The Literary Experience

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The Literary Experience The Literary Experience Bruce Beiderwell University of California, Los Angeles Jeffrey M. Wheeler Long Beach City College THOMSON * WADSWORTH Australia • Brazjj •• Canada1 •;. Mexico • Singapore Spain ••!United Kingdom.-*, United States Brief Contents Introduction to the Elements of Literature xxxiii How Do We Know What Terms to Use When We Talk about Our Experiences with Literature? 1 | Scene, Episode, and Plot 1 What Happened, and Why Do We Care? - 2 | Character 115 Who Is Involved, and Why Does. It Matter? 3 "("Theme 195 What Does This Text Mean? Is There One Right Way to Read This Text? 4~T Point oi View 282 How Do We Know What We Know about What Happened? 5 | Setting 399 Where and When Does This Action Take Place? Why Does It Make a Difference? 6 j Rhythm, Pace, and Rhyme 508 How Do Sounds Move? 7. |"Images 630 , • How Do We Experience Sensations in a Written Text? 8 | Coherence 713 Is There a Pattern Here? •• • , ••..-• How Does This Fit Together? • ' ' in iv Brief Contents 9 | Interruption 787 Where Did That Come From? Why Is This Here? 10 | Tone 1006 Did I Hear That Right? 11 | Word Choice 1077 Why This Word and Not Another? 12 | Allegory 1194 Is This Supposed to Mean Something Else, Too? 13 | Symbolism 1252 How Do I Know When an Event or an Image Is Supposed to Stand for Something Eke? 14 | Context 1392 What Outside Information Do We Really Need'to Know to Understand the Text? 15 | Allusions 1474 In Order to Understand This Text, Is There Something Else That I Am Supposed to Have Read? 161 Genre 1582 Houi Do Our Expectations Impact Our Literary Experience? How Are Those Expectations Formed? . ; 17 | The Production and Reproduction of Texts 1674 How Does Retelling and Revising Impact My Experience of a Text? How Can Literary Theory Clarify What Constitutes That Experience? 18 | An Orientation to Research 1695 Why Should I Use Sources? . • - How Do We Find Them? What Material Do I Document? Contents Preface • xxv •> ••"' / Introduction to the Elements of Literature' xxxiii How Do We Know What Terms to Use When We Talk about Our Experience with Literature? , .,-.'' Developing a Flexible Critical Vocabulary -: xxxiv ( Critical Writing as Conversation xxxv Critical Writing as an Extension of Reading xxxvii ., ,, Langston Hughes, Harlem •[poem] xxxyii . , 1 | Scene, Episode, and'Plot < * ••<••••• What Happened, and Why Do We Care? 1 •••• • Edouard Boubat, Rendez-vous at the Cafe La Vache Noire [image] Incident, Scene, and Sequence 2 Experiencing Literature through Plot ,3 Robert Piiislcy, Poem with Lines in Any Drder fgoemj 4 Wislawa Szymborska, ABC [poem] ' D" "" '.''[' Episode, Impression, and Fragment' &,,' ,,, fr .-; Claude Monet, Portal, of Rouen Cathedral in Morning „. Light [image] 7 ,, „ , , Experiencing Literature through Impression and Episode 7 Stephen Crane, An Episode of War [fiction] ' g '°'r ' Tension, Release, and Resolution,.. Ji1 ; (/i .. • , ,,.', Multiple and Reflexive Plots.;; 13 ,•' - • H •-. •>,'••' Memento [film] 14 - ...-.,. •. • • A NOTE TG STUDENT- WRITERS: Critical Reading and Understanding lfl Marge Piercy, Unlearning to not speak [poem] ; 15 :; Modeling \Cr.itical. Analysis:.Jamaica Kincaid,, Girl [fiction] . .16 Jamaica Kincaid, Girl [fiction] 16 vi Contents Anthology Detective Work: Figuring Plot 18 FICTION Arthur Conan Doyle, A Scandal in Bohemia 20 Don Lee, The Price of Eggs in China 39 POETRY Emily Dickinson, [A Route of Evanescence] 59 Emily Dickinson, [I like to see it lap the Miles—] 60 E. A. Robinson, Richard Cory 60 Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening ,61 William Stafford, Traveling through the Dark 62 Kevin Young, The Set-up 62 , Kevin Young, The Chase 64 • . Aron Keesbury, On the Robbery across the Street 65 Muriel Rukeyser, Myth- 66 -- - DRAMA Sophocles, Oedipus the King 67 : 2 | Character Who Is Involved, and Why Does If Matter? 115 " '• Building Character 116 Experiencing Literature through Character 117 Michael Chabon, from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & • Clay [fiction] 117 . .-.•.••." Presenting Character 120 A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Leading Questions 121 Picturing Character 121 , . , Experiencing Film and Literature through Character 122 Gone with the Wind [film] 123 [' Hattie McDaniel accepting her Academy Award at the Coconut Grove [image] 124 Rita Dove, Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove [poem] 124 ' Feeling for Character 126 , Experiencing Literature through Character 126 Cathy Song, Picture Bride [poem]' ill Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays [poem] 128 : , Character and Function 129 ., • . • Judith Ortiz Cofer, My Father in the Navy: A Childhood Memory [poem] 130 • • "' Modeling Critical Analysis: Jamaica Kincaid, Girl [fiction] 131 ,.'