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
How Do Sounds Move?
508
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
Langston Hughes, Harlem •[poem]
Happened,
xxxvii
xxxyii
1 | Scene, Episode, and'Plot < *
What
(
.,
,,
. ,
••<•••••
and Why Do We Care?
1 •••• •
Edouard Boubat, Rendez-vous at the Cafe La Vache Noire [image]
Incident, Scene, and Sequence
Experiencing Literature through Plot
2
,3
Robert Piiislcy, Poem with Lines in Any Drder fgoemj 4
Wislawa Szymborska, A B C [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, A n Episode of W a r [fiction] ' g ' ° ' r
T e n s i o n , R e l e a s e , a n d R e s o l u t i o n , . . J i 1 ;( / i
M u l t i p l e and Reflexive Plots.;; 1 3 , • ' M e m e n t o [film]
14
-
.. •
•
'
, ,,.',
H •-. •>,'••'
. . . - . , .
A NOTE TG STUDENT- WRITERS: Critical Reading and Understanding
Marge Piercy, U n l e a r n i n g to n o t speak [poem]
;
15
•. • •
lfl
:;
Modeling \Cr.itical. Analysis:.Jamaica Kincaid,, Girl [fiction] . .16
Jamaica Kincaid, Girl [fiction]
16
vi
Contents
Anthology
Detective Work: Figuring Plot
FICTION
POETRY
DRAMA
18
Arthur Conan Doyle, A Scandal in Bohemia 20
Don Lee, The Price of Eggs in China 39
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
-Sophocles, Oedipus the King 67
:
2 | Character
Who Is Involved,
Building Character
and Why Does If Matter?
115
" '•
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
Picturing Character
121
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]
Character and Function
129
128
: ,
., • . •
Judith Ortiz Cofer, My Father in the Navy:
A Childhood Memory [poem] 130
Modeling Critical Analysis: Jamaica Kincaid, Girl [fiction]
• • "'
131
,.'.,',
''
Contents
Anthology
Powers Plays: Characterizing Relationships 132
FICTION
POETRY
, Alice Munro, How I Met My Husband
134
Luigi Pirandello, The Soft Touch of Grass
148
Alice Walker, Everyday Use
152
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
Eavan Bbland, The Pomegranate
165
;
Sylvia Plath, Daddy 167
Quincy Troupe, Poem for My Father ' 170
Kitty Tsui, A Chinese Banquet
171
B i l l y C o l l i n s , L a n y a r d -'"173 ' -••
E. A . Robinson, T h eMill
174
Liz R o s e n b e r g , 1 : 5 3A . M . 1 7 5 l i '
'•
•
. •
<
165 •
--•
'.''•.>:•
'
. •/.•
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?
- j 5 Th ere One Right Way to Read This Text?
T h e m e a n d Thesis , 1 9 6
Theme and Moral 197
195
...: ./••...
b:
'• '
.;•:.-.. .
'
: -• •
Charles Perrault, Little Red Riding Hood [fiction] 198
James Thurber, The Girl and the 'Wolf [fiction] ' 2 0 1
(
Calviri''Coolidgel[!mage] 201" ! '
MGM Lion [image] 201
-SiGirl'.Devoured by Wolf [fiction] - 2 0 2
.
S^Experiencing.Literature
tthrough'JTheme:
202 <*•: •
Marge Piercy, A Work of Artifice [poem]
Multiple Themes in a Single Work
E x p e r i e n c i n g ; L i t e r a t u r e through
Theme,•
;204
,'205
'. •<-'
203
,
•• , <* • •
.•.
,...'..
Maxine H o n g Kingston, T h e Wild M a n of t h e G r e e n
S w a m p [fiction]''-
205-J
\
•..
>;-
. •-, .•.••••••• , •
..
vii
viii
Contents
When the Message Is Unwanted
Triumph of the Will [film]
208
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 V i e w
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
T h e N a r r a t i v e Eye 2 8 6
>.-.' ; r,.:.-.. : ; •;]•.. .,
Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the,Sea of Fog [image] >287
Caspar David Friedrich, Woman in fthe Morning Light [image] ., 287
Reliable a n d Unreliable Narrators r 2 8 8 -'
" . - ' ; • • - 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 ... •• ;".. .••.
