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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