.,', ' ' Contents vii Anthology Powers Plays: Characterizing Relationships 132 FICTION , Alice Munro, How I Met My Husband 134 Luigi Pirandello, The Soft Touch of Grass 148 Alice Walker, Everyday Use 152 POETRY Edgar Lee Masters, Elsa Wertman 160 Edgar Lee Masters, Hamilton Greene 161 Robert Frost, Home Burial 161 Audre Lorde, Now That I Am Forever with Child 165 • Eavan Bbland, The Pomegranate 165 Sylvia Plath, Daddy 167 ; Quincy Troupe, Poem for My Father ' 170 Kitty Tsui, A Chinese Banquet 171 Billy Collins, Lanyard -'"173 ' -•• '• • . • --• ' E. A. Robinson, The Mill 174 Liz Rosenberg, 1:53 A.M. 175li' < '.''•.>:• . •/.• Gwendolyn Brooks, Sadie and Maud 176 •••••'•• • Seamus Heaney, Mid-Term Break 176 y Michael Lassell, How to Watch Your Brother Die -177 . ; Adrienne Rich, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers 180 ~ ' - GarySoto, Black Hair 181 , DRAMA Anton Chekhov, The Proposal: A Jest in One Act 182 3 | Theme , What Does This Text Mean? -j5 There One Right Way to Read This Text? 195 Theme and Thesis ,196 .;•:.-.. ...: ./••... : -• • Theme and Moral 197 ' b: '• ' Charles Perrault, Little Red Riding Hood [fiction] 198 . James Thurber, The Girl and the 'Wolf [fiction] '201 (Calviri''Coolidgel[!mage] 201" ! ' MGM Lion [image] 201 -SiGirl'.Devoured by Wolf [fiction] -202 S^Experiencing.Literature tthrough'JTheme: 202 <*•: • '. •<-' Marge Piercy, A Work of Artifice [poem] 203 , Multiple Themes in a Single Work ;204 •• , <* • • Experiencing;Literature through Theme,• ,'205 . • . ,...'.. Maxine Hong Kingston, The Wild Man of theGreen >;- Swamp [fiction]''- 205-J \ •.. •-, .•.••••••• , • .. viii Contents When the Message Is Unwanted 208 Triumph of the Will [film] 209 A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Discovering What You Want to Say 210 Modeling Critical Analysis: Jamaica Kincaid, Girl [fiction] 211 Anthology Exploring Boundaries: Interpreting Theme 213 FICTION Luisa Valenzuela, The Censors 214 Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard To Find 217 POETRY John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad 230 Edna St. Vincent Millay, [Women have loved before as I love now] 232 Elizabeth Bishop, Casabianca 232 Ted Hughes, Lovesong 233 Carolyn Forche, The Colonel 234 William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan 235 D. H. Lawrence, Snake 236 Richard Wilbur, A Fable 238 Linda Pastan, Ethics 239 DRAMA Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus' 240 4 | Point of View How Do We Know What We Know about What Happened? 282 ..-• > "'; ••'• Perspective 282 - Albrecht Diirer, Working on Perspective [image] . 283 Masaccio, Trinity [image] 284 Plan and elevation of Masaccio's Trinity [image] 285 • - Dorothy Parker, Penelope [poem] , 285 . A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Distinguishing Author from Speaker • 286 The Narrative Eye 286 >.-.' ; r,.:.-.. :; •;]•.. ., Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the,Sea of Fog [image] >287 Caspar David Friedrich, Woman in fthe Morning Light [image] ., 287 Reliable and Unreliable Narrators r 288 -' " .-';•• -a- .••• Third-Person Narrators 288 !L • ' - •< " - Charles Dickens, from A Christmas Carol [fiction] ; 288 • First-Person Narrators 290 .,; >••: • i Experiencing Literature through Point of View - 291 ... •• ;".. .••. Wendell Berry, The Vacation [poem] 291 Contents ix Film Focus and Angles 292 The Magnicent Ambersons [film] 293 Citizen Kane [film] 293 Trapped -[film] 294 Nosferatu [film] 294 Henry Taylor, After a Movie [poem] 295 Experiencing Film through Point of View 296 Rear Window [film] 297 Shifting Perspectives 298 Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning [poem] 299 Experiencing Literature through Perspective 300 Charles Sheeler, River Rouge Plant Stamping Press [image] 300 Philip Levine, Photography.2.[poem] 300 Frank X. Gaspar, It Is the Nature of the Wing [poem] 302 Modeling Critical Analysis: Robert Browning, <••' • •, My Last Duchess [poem] 303 - Robert Browning, My Last Duchess [poem] 303 Anthology Trust and Doubt: A Matter of Point of View 306 FICTION Ann Beattie, Janus 306 Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour 311 Charlotte Perkins Gilman,' The Yellow Wallpaper 314 POETRY Helane Levine Keating, My Last Duke 327 William Carlos Williams, This Is Ju?t to Say,. 328 . Erica-Lynn Gambino,, This Is Just to Say 329 Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish 330 Edna St. Vincent Millay, Childhood Is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies 332 ' Charles Simic, Prodigy 333 John Donne, The Good-Morrow 334 Adrienne Rich, Living in Sin 335 W. S. Merwin, Separation 336 H. D. Helen 336 Sylvia Plath, The Applicant 337 Sylvia Plath, Mirror 338..,' Robert Morgan, Working in the Rain 339 DRAMA William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing t v-340 x Contents 5 | Setting • •'•.. ZUyf't ff-'R Where and When Does This Action Take Place? : ?.K*^ '•>.-• i. Why Does it Make a Difference? 399 ' • :>i <"KLir-) Place and Time 399 . .' .^i-.H Greetings from Fargo postcard, [image], 400 , . • ;nzH A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Descriptive .Summaries 401- -..h?4y.3. Experiencing
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