W e n d e l l Berry, T h e V a c a t i o n [poem] 2 9 1
Contents
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
POETRY
Ann Beattie, Janus
Sylvia Plath, Mirror
DRAMA
306
Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour 311
Charlotte Perkins Gilman,' The Yellow Wallpaper 314
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
338..,'
Robert Morgan, Working in the Rain 339
William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing
t v-340
ix
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 < " K L i r - )
Place and Time
399
. .' . ^ i - . H
Greetings from Fargo postcard, [image], 400
,
. • ;nzH
A NOTE T O STUDENT WRITERS: Descriptive .Summaries
401-..h?4y.3.
Experiencing Literature through Setting
401
;:
. .,,
; H
D e n i s e Levertov, February Evening i n N e w York [poem]
4,02. ^ p
Theodore Dreiser, from Sister Carrie [fiction]
403 . . . •, _^.
D e p a r t m e n t store interior [image], r, 4 0 4 ,
.
•xiy-i
••',i'j
The Role of Physical Objects-.r;4d5--4ij.
Kazuo Ishiguro, from Remains_of; the ^Dayif/iction] . 4 0 5
Imaginary Places '-408
;; :
: ![
- -"' "' '•""
'i '-';.
' • '
Experiencing Film through- Setting'..; .. 109;;,;
,, ;•
A m e l i e [film]
410
%[• . . , - , . ,
Babe: Pig in the. City [film]\ i;Alhtl •,. 'A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Paying Attention to Details
'
'
:
•
...
.;i0!V'
• ,}J,
••',-•-.%••'
4J2
Modeling Critical Analysis: Robert Browning,
My Last Duchess [poem] 412
•.• -''.in
Anthology
From Gothic Space to Recognizable Place: Creating Setting 414
FICTION
POETRY
DRAMA
Giovanni Piranesi, from Imaginary 'Prisons [image] 414
James Joyce, Araby 415
Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher 420
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan: or, a Vision in a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven 437
Christina Rossetti, Cobwebs 440
Oscar Wilde, The Harlot's House , 4 4 1
Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham 442
Joy Harjo, New Orleans 444
Joy Harjo, The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth
Floor Window 446
GarySoto, Braly Street 448 ;
'
Gary Soto, Kearney Park 450
,
Ginger Andrews, Rolls-Royce Dreams 451
Barbara Ras, Childhood 452
'
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Indian Movie, New Jersey 453
B. H. Fairchild, The Dumlca 454
Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie 455
1T
'"'
436
Contents
xi
| Rhythm, Pace, and Rhyme
How Do Sounds Move? 508
Filmic Rhythm
509
Experiencing Film through Rhythm
Jaws [film] 510
Poetic Rhythm
510
511
Experiencing Literature through Rhythm
513
Herman Melville, The Maldive Shark [poem]
William Blake, Nurse's Song [poem] 514
The Rhythm of Pauses
514
517
Experiencing Literature through Rhythm 517
Samuel Johnson, On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet [poem]
Ben Jonson, On My First Son [poem] 520
A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Commanding Attention
520
The Rhythm of Sounds
518
521
Experiencing Literature through Rhythm and Rhyme 522
Randall Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner [poem]
Robert Frost, Fire and Ice [poem] 524
523
Modeling Critical Analysis: Robert Browning,
My Last Duchess [poem] 524
Anthology
Innocence and Experience: Rhythm and Meaning
FICTION
POETRY
DRAMA
525
James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues 527
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Susan Minot, Lust 559
William Blake, The Lamb 567
William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper (Innocence)
568
William Blake, Holy Thursday (Innocence)
569
William Blake, The Tyger 569
William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper (Experience)
570
William Blake, Holy Thursday (Experience)
570
Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz 571
Theodore Roethke, The Waking 572
Langston Hughes, Dream Boogie 573
Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers 573
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool 574
Countee Cullen, Incident
575
Denise Levertov, In Mind
575
Sharon Olds, I Go Back to May 1937 576
Sharon Olds, The Death of Marilyn Monroe 577
Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog
578
553
xii
Contents
7 | Images
.
How Do We Experience Sensations in a Written Text?
Creating Pictures with Words
630
631
William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow [poem] 631
Czeslaw Milosz, Watering Can [poem] 632
:
•';.-.
