PART I. APPROACHING LITERATURE
1. Reading Literature: Taking Part in a Process
Sherman Alexie, Superman and Me
The Nature of Reading
Active Reading
CHECKLIST on Active Reading
Julia Alvarez, Daughter of Invention
2. Writing in Response to Literature: Entering the Conversation
Alice Walker, The Flowers
Writing in the Margins
Journal Writing
Discussing Literature
TIPS for Effective Journal Writing
TIPS for Participating in Class Discussions
Writing Essay Examination Answers
Writing Short Papers
TIPS for Writing a Short Paper
Writing Research Papers
Writing Papers in Other Formats
Composing in Other Art Forms
PART II. APPROACHING FICTION
3. Reading Fiction: Responding to the Real World of Stories
What Is Fiction?
Why Read Fiction?
Active Reading: Fiction
Rereading Fiction
4. Plot and Characters: Watching What Happens, to Whom
Reading for Plot
Dagoberto Gilb, Love in L.A.
Reading for Characters
CHECKLIST for Reading About Plot and Character
Further Reading
Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible
Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Responding Through Writing
Writing About Plot and Character
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing About Plot and Character
Writing About Connnections
"Love and the City": Realizing Relationships in Dagoberto Gilb’s Love in L.A. and Raymond Carver’s What We Talk about When We Talk about Love
"My Brother’s Keeper": Supportive Siblings in Louise Erdrich’s The Red Convertible and James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues
"Good Men Are Hard to Find": Encounters with Evil in Joyce Carol Oates’s Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? and Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
5. Point of View and Theme: Being Alert to Angles, Open to Insights
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
Reading for Narrator
Reading for Point of View
Theme
CHECKLIST for Reading about Point of View and Theme
Further Reading
Alice Walker, Everyday Use
*George Saunders, The End of FIRPO in the World
Approaching Graphic Fiction
*Lynda Barry, Today’s Demon: Magic
Responding Through Writing
Writing About Point of View and Theme
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Point of View and Theme
Writing About Connections
"Staring Out Front Windows": Seeking Escape in Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street and James Joyce’s Araby
"Can You Come Home Again?": The Difficulty of Returning in Alice Walker’s Everyday Use and Monica Ali’s Dinner with Dr. Azad
"States of Mind That Matter": Approaching Death in George Saunders’s The End of FIRPO in the World and Katherine Anne Porter’s The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
6. Setting and Symbol: Meeting Meaning in Places and Objects
Setting
Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants
Reading for Symbols
Reading for Allegory
CHECKLIST for Reading about Setting and Symbol
Further Reading
Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
*Edward P. Jones, Bad Neighbors
*Joe Sacco, Complacency Kills
Writing About Symbol and Setting
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Setting and Symbol
Writing About Connections
"Secrets of the Heart": Keeping Hope Alive in Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants and David Means’s The Secret Goldfish
"Dying a Good Death": Struggles Over What Matters in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and Yiyun Li’s Persimmons
"‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’": Nature vs. Nurture in Edward P. Jones’s Bad Neighbors and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
7. Style, Tone, and Irony: Attending to Expression and Attitude
Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour
Reading for Style
Reading for Tone
Reading for Irony
CHECKLIST on Reading about Style, Tone, and Irony
Further Reading
Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson
*Katherine Min, Courting a Monk
Responding Through Writing
Writing About Style, Tone and Irony
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Style, Tone, and Irony
Writing About Connections
"Time for a Change": Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour and Jhumpa Lahiri’s A Temporary Matter
"Learning Out of School": Personal Maturity in Toni Cade Bambara’s The Lesson and John Updike’s A & P
"‘Gather Ye Rosebuds’": Looking for Love in Katherine Min’s Courting a Monk and William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
8. Writing about Fiction: Applying What You’ve Learned
Topics
TIPS for Writing Compare and Contrast Papers
Development
TIPS for Writing Social and Cultural Criticism
A Student Writer at Work: Alicia Abood on the Writing Process
Student Paper: Alicia Abood, "Clips of Language: The Effect of Diction in Dagoberto Gilb’s ‘Love in L.A.’"
