Analyzing Literature

Analyzing LiteratureGuide for Students

Literary Analysis = Argument

O Make a claim about the work, then support it

O Purpose: persuade readers your analysis + interpretation is reasonable/logical

O NOT your opinion about the work, but your interpretation + analysis

Why Literature?O Way to experience a way of life, time

period, culture, emotion, deed, event, etc…

O Skills you bring to the table: close reading, breakdown of structure, word choice of author, character motivations, patterns of language, literary devices

Process of AnalysisO Multiple readingsO Specific word choicesO Setting + cultureO How the writer: uses words to create

meaning, how characters speak (dialect/jargon), who is telling story, etc…

O ANNOTATE

Literary TermsO Character: flat/roundO Drama: playsO Fiction: imaginative proseO Foreshadowing: prepare the reader

by introducing cluesO Narrator: who tells story (POV)O Personification: giving

animals/inanimate objects human characteristics

Literary TermsO Plot: Action/storylineO Setting: where and whenO Symbolism: use of a thing or person

or event to create familiar emotion and/or intellectual response in reader

So – To Summarize1. Read through for enjoyment first,

then reread2. Note diction (how writer uses words

to convey meaning), setting, culture, POV, imagery, anything writer does that stands out to you.

3. ANNOTATE your findings as you read. Mark text/take notes

YoursMary Robison

O Diction:- “Allison struggled away…

limping” (7)- 43 yrs. Difference in age- Gift check from nasty relatives

signed “Jesus H. Christ” – “vigil candles”

- Seem happy together – language is common, everyday language

- “Allison began to die” (9)

O Setting/Culture:- 1983 – set in modern time in suburban setting, fall- American culture – daycare,

doctor, Halloween- judgmental culture about age differences in marriage

O POV:- third person limited (see many

things only from outside, but then get Clark’s POV there at the end. – sudden and powerful – the pain of loss

O Imagery:- White Renault (?)- fall imagery“twig and leaf-littered porch”“thick blond hood”“bright-dyed denims”- pain + death imagery“Struggled…limping”“gutted and carved”“ferocious and jagged”“began to die”“pulse cords fluttering”“awful, plaguing thing”

Choices in AnalysisO Question: For me to write an analysis

about this story, I have to identify what elements create important meaning and then how the writer creates it.

O Because I find the age difference fascinating since the woman dies first, I will want to focus on that…

Other Analysis ChoicesO How the various literary elements work

together in a specific work to produce meaning

O How two different literary works treat the same subject or literary element(s)

O How ideas and/or elements in literary works relate to larger ideas relating to political, religious, societal, economic, or aesthetic conditions

SupportO Text evidence:

- secondary sources- direct text - paraphrase or summary

O Other critics’opinionsO Social +/or historical context

O Do not overuse a single source

What to Do in an Analysis

O Focus on a single attribute or aspect of a literary work(s)

O Make sure your thesis is arguable

O Make sure you defend your thesis with specific text evidence

ExamplesO Bad – Really Bad: Atlas Shrugged is a

great novel about good vs. evil.

O Better – but not by much: Atlas Shrugged, a novel, personifies good vs. evil.

O Best: Atlas Shrugged, a novel personifying the author’s view of good and evil develops into a philosophical argument for capitalism through direct characterization.