Sailboat [image] 633
Georges Seurat, Entrance to the Harbor [image] 633
Experiencing Literature through Imagery 634
Wislawa Szymborska, The Courtesy of the Blind [poem] 634
Registering Taste and Smell
636
Sideways [film] 636
. Experiencing Literature through Images 637
Salman Rushdie, On Leavened Bread [prose] .637
Nun with Bread [image] 638
Interaction of the Senses
639
John Milton, from Paradise Lost [poem] 640
,
Gangs of New York f/ilm] • 642 ,: . . , ' •';•
Lost in Translation [film] 642 .
.,•.-,
Experiencing Literature through Images 643
Richard Wilbur, A Fire-Truck [poem] 643
Interaction of Words and Pictures
>;
,,
., : ,
645
Michael Ondaatje, King Kong Meets Wallace Stevens [poem]
Wallace Stevens [image] 646
King Kong [film] 647
Experiencing Literature through Images 647
Yosa Buson, Hokku Poems in Four Seasons [poem] 648
A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Using Specific Detail
652
Modeling Critical Analysis: T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock [poem] 652
•
T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock [poem]
'
653
Anthology
Home and Away: Personalizing.Images 657
FICTION
POETRY
/
Alice Munro, Boys and Girls 659
Haruki Murakami, UFO in Kushiro 671
William Blake, London 684
William Wordsworth, London, 1802 684
William Wordsworth, Composed upon Westminster Bridge,
September 3, 1802 685
' .. .," .
645
Contents
DRAMA
|
xiii
William Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much with Us,, , ; 686.,,
William Wordsworth, [I wandered lonely as a cloud] 686
Emily Dickinson, [There's a certain Slant of light] 687
Robert Frost, Birches ( 688
Robert Frost, Acquainted with the Night 689 ,
Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro 690
. ..
Wallace Stevens, The Snow Man 690
. .
Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird 691
e. e. cummings, in Just- 693
Maya Angelou, Harlem Hopscotch 694
Richard Wilbur, April 5, 1974 695
Mary Oliver, Spring 695
Mary Oliver, Ghosts 697
Derek Walcott, Dry Season 699
Susan Glaspell, Trifles 699
Coherence
Is There a Pattern Here?
How Does This Fit Together?
713
Nick Hornby, from High Fidelity [fiction] 713
High Fidelity [film] 714
Design and Shape 715
George Herbert, Easter Wings [poem] 716
Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain [poem]
717
Traditional Structures 718
Sonnet chart [image] 720
Experiencing Literature through Form 721William Wordsworth, Nuns Fret Not [poem] 722
Edna St. Vincent Millay, I, Being Born a Woman
and Distressed [poem] 722
Robert Frost, Design [poem] 723
Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good
Night [poem] 724
A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Complicating a Thesis
Coherence without Traditional or Fixed Structure
Philip Levine, The Simple Truth [poem] 726
725
726
Modeling Critical Analysis: T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock [poem] 729
xiv
Contents
!
Anthology
Rituals and Routines:.Structuring for Coherence
730
FICTION
Charles W.Chesnutt, Wife of His Youth
733
John Updike, A&P 742
Jonathan Safran Foer, The Very Rigid Search 748
POETRY. , William Cullen Bryant, To Cole, the Painter,
' Departing for Europe 769
Joe Kane, The Boy Who Nearly Won the Texaco Art
Competition 769
Elizabeth Bishop, Manners for a Child of 1918 770
Phillis Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
772
Thomas Lux, The Swimming Pool 773
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Constantly risking absurdity
774
Allen Ginsberg, Supermarket in California
775
Richard Wilbur, A Sketch 776
Miller Williams, Thinking about Bill, Dead of AIDS 777
DRAMA
David Ives, Sure Thing
778
| Interruption
Where Did That Come From?
Why Is This Here? 7,87 .
Interrupting the FictionarFrame
787
The Princess Bride [film] 788
Experiencing Literature through Interruption 789
Douglas Adams, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy [fiction] 790
..