9. An Author in Depth: Sherman Alexie: Exploring One Writer’s World
Sherman Alexie, This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona
Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
*Sherman Alexie, Somebody Kept Saying Powwow
Tomson Highway, Interview with Sherman Alexie
*Ase Nygren, A World of Story-Smoke: A Conversation with Sherman Alexie
Joseph L. Coulombe, The Approximate Size of His Favorite Humor: Sherman Alexie’s Comic Connections and Disconnections in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
*Jerome Denuccio, Slow Dancing with Skeletons: Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
*James Cox, Muting White Noise: The Subversion of Popular Culture Narratives of Conquest in Sherman Alexie’s Fiction
10. A Collection of Stories: Visiting a Variety of Vistas
*Monica Ali, Dinner with Dr. Azad
Isabel Allende (Chile), And of Clay Are We Created
James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues
*Melissa Bank, The Wonder Spot
*Raymond Carver, What We Talk about When We Talk about Love
*Judith Ortiz Cofer, American History
Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown
Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat
*James Joyce, Araby
Jamaica Kincaid, Girl
*Jhumpa Lahiri, A Temporary Matter
*Yiyun Li, Persimmons
Gabriel Garc’a Marquez (Columbia), A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
*David Means, The Secret Goldfish
*Ana Menendez, Her Mother’s House
Toni Morrison, Recitatif
*Haruki Murakami, Birthday Girl
Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing
Edgar Allen Poe, The Cask of Amontillado
Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Nahid Rachlin, Departures
Salman Rushdie (India), The Prophet’s Hair
Leslie Marmon Silko, The Man to Send Rain Clouds
*Zadie Smith, The Girl with Bangs
*John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums
Amy Tan, Two Kinds
John Updike, A & P
Helena Mar’a Viramontes, The Moths
PART III. APPROACHING POETRY
11. Reading Poetry: Realizing the Richness in Poems
What Is Poetry?
Why Read Poetry?
Active Reading: Poetry
Rereading Poetry
12. Words and Images: Seizing on Sense and Sight
Denotation
Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays
Connotation
Gwendolyn Brooks, The Bean Eaters
Images
Maxine Kumin, The Sound of Night
William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow
CHECKLIST on Reading for Words and Images
Further Reading
Allison Joseph, On Being Told I Don’t Speak like a Black Person
*Robert Bly, Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter
Jonathan Swift, A Description of the Morning
Garrett Kaoru Hongo, Yellow Light
Robert Frost, After Apple-Picking
Anita Endrezze, The Girl Who Loved the Sky
Responding Through Writing
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Words and Images
Writing About Connections
"Autumn Leaves": The Changing Seasons of Life in Robert Frost’s After Apple-Picking and Joseph Awad’s Autumnal
"Seeing the City": The Contrasting Perspectives of Jonathan Swift’s A Description of the Morning and Cheryl Savageau’s Bones — A City Poem
"Impermanence’s Permanence": Anita Endrezze’s The Girl Who Loved the Sky and Edmund Spenser’s One day I wrote her name upon the strand
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
13. Voice, Tone, and Sound: Hearing for How Sense Is Said
Voice
Li-young Lee, Eating Alone
Charles Bukowski, my old man
Dramatic Monologue
Tone
Theodore Roethke, My Papa’s Waltz
Irony
Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll
Sound
Sekou Sundiata, Blink Your Eyes
CHECKLIST on Reading for Voice, Tone, and Sound
Further Reading
Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est
Yosef Komunyakaa, Facing It
Richard Garcia, Why I Left the Church
*Billy Collins, Consolation
Robert Browning, My Last Duchess
Responding Through Writing
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Voice, Tone, and Sound
Writing About Connections
"All the Comforts of Home": Contrasting Spirits of Adventure in Billy Collins’s Consolation and Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses
"Arms and the Man": War without Glory in Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est and Vievee Francis’s Private Smith’s Primer
"Dancing with the Dark": Movement and Memory in Theodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz and Cornelius Eady’s My Mother, If She Had Won Free Dance Lessons
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
14. Form and Type: Delighting in Design
Lines
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
Stanzas
Countee Cullen, Incident
Sonnets
William Shakespeare, That time of year thou mayst in me behold
Claude McKay, If we must die
Gerard Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur
Helene Johnson, Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem
Blank Verse and Couplets
Free Verse
