Cover: Digging into Literature, 1st Edition by Joanna Wolfe; Laura Wilder

Digging into Literature

First Edition ©2016 Joanna Wolfe; Laura Wilder

Digging into Literature reveals the critical strategies that any college student can use for reading, analyzing, and writing about literary texts. The authors’ unique approach is based on groundbreaking studies of the successful interpretive and rhetorical moves of hundreds of profession...

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Cover: Digging into Literature, 1st Edition by Joanna Wolfe; Laura Wilder

Digging into Literature reveals the critical strategies that any college student can use for reading, analyzing, and writing about literary texts. The authors’ unique approach is based on groundbreaking studies of the successful interpretive and rhetorical moves of hundreds of professional and student essays. Full of practical charts and summaries-- with plenty of exercises and activities for trying out the strategies-- the book convincingly reveals that while great literature is complex, writing effective essays about it doesn’t have to be.

Features

 

Demystifies reading and writing for literature courses. Based on research into hundreds of professional and student critical essays, Digging into Literature demystifies the often tacit goals, values, and expectations for writing about literature by teaching students explicitly about them, and provides fifteen examples of classic and contemporary literary and critical texts for student practice.

Shows how close reading translates directly into interpretive writing. Digging into Literature subordinates traditional attention to formal features of literary texts to instruction on how to use awareness of these features to craft an interpretive argument. Part One, "Introducing Literary Analysis" presents the features of literary analysis, while Part Two "Strategies for Close Reading" shows how to turn unique critical reading strategies (such as "surface/depth," "patterns," and "opposites") into critical writing.

Makes advanced critical research strategies accessible even to beginning literature students. Digging into Literature integrates strategies for working with secondary sources throughout and, in Part Three, "Strategies for Going Beyond the Text," explains both why and how literary critics use literary theory, historical materials, and secondary criticism in their analyses of literary texts.

Offers an activity-driven approach to critical reading and a practical approach to critical writing. Rather than present only "good" student writing, Digging into Literature provides short interpretations of varying quality for students to compare and contrast. Such brief exercises lend themselves to in-class work and provide opportunities to discuss how to improve the persuasiveness of critical writing. Conversely, Digging into Literature not only shows students how to evaluate arguments about texts, but also how to compose their own effective arguments through multiple writing "templates." Activity-driven instruction in Part Four, "Crafting Your Essay," helps students develop, organize, document, revise, and peer-review their critical essays.

Heartens and instructs novices by revealing how even experts struggle to make meaning of texts. Digging into Literature contains transcriptions of literary critics using the strategies outlined in the book as they encounter unfamiliar texts for the first time and struggle to interpret them. These "transcript excerpts" make interpretation more accessible to students by showing that even experts flail and stumble during the messy process of brainstorming. (Similarly, Launch Pad Solo for Literature includes annotated videos of students using the strategies to "think aloud" about a poem.)

Introduces a disciplinary perspective that will serve students well in their other college courses. Digging into Literature is thoroughly grounded in recent genre-focused pedagogical approaches to "writing in the disciplines" (WID) that will be useful in general education courses serving non-majors as well as literature courses intended for English majors.

Brief, flexible, and affordable enough for a wide range of literature courses. Consisting of 400 pages and fifteen literary and critical works, Digging into Literature allows instructors to supplement the rhetorical instruction it provides with further readings for students to discuss and write about. Because its take on "literary texts" is broad and inclusive, it can be used in courses focused on a specific literary period, theme, or issue, and even in courses that ask students to write about film and other works of popular culture. 

New to This Edition

Really terrific at conveying the tacit dimension of interpretive insight, the basis for the skilled moves that literary scholars make. Nowhere have I seen more lucid explanations of how trained readers of literature come up with valid interpretations of texts and how effective writers produce responsible and persuasive textual explications.