Structural Interruptions
792
William Butler Yeats, The Folly of Being Comforted [poem]
Mary Oliver, Bone Poem [poem] 793
Experiencing Fi!m through Interruption 794
Pulp Fiction [film] 795
Juxtaposition
795
Margaret Bourke-White, At the Time of the Louisville
Flood [image] 796
Experiencing Literature through Juxtaposition 797
Ted Kooser, Tattoo [poem] 798
792
771
Contents
Montage
xv
798
Experiencing Film through Juxtaposition
Roger and Me [film] ;-800 ' l
799'
A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Making Comparisons Relevant,
801
Modeling Critical Analysis:!T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock [poem] 802
Anthology
Framing, Mapping, and Exploration: Placing Interruption 805
FICTION
Jorges Luis Borges, The Garden of Forking Paths
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Sharer 814
EudoraWelty, A Worn Path 847
Raymond Carver, Cathedral
854
L
POETRY
Elizabeth Bishop, Brazil, January, 1502 , , 8 6 7 •». •
Louise Bogan, Cartography 868
; :•: , , : ,
Sharon,Olds, Topography 869
Langston Hughes, Theme for English B 870
Laura Riding, The Map,of Places 871
Richard Wilbur, Worlds 871
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 872
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses 890
Emily Dickinson, [The Brain—is wider than the Sky—] 892
Emily Dickinson, [I never saw a Moor—] 893.
Emily Dickinson; [Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—] , 893
Emily Dickinson, [To make a prairie it takes a clover
and one bee] 893
John Donne, The Sun Rising 894
John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning 895
William Shakespeare, Hamlet 896
DRAMA
806
10| Tone
Did I Hear That Right?
1006
Hearing Right 1007
Margaret Atwood, you fit into me [poem] 1007
i '' Experiencing Literature through Tone • 1 0 0 8
IJ
D o r o t h y Parker, O n e Perfect Rose [pbemj 1 0 0 8
-•'
D o r o t h y Parker, T h o u g h t for a Sunshiny M o r n i n g [poem] 1 0 0 9
y>
John D o n n e , T h e Flea [poem] 1009
Mixing and Balancing Opposing Tones
1010
Ted Kooser, A Letter from Aunt Belle [poem] 1011
Experiencing Literature through Tone 1012
Zora Neale Hurston, from Mules and Men [fiction] 1013
xvi
Contents
Irony and Introspection
1015
,.
sos;.! '•••
M a r g a r e t A t w o o d , S i r e n S o n g [poem]
1 0 1 5 : ...•:• \ •>'•-*"*'•'•" ""-i*- 1
Chinua Achebe, Dead Men's Path [fiction] 1016 . '
\ ;%<>?.
Czeslaw Milosz, If There Is No GddfpoemJ ' 1019 '
• ;, ow ,\
A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Signaling Your Own Understanding ; -,< ,,;\/i
of Tonal Shifts
1020
. .
.
'
' \
•
'•.-.•
•'''•"•>, T'"'
:•
' " r . '<
!i:.;Mi,-\
.'
Modeling Critical Analysis: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 0 Brother,
Where Art Thou? [film] 1020
^nlo^-r?
Margaret Bourke-White, Guard with a shotgun [image] 1021
O Brother, Where Art Thou? [film]' 1022 ' ;
: ,.;^C;jf:.v! .iX.fnBT
Anthology
.
,
.^JS^C;
Caught Between Laughter and Tears: Considering Tone in Analysis ^ 0 2 3
FICTION
POETRY
DRAMA
Katherine Mansfield, A Dill Pickle 1025 •
. . ;-£.;rJ!5
var:..
Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener :*) 1031;c£ sJzicl
Billy Collins, I Chop Some Parsley While Listening'to Art'Blakey's
Version of "three Blind Mice" 1060 <"^ • ; .rsoiv^sJ
W. H. Auden, Musee des Beaux Arts1 1062 ' ' -; ' • " ^ " J Elizabeth Bishop, One Art 1062 '"•'•'
•"-: ' • • J* :i~:r:!®
Quincy Troupe, -Untitled
1063
' ,
"; ' . ; T f r '
Sherman Alexie, Defending Walt Whitman ' 1064
-A
;
J
:1
Ted Kooser, A'Hairnet with Stars "1066 '
•' - - -Yusef Komunyakaa, A Break from the Bush 1067 > 7-jrr»Lisel Mueller, Not Only the Eskimos -1 -1068 • i- ^ - ; Vu«IChristopher Durang and Wendy'Was'sersteih','1 Medea ^ 1 0 7 0
f
111 Word Choice
.,
Why This Word and Not Another? 1077 '
Precision and Playfulness
1078
_,, , n f
Erasmus, from De Duplici Copia Verborum et Rerum [poem] ^ 1079 "
Experiencing Film and Literature through Diction
J080
Moulin Rouge [film] 1081
,,
Beyond Summary
1083 „, ;
., ,
.