Leslie Marmon Silko, Prayer to the Pacific
Internal Form
CHECKLIST on Reading for Form and Type
Further Reading
James Wright, A Blessing
Joy Harjo, She Had Some Horses
William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree
*Robert Herrick, To Daffodils
David Mura, Grandfather-in-law
*Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina
Responding Through Writing
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Form and Type
Writing About Connections
"Amazing Grace": Being Blessed from within and from without in James Wright’s A Blessing and Galway Kinnell’s Saint Francis and the Sow
"‘Which thou must leave ere long’": Approaching Separation in Elizabeth Bishop’s Sestina and William Shakespeare’s That time of year thou mayst in me behold
"The Solace of Solitude": Place and Peace in W. B.Yeats’s The Lake Isle of Innisfree and Lorine Niedecker’s My Life by Water
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
15. Figurative Language: Wondering What This Has to Do with That
Simile
Julie Moulds, From Wedding Iva
Langston Hughes, Harlem
Metaphor
Dennis Brutus, Nightsong: City
Personification
Angelina Weld Grimke, A Winter Twilight
Metonymy And Synecdoche
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory
Two Other Observations about Figures
William Stafford, Traveling through the Dark
CHECKLIST on Reading for Figurative Language
Further Reading
John Keats, To Autumn
*Mary Oliver, First Snow
Judith Ortiz Cofer, Cold as Heaven
Geoffrey Hill, In Memory Of Jane Fraser
Julia Alvarez, How I Learned to Sweep
Responding Through Writing
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Figurative Language
Writing About Connections
"Innocence and Experience": Confrontations with Evil in Julia Alvarez’s How I Learned to Sweep and William Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper
"A Joyful Melancholy": Nature and Beauty in Mary Oliver’s First Snow and William Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
"Knowing Deep the Seasons": Antitheses of Life in John Keats’s To Autumn and William Carlos Williams’s Spring and All
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
16. Rhythm and Meter: Feeling the Beat, the Flux, and the Flow
Rhythm
e. e. cummings, Buffalo Bill’s
Meter
Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask
CHECKLIST on Reading for Rhythm and Meter
Further Reading
Lucille Clifton, at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989
Lorna Dee Cervantes, Freeway 280
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
Naomi Shihab Nye, The Small Vases From Hebron
A. K. Ramanujan, Self-portrait
Emily Dickinson, I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Sylvia Plath, Metaphors
Georgia Douglas Johnson, Wishes
Responding Through Writing
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Rhythm and Meter
Writing About Connections
"Grief beyond Grief": Dealing with Death in Ben Jonson’s On My First Son and Michael S. Harper’s Nightmare Begins Responsibility
"Remembering the Unremembered": The Language of Preservation in Lucille Clifton’s at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989 and Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
"On the Road Again": The Search for Self in Lorna Dee Cervante’s Freeway 280 and Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
17. Writing about Poetry: Applying What You’ve Learned
Topics
Development
A Student Writer at Work: Dan Carter on the Writing Process
Student Paper: Dan Carter, ÒA Slant on the Standard Love SonnetÓ
18. A Theme in Depth: Explicating the Everyday
*Julia Alvarez, Ironing Their Clothes
*Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Bench in Aix-en-Provence
*Lucille Clifton, Cutting Greens
*Billy Collins, Days
*Emily Dickinson, I heard a Fly buzz
Rita Dove, The Satisfaction Coal Company
Robert Frost, Mending Wall
*Christopher Gilbert, Touching
*Ben Jonson, Inviting a Friend to Supper
*Ted Kooser, Applesauce
*Li-Young Lee, Braiding
*Denise Levertov, The Acolyte
*Pablo Neruda (Chile), Ode to French Fires
Naomi Shihab Nye, The Small Vases from Hebron
Simon Ortiz, Speaking
*Jack Ridl, Love Poem
*Len Roberts, At the Train Tracks
*William Stafford, Notice What This Poem Is Not Doing
*Mary Tallmountain, Peeling Pippins
*Nancy Willard, The Potato Picker
*William Carlos Williams, The Is Just to Say
*William Wordsworth, I wandered lonely as a cloud
*Jeff Gundy, A Review of Delights and Shadows by Ted Kooser
*Sarah Jensen, A Review of Broken Symmetry by Jack Ridl
*William Stafford, The Importance of the Trivial
*Louis Simpson, from Important and Unimportant Poems
*Bill Moyers, An Interview with Naomi Shihab Nye
*Ted Kooser, Out of the Ordinary
*Paul Lake, The Malady of the Quotidian
*Donna A. Rohrer, William Carlos Williams’s Poetics: Turning the Ordinary into the Beautiful
19. A Collection of Poems: Valuing a Variety of Voices
Ai, Why Can’t I Leave You?