--　David Richter, Queens College of CUNY

It "demystifies" the process of writing literary analysis in a way I’ve never seen a textbook do before, . . .This book would be adopted immediately by many of my colleagues in literary studies.
Christian Smith, University of South Carolina

What I’m most impressed with is the authors’ ability to condense a complicated and unruly process into a clear, logical, and orderly discussion. It’s what I’ve been hoping for: A clear and compelling explanation of the how and, most importantly, the why of literary analysis.
Stephen Bernstein, University of Michigan-Flint

I endorse this book with enthusiasm! I’m impressed with the way the authors translated rhetoric and composition research into a lively sophisticated writing pedagogy. Great way to develop writing and analytical skills using literary materials.
Deborah Miller, University of Georgia

The entire concept is a dramatic shift, and eminently more useful than any other supporting text for literary analysis.
Carol Murphy, Adams State College

Digital Options

Table of Contents

PART I INTRODUCING LITERARY ANALYSIS

1. Why Join Critical Conversations about Literature?

Discourse Communities as Parlors

Why Join the Critical Conversation on Literature?

"Texts" and Their "Authors" and "Critics"

"Text" in Literary and Cultural Analysis

Author vs. Literary Critic

Let’s Get Started: Joining the Discourse Community of Literary Critics

Review

 

2. What Is Literary Analysis?

A Literary Analysis Makes Interpretive Claims

A Literary Analysis Must Make Debatable Claims

A Literary Analysis Supports Arguments with Textual Evidence

A Literary Analysis Argues for a Thesis about the Text

A Literary Analysis Explores the Complexity of the Text

Complexity of Arguments vs Complexity of Expression

Review

Leslie Marmon Silko, "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" [story]

 

PART II STRATEGIES FOR CLOSE READING

3. From Surface to Depth

What is the Surface/Depth Strategy?

Sylvia Plath, "Morning Song" [poem]

Using Surface/Depth to Brainstorm

Step 1: Get a Good Grasp of the Surface (Literal) Meaning

Step 2: Dig Below the Surface

Using Surface/Depth to Write Persuasively

Using the Surface/Depth Linking Strategy

Using the Surface/Depth Contrasting Strategy

Plausible vs. Implausible Readings

A Note on Persuasive Interpretations

Review

Now Practice on Your Own

Louise Glück, "Gretel in Darkness" [poem]

4. Patterns

Using Patterns to Brainstorm

Using the Patterns Strategy before Having Clear Surface/Depth Arguments in Mind

Using the Patterns Strategy after Having Brainstormed Some Possible Surface/Depth Arguments

Using Patterns to Write Persuasively

Sample Essay Using Patterns and Surface/Depth Strategies

Sample Essay: Sylvia Plath’s "Morning Song" and the Challenge of Motherly Identity

Review

Now Practice On Your Own

Michael Ondaatje, "The Cinnamon Peeler" [poem]

Sample Essay: "Smell Me": Eroticism in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"

Sample Essay: Contradictory Desires in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"

5. Digging Deeper

Character Descriptions

Setting

Perspective

Comparisons

Ironies

Time and Sequence

Titles and Epigraphs

Specific Words

Sound

Breaks and Groupings

Visual Appearance

Review

Now Practice on Your Own

Rick Bass, "Antlers" [story]

 

6. Opposites

Opposites vs. Irony

Using Opposites to Brainstorm

Using Opposites to Write Persuasively

Review

Now Practice on Your Own

Alice Walker, "Everyday Use" [story]

 

PART III STRATEGIES FOR GOING BEYOND THE TEXT

7. Context

Common Types of Contextual Information

Using Context to Brainstorm

Finding Contextual Information

Finding Contextual Information Using General Web Searches

Finding Contextual Information Using Library Databases

Finding Contextual Information Using the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

Phillis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" [poem]

Now Practice on Your Own

William Wordsworth, "The World Is Too Much with Us" [poem]

Using Context to Write Persuasively

Options for the Scope of the Context Strategy

Sample Essay: Competing Parental Philosophies in Sylvia Plath’s "Morning Song"

Sample Essay: Smelling Sri Lanka in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"