...
William Shakespeare, Sonnets (From fairest creatures we desire increase;
When forty winters shall beseige thy brow; Look in thy'glass, and tell
the face thou viewest; Lo! in the orient when the gracious light; Music
to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?;; Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye;
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?) [poems] 1084-1088
A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: On the Paraphrase
1088
Contents
Definition and Usage
1089
xvii
.,,
Billy Collins, Thesaurus [poem] . 1089
Oxford English Dictionary, Love [prose] 1090
Experiencing Literature through Word Choice 1092
Robert Sward, For Gloria on Her 60th Birthday, or Looking for
Love in Merriam-Webster [poem] 1092
Critically Reflecting on Words
1093
Lewis Shiner, from The Turkey City Lexicon: A Primer for Science
Fiction Workshops 1093
Bulwer-Lytton Contest Winners 1094
Modeling Critical..Analysis: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen,
0 Brother Where Art Thou? [film] 1095
Anthology
Romantic Love: Expressing the Exact Emotion ' 1 0 9 7
FICTION
POETRY
DRAMA
7
T
'":
Raymond Carver, What We Talk about When We Talk
about Love 1098
Edith Wharton, Roman Fever 1108
Anonymous, My Love in Her Attire 1119
John Donne, Elegy 19: To His Mistress Going to Bed 1119
John Fletcher, [Take, oh take those, lips away] 1121
Anonymous, Western Wind 1121
Henry Howard, Eai-1 of Surrey, [Love that doth reign and live
within my thought] 1122
Thomas Wyatt, [The long love that in my heart doth harbor] 1122
e. e. cummings, Spring is like a perhaps hand 1123
e. e. cummings, since feeling is first 1124
Emily Dickinson, [Wild Nights—Wild Nights!] 1124
Galway Kinnell, Shelley
1125 ; .
Robert Burns, A Red,. Red Rose 1126
Edna St. Vincent.Millay, What Lips My Lips Have Kissed 1127
Denise Levertov, The Ache of Marriage 1127
Denise Levertov,: Divorcing
1128
.
•
Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd) to His Love 1128
Sir Walter Ralegh, The Nymph's Reply to, the Shepherd 1129
Andrew Marvell,^ To His Coy Mistress 1130 •:<..
.;
Elizabeth Barrett.Browning, [How do I: love thee? Let me
count the ways.] 1131 ,
•
•
:
.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, [When our two souls stand up] 1132
Robert Brownings Meeting at Night 1132
Robert Browning, Parting at, Morning 1133
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House" 1133'
•
xviii
Contents
121 A l l e g o r y
,:U
."• '._• 'V;S ;vir:.:;-•'
Is This Supposed to Mean'Something Else; Too? . '1-194 < c'Learning through Likeness
1 1 9 5 \<J ,-', .
•••
Gertrude Crampton, from T o o t l e [fiction] , 1195
Front cover of T o o t l e [image]
1196 ••:••'.
• ••<,;•*.
•
v-j
<:':!/.
• . !<1 , ; s ' o J
< .
A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Using Analogies in Arguments.,. J J 9 7 . , ;
Experiencing Literature through Allegory
1198
Aesop, T h e C r o w a n d t h e Pitcher [fiction]
."..- ' .
1198
.
Walter Crane, Aesop's " T h e Crow and
the Pitcher" [image]
1199
• - : • . •
,
. ' , „
.• ••,..: r
Emily Dickinson, [Eden is t h a t old-fashioned House] [poem] !i '1199
Embodying Timeless Qualities
1200
':
Engraving of Statue of Justice holding the scales [image]
Dosso Dossi, Allegory of Fortune [image] 1201
Billy Collins, The Death of Allegory, [poem] 1202
R e a d i n g A l l e g o r y ,, 1 2 0 3 , . . K . ^ S T . A - . < \ Plato, The Allegory of the Cave [prose] 1204
Experiencing Film through Allegory yjJ20Z c
The Matrix [film]: '1208 : / . '
•• "J i ,
v '
i *'
"•'l! J
1200 r . ,x
. 1 . . _ 1.