Agha Shahid Ali, I Dream It Is Afternoon When I Return To Delhi
Anonymous, Sir Patrick Spens
*Margaret Atwood, True Stories
W. H. Auden, MusŽe Des Beaux Arts
Joseph Awad, Autumnal
Jimmy Santiago Baca, Family Ties
Jim Barnes, Return To La Plata, Missouri
Gerald Barrax, Dara
Elizabeth Bishop, In the Waiting Room
William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper
Peter Blue Cloud, Rattle
Eavan Boland, The Pomegranate
Anne Bradstreet, To My Dear and Loving Husband
Sterling Brown, Riverbank Blues
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
*Anthony Butts, Ferris Wheel
*Ana Castillo, I Heard the Cries of Two Hundred Children
Sandra Castillo, Exile
Rosemary Catacalos, David Talam‡ntez on the Last Day of Second Grade
*Tina Chang, Origin & Ash
Marilyn Chin, Turtle Soup
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan
Jayne Cortez, Into This Time
Victor Hernandez Cruz, Problems with Hurricanes
e. e. cummings, in Just —
Keki N. Daruwalla, Pestilence
Toi Derricotte, A Note on My Son’s Face
Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for death
Emily Dickinson, Much Madness is divinest Sense
Ana Doina, The Extinct Homeland — A Conversation with Czeslaw Milosz
*John Donne, Death, be not proud
Mark Doty, Tiara
Cornelius Eady, My Mother, If She Had Won Free Dance Lessons
T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Louise Erdrich, A Love Medicine
Mart’n Espada, The Saint Vincent de Paul Food Pantry Stomp
Sandra Mar’a Esteves, A la Mujer Borrinque–a
Carolyn Forche, The Colonel
*Vievee Francis, Private Smith’s Primer
Allen Ginsburg, A Supermarket in California
Nikki Giovanni, Nikka-Rosa
Ray Gonzalez, Praise the Tortilla, Praise the Menudo, Praise the Chorizo
Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Kimiko Hahn, Mother’s Mother
*Donald Hall, The Names of Horses
Michael S. Harper, Nightmare Begins Responsibility
Samuel Hazo, For Fawzi in Jerusalem
Seamus Heaney, Digging
George Herbert, The Pulley
David Hernandez, The Butterfly Effect
Robert Herrick, To the Virgins to Make Much of Time
Linda Hogan, The History Of Red
A. E. Housman, To an Athlete Dying Young
*Langston Hughes, Theme for English B
Lawson Fusao Inada, Plucking Out a Rhythm
*Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, Outlandish Blues (The Movie)
Ben Jonson, On My First Son
*A. Van Jordan, From
John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn
*Jane Kenyon, From Room to Room
Galway Kinnell, Saint Francis and the Sow
Etheridge Knight, Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane
*Stanley Kunitz, Father and Son
*Gerry La Femina, The Sound a Body Makes
Li-young Lee, Visions and Interpretations
Philip Levine, What Work Is
*Timothy Liu, The Garden
Audre Lorde, Hanging Fire
Richard Lovelace, To Lucasta, Going to the Wars
Robert Lowell, Skunk Hour
*Medbh McGuckian, On Ballycastle Beach
Heather McHugh, What He Thought
Claude McKay, America
Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress
Orlando Ricardo Menes, Letter to Mirta Y‡–ez
John Milton, When I consider how my light is spent
