Table of Contents

Preface. To the Student: An Introduction to Theory into Practice. 1. THE RELATIONSHIP OF READING AND WRITING. Reading and Writing in College. Engaging the Text. Adding Marginal Notations. Keeping a Reading Log. Using Heuristics. Shaping a Response. Determining a Purpose and Understanding Forms of Response. Answering Essay Questions. Writing Research Papers. Knowing Your Audience. Choosing a Voice. Helping the Process. Collaboration. Reference Materials. Summing up. Suggested Reading. 2. FAMILIAR APPROACHES. Conventional Ways of Reading Literature. A Social Perspective. The Effects of Genre. Conventional Ways of Writing about Literature. Explication. Analysis. Comparison and Contrast. Study of a Single Author"s Works. Summing up. Suggested Reading and Resources. Model Student Analyses. "Between Gloom and Splendor: A Historical Analysis of Hawthorne"s "Young Goodman Brown," " by Meghan Harmon. 3. FORMALISM. Historical Background. Russian Formalism. Reading as a Formalist. Form. Diction. Unity. What Doesn"t Appear in Formalist Criticism. Paraphrase. Intention. Biography. Affect. Writing a Formalist Analysis. Prewriting. Drafting and Revising. The Introduction. The Body. The Conclusion. Suggested Reading. Model Student Analysis. "Robinson"s "Richard Cory": A Formalistic Interpretation," by Frank Perez. 4. PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITICISM. Historical Background. Practicing Psychological Criticism. Freudian Principles. The Unconscious. The Tripartite Psyche. The Significance of Sexuality. The Importance of Dreams. Symbols. Creativity. Summing up. Carl Jung and Mythological Criticism. Characters. Images. Situations. Northrop Frye and Mythological Criticism. Jacques Lacan: An Update on Freud. Character Analysis. Antirealism. Jouissance. Writing Psychological Criticism. Prewriting. Drafting and Revising. The Introduction. The Body. The Conclusion. Suggested Reading. Model Student Analyses. "Thou Hast They Music Too": Loss as Art in John Keats" "To Autumn" by Meagan Cass. "Power and Desire in Ernest Gaines" "The Sky is Gray" by Emily Broussard. 5. MARXIST CRITICISM. Historical Background. Reading from a Marxist Perspective. Economic Power. Materialism versus Spirituality. Class Conflict. Art, Literature, and Ideologies. Writing a Marxist Analysis. Prewriting. Drafting and Revising. The Introduction. The Body. The Conclusion. Suggested Reading. Model Student Analysis. "Silence, Violence, and Southern Agrarian Class Conflict in William Faulkner"s "Barn Burning" " by Liberty Kohn. 6. FEMINIST CRITICISM. Historical Background. Feminism. Queer Theory. Reading as a Feminist. Studies of Difference. Studies of Power. Studies of the Female Experience. Writing Feminist Criticism. Prewriting. Drafting and Revising. The Introduction. The Body. The Conclusion. Suggested Reading. Model Student Analysis. "The Road from Mother: A Daughter"s Struggle" by Cindy Childress. 7. READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM. Historical Background. Making a Reader"s Response. Getting Started. Interacting with the Text. The Text Acts on the Reader. The Reader Acts on the Text. The Transactional Model. Writing a Reader-Response Analysis. Prewriting. Drafting and Revising. The Introduction. The Body. The Conclusion. Suggested Reading. Model Student Analysis. "Discovering the Way the World Works: A Reader-Response Analysis of James Joyce"s "Araby" " by Michael Jauchen. 8. DECONSTRUCTION. Historical Background. Practicing Deconstruction. Making a Deconstructive Analysis. Writing a Deconstructive Analysis. Prewriting. Drafting and Revising. The Introduction. The Body. The Conclusion. Suggested Reading. Model Student Analysis. "The Blame Game" by Katherine Meister. 9. CULTURAL STUDIES: NEW HISTORICISM. An Overview of Cultural Studies. Assumptions, Principles, and Goals of New Historicism. Traditional Historicism. New Historicism. New Literary Historicism. Historical Background. Reading as a New Historicist. The World of the Author and the Text. Discourses in the Text. Intentions and Reception. Writing a New Historicist Literary Analysis. Prewriting. Drafting and Revising. The Introduction. The Body. The Conclusion. Suggested Reading. Model Student Analysis. "The Economics of Paranoia in Nadine Gordimer"s "Once Upon a Time" by Kyle Felker. 10. MORE CULTURAL STUDIES: POSTCOLONIALISM AND MULTICULTURALISM. Postcolonialism. Historical Background. Basic Assumptions. Reading as a Postcolonialist. Presentation of Colonialism. Treatment of Characters. Validity of the Narrative. Expressions of Nativism (Nationalism). Recurring Subjects and Themes. Context. Minor Characters. Political Statement and Innuendo. Similarities. American Multiculturalism. African American Literature. Reading as a Multiculturalist. Narrative Forms. Diction. Style. Writing a Cultural Studies Analysis. Suggested Reading. Model Student Analyses. "Victims Already: Violence and Threat in Nadine Gordimer"s "Once upon a Time" " by Ric Johna. "Langston Hughes and the Dream of America" by Wiley Cash. 11. ECOCRITICISM. What Is It? Historical Background. Getting Started as an Ecocritic. Selecting a Text. Choosing an Approach. Questioning the Representation of Nature. Looking at Nature Writing. Examining Ecocritical Issues and Questions. Writing Ecocriticism. Prewriting. Drafting and Revising. The Introduction. The Body. The Conclusion. Suggested Reading. Model Student Analysis. "The Function of Nature in John Keats" "To Autumn" by Roxie James LITERARY SELECTIONS. Letters of Abigail and John Adams. Jill Ker Conway excerpt from The Road from Coorain. William Faulkner "Barn Burning". Robert Frost "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Ernest J. Gaines "The Sky Is Gray". Nadine Gordimer "Once upon a Time". Nathaniel Hawthorne "Young Goodman Brown". Langston Hughes "I, Too". Langston Hughes "Theme for English B". Zora Neale Hurston excerpt from The Eatonville Anthology. James Joyce "Araby". John Keats "To Autumn". Guy de Maupassant "The Diamond Necklace". Edgar Allan Poe "The Masque of the Red Death". Edwin Arlington Robinson "Richard Cory". INFORMATION AT A GLANCE. GLOSSARY. INDEX.

About the Author

Ann B. Dobie is Professor Emerita of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where she directed graduate studies in rhetoric and the university's writing-across-the-curriculum program. She is the author or coauthor of six college writing textbooks, compiler and editor of three literary anthologies, and author of numerous articles on literature and composition. Her latest books are WIDE AWAKE IN THE PELICAN STATE: CONTEMPORARY LOUISIANA STORIES (available in 2007) and FIFTY-EIGHT DAYS IN THE CAJUNDOME SHELTER, which will be available in early 2008. For 13 years, she served as director of the National Writing Project of Acadiana. She is now State Coordinator of the Louisiana Writing Project and a consultant to the National Writing Project.