;• ^^r,-,;-
,-. ,,:•
_,
,... •
...
...
,:..
.;,1W
Modeling Critical Analysis: Joao Guimaraes Rosa, "•• '
The Third Bank of thei River [fiction]
1209
" ":
Joao Guimaraes Rosa,,The Third Bank of the River [fiction] 1209
Anthology
..'.-.
The Quest for Truth: Reading Allegory
1214
. . ''...
FICTION
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown , 1216 ,
POETRY
Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky
1227 "
' '
'
'
Sir John Tenniel, The Jabberwocky [image] 1228
Edmund Spenser, from The Faerie Queene 1228
Richard Corbett, The Fairies Farewell 1231
Robert Browning, Porphyria's Lover 1233
John Donne, Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God 1235
John. Donne, The Canonization 1235
John Donne, Death, Be Not Proud 1237
Emily Dickinson, [Because I could not stop for Death—] 1237
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty 1238,
Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover
1239 •
Ogden Nash, Kind of an Ode to Duty
1239 •
Amiri Baraka, In Memory of Radio 1240- .'•••..
Anne Carson, TV Men: Lazarus 1242, •
DRAMA
Jane Martin, Beauty 1245
Contents
131
xix
Symbolism
How Do I Know When an Event or'an Image Is Supposed to
Stand for Something Else? 1252
•
Figurative Language
1254
Experiencing Literature through Symbols
1256.
Mary Jo Salter, Home Movies: A Sort of.Ode [poem]
Recognizing Symbols
1258
•"
'•••
1256 •' '
•
•
What does an apple symbolize? [images] 1259-1260
Gary Soto, Oranges [poem] 1261
<• '
Allegory and Symbol .1262
Experiencing Literature through Symbolism' 1263
Nathaniel Hawthorne, from Young Goodman Brown [fiction]
A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Justifying a Symbolic Reading
1263
1265
Modeling Critical Analysis: Joao Guimaraes Rosa,
The Third Bank of the River [fiction] 1265 ' '
Anthology
Building and Undoing Community: Taking Part in Symbolism 1266
FICTION
POETRY
DRAMA
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Very Old Man with
Enormous Wings _, 1269
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in
the World: A Tale for Children 1275
Jhumpa Lahiri, This Blessed House 1279
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery 1293
Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach 1301
Jimmy Santiago Baca, Green Chile
1302
,'. •"
e. e. cummings, [anyone "lived in a pretty how towri] 1304
Emily Dickinson, [The Soul selects her own Society—] " 1305
Seamus Heaney, Valediction
1305
'
Peter Meinke, Sunday at the Apple Market
1306 SharonTpi'ds;,' The-Possessive' :: 1307 '' :
Alice Walker, Women ' 1307'
'
Walt Whitman, ^ThereWas a Child Went Fbrth 1308
William'Carlos'Williams, At the 'Ball Game'' 1310
William Butler Yeats, The Wild Swans'at C6ole ' 1311
Elizabeth Bishop,1 Pink -'.Dog ' 1312' • ''-\ '
Emma Lazarus; The New Colossus 1314'
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
1314
xx
Contents
141 Context
What.Outside Information Do We Really Need to, Know to
Understand the Text? 1392
How Does New Knowledge Influence Our Experience
of Old Texts? 1393 •
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade [poem]
Apocalypse Now [film] 1396
How Is Knowledge "Outside" the Text Helpful? 1397
Czeslaw Milosz, A Song on the End of the World [poem]
Experiencing Literature in Context 1398
Czeslaw Milosz, Christopher Robin [poem] 1399
1393
1397
•Do-We-Need to Know Everything in Order to Understand? 1400
The Maltese Falcon [film] 1401
Experiencing Art in Context 1402
Gustave Caillebotte, Young Man at His Window [image] 1403
What if Substantial Outside Knowledge Is Essential?
Herman Melville, The House-Top [poem] 1404
1404
A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Using Electronic and Printed
Sources for Research
1407
Modeling Critical Analysis: Joao Guimaraes Rosa,
The Third Bank of the River [fiction] 1408
Anthology
Language and War: Considering Context in Analysis 1410
FICTION
POETRY
Ernest Hemingway, Soldier's Home 1412
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried 1419
Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing 1434
Herman Melville, A Utilitarian View of the Monitor's. Fight 1441
Herbert Read, The Execution of Cornelius Vane 1442
Stephen Crane, There Was a Crimson Clash of War. 1446
e. e. cummings, [i sing of Olaf glad and big] 1447
Richard Eberhart, The Fury of Aerial Bombardment 1448
Edgar A. Guest, The Things That Make a Soldier Great 1449
Sir Henry Newbolt, Vitai Lampada 1450
Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth
1451 .