Janice Mirikitani, For a Daughter Who Leaves
Marianne Moore, Poetry
Robert Morgan, Mountain Bride
*Thylias Moss, The Lynching
Duane Niatum, First Spring
*Lorine Niedecker, My Life by Water
Dwight Okita, In Response to Executive Order 9066
*William Olsen, The Fold-Out Atlas of the Human Body: A Three-Dimensional Book for Readers of All Ages
Michael Ondaatje, Biography
Ricadro Pau-llosa, Years of Exile
Gustavo Perez Firmat, Jose Conseco Breaks Our Hearts Again
*Lucy Perillo, Air Guitar
*Carl Phillips, To the Tune of a Small, Repeatable, and Passing Kindness
Wang Ping, Opening the Face
Robert Pinsky, Shirt
Sylvia Plath, Daddy
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd
Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham
*Mary Ruefle, Naked Ladies
Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck
Alberto R’os, Nani
Wendy Rose, Loo-wit
Sonia Sanchez, An Anthem
Cheryl Savageau, Bones — A City Poem
Vijay Seshadri, The Refugee
*William Shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias
*Charles Simic, Classic Ballroom Dances
Cathy Song, Girl Powdering Her Neck
Gary Soto, The Elements of San Joaquin
Edmund Spenser, One day I wrote her name upon the strand
Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice Cream
*Mark Strand, Eating Poetry
*Virgil Su‡rez, Tea Leaves, Caracoles, Coffee Beans
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses
Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night
Jean Toomer, Face
Quincy Troupe, Poem for the Root Doctor of Rock ’n’ Roll
Gerald Vizenor, Shaman Breaks
Derek Walcott, Sea Grapes
James Welch, Christmas Comes to Moccasin Flat
*Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Becoming Ebony
Roberta Hill Whiteman, The White Land
Walt Whitman, From Song of Myself
Richard Wilbur, Love Calls Us to the Things of This World
William Carlos Williams, Spring and All
Nellie Wong, Grandmother’s Song
*William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
Sir Thomas Wyatt, They flee from me
John Yau, Chinese Villanelle
William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming
Al Young, A Dance for Ma Rainy
Ray A. Young Bear, Green Threatening Clouds
Reading Poems in Translation
Poems in Translation
Anna Akhmatova (Russia), Song of the Last Meeting
Yehuda Amichai (Israel), Wildpeace
Reza Baraheni (Iran), Autumn in Tehran
Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), The Other Tiger
Julia De Burgos (Puerto Rico), Returning
Bei Dao (China), Night: Theme and Variations
Faiz Ahmed Faiz (Pakistan), A Prison Daybreak
Nazim Hikmet (Turkey), Letters from a Man in Solitary
Miroslav Holub (Czech Republic), Elementary School Field Trip to the Dinosaur Exhibit
Taslima Nasrin (Bangladesh), Things Cheaply Had
Pablo Neruda (Chile), The Dead Woman
Octavio Paz (Mexico), The Street
Dahlia Ravikovitch (Israel), Clockwork Doll
Masaoka Siki (Japan), Haiku
Wislawa Szymborska (Poland), On Death, without Exaggeration
Xu Gang (China), Red Azalea on the Cliff
PART IV. APPROACHING DRAMA
20. Reading Drama: Participating in a Playful Pretence
What Is Drama?
Why Read Drama?
