Creating Literary Analysis

Creating Literary Analysis v. 1.0 This is the book Creating Literary Analysis (v. 1.0). This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/) license. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the same terms. This book was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz (http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book. Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here. However, the publisher has asked for the customary Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed. Additionally, per the publisher's request, their name has been removed in some passages. 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You can browse or download additional books there. ii Table of Contents About the Authors................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgments................................................................................................................. 2 Dedications............................................................................................................................. 4 Preface..................................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 1: Introduction: What Is Literary Theory and Why Should I Care?............ 7 Literary Snapshot: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland..............................................................................8 What Is Literary Theory? ............................................................................................................................ 12 Why Study Literary Theory?....................................................................................................................... 14 What Is the Writing Process?...................................................................................................................... 15 Why Commit to the Writing Process?........................................................................................................ 19 What Is Academic Argument? .................................................................................................................... 20 Introducing an Academic Argument.......................................................................................................... 24 Student Writer at Work: Monica Platten’s “‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’: An Allegory for a Young America” ....................................................................................................................................................... 29 Understanding the Body of Monica’s Argument ...................................................................................... 37 Conclusion to the Introduction .................................................................................................................. 42 End-of-Chapter Assessment........................................................................................................................ 43 Chapter 2: Writing about Form: Developing the Foundations of Close Reading... 46 Literary Snapshot: Through the Looking-Glass ........................................................................................ 47 The Foundations of New Criticism: An Overview ..................................................................................... 54 Close Reading Strategies: A Process Approach ......................................................................................... 61 Student Writer at Work: Kelly Ann Wolslegel’s Close Reading of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love Is Not All”.......................................................................................................................................................... 63 Student Sample Papers: Todd Goodwin’s “Poe’s ‘Usher’: A Mirror of the Fall of the House of Humanity” and Amy Chisnell’s “Don’t Listen to the Egg!: A Close Reading of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’”.............................................................................................................................................. 71 End-of-Chapter Assessment........................................................................................................................ 80 Suggestions for Further Reading................................................................................................................ 84 iii Chapter 3: Writing about Character and Motivation: Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism................................................................................................................................ 85 Literary Snapshot: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.....................86 Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism: An Overview ...................................................................................... 90 Focus on Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Unconscious Repressed Desire..................................................94 Focus on Jacques Lacan (1901–81): Repressed Desire and the Limits of Language .............................101 Focus on Carl Jung (1875–1961): The Archetypal Collective Unconsciousness ...................................107 Reading Keats’s “Urn” through the Psychoanalytic Lens......................................................................112 Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism: A Process Approach........................................................................ 117 Student Writers at Work: Jenn Nemec’s Jungian Psychoanalytic Reading of “The Birthmark,” Susan Moore’s Freudian Reading of “The Birthmark,” and Sarah David’s Lacanian Reading of “The Birthmark”.................................................................................................................................................. 118 Student Sample Paper: Susan Moore’s “The Desire for Perfection in Hawthorne’s ‘The Birthmark’”................................................................................................................................................. 127 Student Sample Paper: Sarah David’s “A Lacanian Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘The Birthmark’”................................................................................................................................................. 132 End-of-Chapter Assessment...................................................................................................................... 136 Suggestions for Further Reading.............................................................................................................. 139 Chapter 4: Writing about Gender and Sexuality: Applying Feminist and Gender Criticism.............................................................................................................................. 141 Literary Snapshot: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.......................................................................... 142 Feminist Theory: An Overview ................................................................................................................. 149 Gender Criticism and Queer Theory ........................................................................................................ 156 Gender Criticism: Masculinity Studies..................................................................................................... 161 Feminist and Gender Criticism: A Process Approach............................................................................. 163 Student Writer at Work: Gretchen Panzer’s Feminist Response to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.......................................................................................................................................................... 164 Student Sample Paper: Carrie Obry’s “Homoerotic Impulses in Willa Cather’s ‘Paul’s Case’” ..........176 Student Sample Paper: Duncan Raunio’s “The Tragedy of Performing Gender in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening” ................................................................................................................................................ 184 End-of-Chapter Assessment...................................................................................................................... 190 Suggestions for Further Reading.............................................................................................................. 201 iv Chapter 5: Writing about Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Identity ............................. 204 Literary Snapshot: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.......................................................................... 205 Postcolonial, Racial, and Ethnic Theory: An Overview .......................................................................... 213 Writing about Race, Ethnic, and Cultural Identity: A Process Approach.............................................224 Student Writer at Work: Ashley Eckhardt’s Postcolonial Paper in Action ..........................................226

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