Wilfred Owen, Qulce et Decorum Est 1452
Carl Sandburg, Grass 1453
Siegfried Sassoon, The Rear-Guard 1453
Siegfried Sassoon, Repression of War Experience 1454
Anne Sexton, Courage 1455
Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson, I Sit and Sew 1457
Contents
DRAMA
Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It 1458
Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Changeling 1459
Mary Jo Salter, Welcome to.Hiroshima 1460
Wislawa Szymborska, The End and the Beginning 1461
Wislawa Szymborska, Monologue of a Dog Ensnared ,in History 1463
Adrienne Rich, For the,Record 1465
Gina Victoria Shaffer, War Spelled Backwards 1466
15 | Allusions
In Order to Understand This Text, Is There Something Else
I Am Supposed to Have Read? 1474
Creating Community .1475
•
., . ,
Experiencing Literature through Allusions t 147-7
,. : . ,
Charles Simic, My Weariness of Epic Proportions [poem] 1477
Revisiting and Renewal 1478
Dick Barnes, Up Home Where I Come From [poem] 1479
Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper [image] 1480
William Wordsworth; My Heart Leaps Up [poem] 1481
Experiencing Film through Allusions 1481
Saturday Night Fever [film] 1482
Pulp Fiction [film] 1482
Identifying and Responding to Allusions
1484
A NOTE TO STUDENT WRITERS: Reference versus AUusion
1486
Modeling Critical Analysis: Tom Stoppard, The Fifteen.Minute
Hamlet [drama] 1486
.
,-. , i,
j
Tom Stoppard, The Fifteen Minute,Hamlet [drama] 1487
Anthology
The Myth of Cheating. Death:. Keeping Literature Alive with Allusion 1497
FICTION
Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have
' You Been? 1498
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily 1512
POETRY
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias 1520
Sharon McCartney, After the Chuck Jones Tribute
on Tele toon 1521
Robert Duncan, Persephone 1522
•'•3" • Sylvia Plath, Two Sisters of Persephone 1523
John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn 1524
John Keats, [When I have fears that I may cease to be] 1526
xxi
xxii
Contents
DRAMA
16|
John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's-Homer 1527
Amy Clampitt,' The Dakota 1527
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott 1528
William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium 1533
Czeslaw Milosz, Orpheus and Eurydice 1534
Rainer Maria Rilke, Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes 1536
Jorie Graham, Orpheus and Eurydice 1 5 3 9 '
H . D., Eurydice 1541
•
'
Adrienne Rich, I Dream I'm the Death of Orpheus 1545
Robert Pinsky, Keyboard 1546
Mary Zimmerman, Metamorphoses 1547
Genre
How Do Our Expectations Impact Our Literary Experience?
How Are Those Expectations Formed? 1582-
What Is Genre? 1583
Conventions
1584 •
•• •
• • „ • ; , • .
Experiencing Literature through Genre 1585
Mrs. J. H. Riddell,./ram Nut Bush Farm [fiction]
Disruptions
1586
•••
• •
.
1585
'
. . . .
Experiencing Literature through Genre
1587
•'-:'
•.-.
William Shakespeare, from M a c b e t h '[drama] • ' ' 1 5 8 8 ' '
Displacement and Parody
1589-
•'
'•"">•
Publicity poster for Buffy the Vampire"Slayer [image] ' 1589
Mark Twain, Ode to Stephen Dowling Bots, Dec'd [poem] 1591 • i •
Genre and Popular Culture 1592
Boys dressed as cowboys [images]
1593
Experiencing Film through Genre
1593
S h a n e [film]
!
'
1594
Unforgiven [film]
• •
' •
•>•;••'
.1595
, " " t'
A NOTE T O STUDENT WRITERS: Moving
beyond Formulaic Writing
3
1596
Modeling Critical Analysis: Tom Stoppard, The Fifteen-Minute
Hamlet [drama] 1597
Anthology
;
•,. .