Active Reading: Drama
Rereading Drama
21. Character, Conflict, and Dramatic Action: Thinking about Who Does What to Whom and Why
*Kelly Stuart, The New New
Character
Dialogue
Conflict
Dramatic Action
CHECKLIST for Reading about Character, Conflict, and Dramatic Action
Further Reading
*Cusi Cram, West of Stupid
Responding Through Writing
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Character, Conflict, and Dramatic Action
Writing About Connections
"Souls for Sale": The Cost of Devaluing Values in Kelly Stuart’s The New New and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
"Death Draws Near": The Imminence of Mortality in Cusi Cram’s West of Stupid and David Henry Hwang’s As the Crow Flies
"Spinning Out of Control": The Search for Meaning in John Guare’s Woman at a Threshold, Beckoning and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
22. Setting and Structure: Examining Where, When, and How It Happens
Setting
Susan Glaspell, Trifles
Structure
CHECKLIST for Reading about Setting and Structure
Further Reading
David Ives, Sure Thing
Responding Through Writing
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Setting and Structure
Writing About Connections
"By a Higher Standard": The Conflict of Law and Justice in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and Sophocles’s Antigone
"Living on a smile and a handshake": Seling Yourself in David Ive’s Sure Thing and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
"Serving Time in Invisible Prisons": Social Entrapments in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House and August Wilson’s Fences
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
23. Theaters and Their Influence: Imagining the Impact of Stage and Space
The Greek Theater
The Elizabethan Theater
The Modern Theater
The Contemporary Theater
CHECKLIST for Reading about Theaters and Their Influence
Further Reading
David Henry Hwang, As the Crow Flies
Responding Through Writing
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Theaters and Their Influence
Writing About Connections
"I Gotta Be Me": Identity and Inter-relationships in John Leguizamo’s Mambo Mouth: A Savage Comedy and David Ive’s Sure Thing
"Dogs Eating Dogs": The Dramatic Depiction of Racial Oppression in John Leguizamo’s Mambo Mouth: A Savage Comedy and Suzan-Lori Park’s Topdog/Underdog
"Fathers and Sons": Familial Conflict in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and August Wilson’s Fences
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
24. Dramatic Types and Their Effects: Getting into Genres
Tragedy
Comedy
Three Other Dramatic Types
CHECKLIST on Reading about Dramatic Types and Their Effects
Further Reading
John Leguizamo, From Mambo Mouth: A Savage Comedy
Responding Through Writing
Journal Entries
Literary Analysis Papers
Comparison-Contrast Papers
TIPS on Writing about Dramatic Types and Their Effects
Writing About Connections
"The Haunted Heart": The Presence and Significance of Ghosts in David Henry Hwang’s As the Crow Flies and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
"A House Divided": Tyranny vs. Freedom in a Tragedy — Sophocle’s Antigone — and a Problem Play — Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House
"Everyone Loses": The Games People Play in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Writing Research Papers
Composing in Other Art Forms
25. Writing about Drama: Applying What You’ve Learned
Topics
Development
A Student Writer at Work: Julian Hinson on the Writing Process
Student Paper: Julian Hinson, ÒWhen the New is Old in The New NewÓ
26. A Form in Depth: August Wilson’s Fences: Wrestling with One Writer’s Work
August Wilson, Fences
*Reviews and Photos of Fences
*Lloyd Richards, Fences: Introduction
*Clive Barnes, Fiery Fences [a Review*
*Frank Rich, Family Ties in Wilson’s Fences
*Bonnie Lyons, An Interview with August Wilson
*Miles Marshall Lewis, Miles Marshall Lewis Talks with August Wilson
*Missy Dehn Kubitschek, August Wilson’s Gender Lesson
*Harry J. Elam, Jr., August Wilson
*Suson Koprince, Baseball as History and Myth in August Wilson’s Fences
27. A Collection of Plays: Viewing from a Variety of Vantage Points
*Sophocles, Antigone
*William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
*Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog
*John Guare, Woman at a Threshold, Beckoning
Responding Through Writing
Papers Using No Outside Sources
Papers Using Limited Outside Sources
Papers Involving Further Research
PART V. APPROACHING LITERARY RESEARCH
28. Reading Critical Essays: Listening to the Larger Conversation
What Are Critical Essays?
Why Read Critical Essays?
Active Reading: Critical Essays
Sample Essay
Susan Farrell, "Fight vs. Flight: A Re-evaluation of Dee in Alice Walker’s ‘Everyday Use’"
Rereading Critical Essays
29. Writing a Literary Research Paper: Incorporating the Larger Conversation
Topics
Types of Research and Sources
Conducting Research on Contemporary Literature
Finding Sources and Creating a Working Bibliography
Research on Contemporary Literature
Evaluating Sources
Taking Notes
Developing Your Paper and Thesis
Incorporating Sources
Avoiding Plagiarism
Documention Sources: MLA Style
Preparing a Works Cited Page
A Student Writer at Work: Kristina Martinez on the Research Process
Student Paper: Kristina Martinez, "The Structure of Story in Toni Morrison’s ‘Recitatif’"
Biographical Sketches
Appendix on Scansion
Approaching Critical Theory
Glossary of Literary Terms
Index of Authors and Titles
* new to this edition