instructions.

Orientation

1. Read the following:
   • I’m not an English major: why should I write about literature?
   • What is a liberal arts education?
   • What is “critical thinking"?
   • What is “analysis”?
   • What is “interpretation”?
   • How do I read a difficult text without getting frustrated?
   • What are some strategies for reading?

I. Introduction to College-Level Literary Studies

1. Read the background materials:
   • Introduction to Decoding the Text: A Guide to Literary Analysis and Composition
   • I’m not an English major: why should I write about literature?
   • How do I begin writing about literature?
   • What are the basics of literary analysis?
   • What are the basics of interpreting a literary text?
   • What are the conventions and vocabulary necessary for writing about literature?
2. Read the following and be sure to take thorough notes in preparation for a quiz:
   • F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Babylon Revisited” (Print and read this one: download PDF)
     (See also: “You Can’t Go Home Again”)

II. Reader-Response Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is “reader response”?
   • What is “theme”?
   • What is “close reading”?
   • How do I integrate quotations and paraphrases?
   • How do I support my argument?
2. Read the following:
   • Ernest Hemingway: “Indian Camp”
     (See also: “Hemingway’s ‘Indian Camp’”)
   • James Joyce: “Araby”
     (See also: “The Light Was Out” and “A Journey from Innocence to Disillusionment: A Reader-Response to James Joyce’s ‘Araby’”)

III. Formalist Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “formalist” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Anton Chekhov: “The Lady with the Pet Dog”
   • Emily Dickinson “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”

IV. Ethical Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is an “ethical” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • James Baldwin: “Sonny’s Blues”
   • Patricia Smith: “10-Year-Old Shot Three Times, but She’s Fine”

V. Civic Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “civic” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: “Harrison Bergeron”
     (See also: “‘Harrison Bergeron’ and Wokeness”)
   • Audre Lord: “Who Said It Was Simple”

VI. Cultural Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “cultural” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Jack London: “To Build a Fire”
     (See also: “What Place Evolution?”)
   • William Wordsworth: “The World Is too Much with Us”

VII. Feminist Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “feminist” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Kate Chopin: “The Story of an Hour”
   • Adrienne Rich: “Diving Into the Wreck”
   • Lord Byron: “She Walks in Beauty”

VIII. Psychological Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “psychoanalytical” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Herman Melville: “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
     (See also: “Some Thoughts on ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener’”)
   • William Shakespeare: Sonnets 33, 34, and 35
   • Edgar Allan Poe: “The Cask of Amontillado”
     (See also: “Notes on Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’”)

IX. Deconstructive Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “deconstructive” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • William Shakespeare: “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?”

X. Marxist Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “Marxist” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Guy de Maupassant: “The Necklace”
     (See also: “Why Mathilde Never Came Clean”)
   • William Blake: “The Chimney Sweeper (SE)” (from Songs of Experience)

XI. Research

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is research and why is it important?
   • How do I use strong evidence and examples?
   • What are “primary sources” and how do I use them?
   • What are “secondary sources” and how do I use them?
   • How do I find strong, credible sources?
   • What is “synthesis” and why is it important?
2. Read the following:
   • August Wilson: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Study Guides

Resources for the works we have studied this semester.

• James Baldwin — “Sonny's Blues”
• Kate Chopin - “The Story of an Hour”
• F. Scott Fitzgerald - “Babylon Revisited”
• Ernest Hemingway — “Indian Camp”
• James Joyce — “Araby” and The Dead
• Jack London - “To Build a Fire”
• Edgar Allan Poe — “The Cask of Amontillado”
• Leslie Marmon Silko - “Yellow Woman”
• Herman Melville — Bartleby, the Scrivener
• The Smiths — “Girlfriend in a Coma”
• Kurt Vonnegut — “Harrison Bergeron”
• August Wilson — Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Literary

• Literary Terms