.
Honoring the Dead and Dignifying Death: Tracing Genre
FICTION
1598 ,.
Katherine Anne. Porter, The Jilting of Granny WeatheralL ,• 1601
Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings
1609
,.
Contents
xxiii
POETRY
John Milton, Lycidas 1612
Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dodryard Bloom'd 1617
Gwendolyn Brooks, De Witt Williams on His Way to
Lincoln Cemetery 1624
Allen Tate, Ode to the Confederate Dead 1625
Robert Lowell, .For the Union Dead 1628
John Keats, Ode to Autumn 1630
Anne Bradstreet, In Memory of My Dear Grandchild, Elizabeth
Bradstreet, Who Deceased August 1665, Being a Year and
Half Old 1631
Anne Bradstreet, Here Followes Some Verses upon the Burning of
Our House, July 10, 1666 1632
Chidiock Tichborne, Elegy Written with His Own Hand in the Tower
before His Execution 1633
Theodore Roethke, Elegy for Jane 1634
Seamus Heaney, Punishment 1635
Louise Erdrich, Dear John Wayne
1637
•»: •
Langston Hughes, Night Funeral in Harlem 1638
Emily Dickinson, [I like a look of Agony] , 1640
Emily Dickinson, [After great pain, a formal feeling comes—] 1640
Rudyard Kipling, The Power of the Dog 1641
John Updike, Dog's Death 1642
DRAMA
Sophocles, Antigone
1643
17 | The Production and Reproduction of Texts '
How Does Retelling and Revising Impact My Experience of
a Text?
How Can Literary Theory Clarify What Constitutes That
Experience? 1674
Texts and Technology 1675
Textual Form and Conditions of Production 1676
Experiencing Literature through Issues of Production 1677
William Blake, A Poison Tree [image] 1678
An Orientation to Contemporary Critical Theory 1679
New criticism and auteur theory 1679
Deconstruction 1680
New historicism and other historically grounded approaches 1681
Why We Study the Texts We Study 1682
Experiencing Literature through Theory 1683
from Major Writers of America [prose] 1683
from Heath Anthology of American Literature [prose]
1684
xxiv
Contents
A N O T E T O S T U D E N T WRITERS: Using Theory
,
Analysis
1684
to Develop
...
Critical
,...
...
. -,r. (
Abridging, Revising, and Repackaging Text 1685
Oliver Twist [image] 1686
:
Oliver Twist [film] 1687
'
•
'
Experiencing Literature through Issues of Production and
Reproduction of Texts 1688
Mark Twain, from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [fiction] 1688
Translations, Subtitles, and Dubbing 1689
from Lost in Translation [screenplay] , 1690
Modeling Critical Analysis: Tom Stoppard, The fifteen Minute
• Hamlet [drama] 1691
~
18 | An Orientation to Research
,
W h y Should I U s e Sources?-.,. ' , - , < > •
How Do I Use Them?
;
:
What Material Do I Document?•'• ' 1695
Why W e Use Sources
Shaping a Topic
1696
•• •••
'
.
; ••
.•„,•.•
•
- .••<
1698
How to Find Sources
1699
Giving Appropriate Credit: The Issue of Plagiarism 1703
David Sumner (Jones), Someone Forgotten (plagiarized) [poem]• 1703
Neal Bowers, Teh-Year Elegy [poem] ...11.704,
.... .' ..-,.. -•
Experiencing Literature through Considerations of Plagiarism • • 1706
Plutarch, from Lives of the Npble Grecians and Romans [prose],., 1706
William Shakespeare, from Julius Caesar. 1707 ,
Integrating Sources into Writing: What We Document
Quotation, paraphrase, and summary 1710
Distinct insights and common observations 1:712
Common knowledge 1.712. ..
How to Cite 1713 •
•
Parenthetical references in the text
The Works Cited list
1714
1713
-.
. . . • . : .
.,
,
Appendix A: Student Model Essay Collection
1721
Appendix B: Collection of Poet Biographies
1741
Appendix C: Alternate Contents by Genre'., 1779 . ,
Glossary 1791
Credits .1809 . ,, , .
,
,,
' ,. ' .
Index of First Lines of Poetry
1827
Index of Authors and Titles
1833
1709
:
>
. - , . ; •
. . , , . .
''.',' .-.', . ../ , ,".',,