Citing Contextual Information

Review

8.  Genre and Form

Genre vs. Verse Form

Making Arguments about Genre

Using Genre to Brainstorm

Using Unfamiliar Verse Genres: The Sonnet

The Sonnet Defined

Petrarchan and Shakespearean Sonnets

Using Genre to Write Persuasively

Learning More about Genres

Review

Now Practice on Your Own

Molly Peacock, "Desire" [poem]

 

9. Social Relevance

Using Social Relevance to Brainstorm

Using Social Relevance to Write Persuasively

Social Relevance and Other Strategies of Literary Analysis

Criticism Changes Over Time

Review

10. Theoretical Lens

Theoretical Lens vs. Context

Applying a Theoretical Lens: Double-Consciousness and Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes, "Theme for English B" [poem]

Sample Synopsis: The Veil and Double-Consciousness in Du Bois’s "Of Our Spiritual Strivings"

Using the Theoretical Lens Strategy to Brainstorm

Step 1: Choose a Theoretical Lens

Step 2: Work to Understand the Surface Meaning of Both Primary and Theoretical Texts

Step 3: Re-read the Primary Text Using the Surface/Depth Strategy

Step 4: Reflect on How the Primary Text Differs from the Theoretical Text

Using a Theoretical Lens to Write Persuasively

Sample Essay: Double-Consciousness in "Theme for English B"

Additional Theoretical Texts

Review

Now Practice on Your Own

11. Joining the Critical Conversation

Repeating the Conversation vs. Contributing Something New to the Conversation

Moving Beyond "Because the Experts Say So"

Entering the Discourse Community of Published Criticism

Add New Evidence

Add New Interpretations

Disagree with Previous Interpretations

Using the Critical Conversation to Brainstorm

Finding Published Criticism

Joining a Conversation When No One Has Written on a Text

Using the Critical Conversation to Write Persuasively

Remind Readers What Has Already Been Said about the Conversation You Are Joining

Distinguish Your Views from Those of the Critics You Cite

Support Your Views

Review

 

12. Using All the Strategies on a Single Work

David Henry Hwang, As the Crow Flies [play]

Now Practice on Your Own

 

PART IV. CRAFTING YOUR ESSAY

13. Developing a Thesis and Organizing Your Essay

Understanding the Role of the Thesis Statement

Analyzing the Well-Organized Essay

Sample Essay: Contradictory Desires in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"

Developing a Thesis by Freewriting and Reverse Outlining

Sample Freewrite: "The Man to Send Rain Clouds"

Developing a Thesis with an Outlining-First Strategy

Moving Between Drafting, Organizing, and Discovering

Review

Sample Essay: Hunter and Hunted: The Mixture of Animal and Human in "Antlers"

 

14. Presenting Textual Evidence Effectively

The Quotation Sandwich

Quoting vs. Paraphrasing

Mechanics of Quoting

Documenting Quotations and Paraphrases

Review

 

15. Revision and Peer Review

Global vs. Local Revision

How to Revise Globally

Revision Technique 1: Outline or Reverse Outline

Revision Technique 2: One-Paragraph Summary

Revision Technique 3: Paragraph Analysis

Receiving Feedback: Peer Review and the Critical Conversation

Review

    APPENDIX A: Theoretical Lenses

    W. E. B. Du Bois, from The Souls of Black Folk

    Jerome Bruner, "Self-Making Narratives" (2003)

    Michel Foucault, "Panopticism," from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975)

    Annette Kolodny, from The Lay of the Land

Headshot of Joanna Wolfe

Joanna Wolfe

Joanna Wolfe (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is Director of the Global Communication Center at Carnegie Mellon University, where she develops new methods for improving communication instruction across the university. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles on teamwork, gender studies, collaborative learning technology , technical writing, and rhetoric Her research on collaborative writing in technical communication classes won the 2006 NCTE award for best article reporting qualitative or quantitative research in technical and scientific communication.

Headshot of Laura Wilder

Laura Wilder

Laura Wilder (Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin) is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University at Albany, SUNY, where she teaches courses in rhetoric, writing, film, literature, and composition theory. In 2014, her Rhetorical Strategies and Genre Conventions in Literary Studies: Teaching and Writing in the Disciplines (2012) received the Research Impact Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication, and in 2015 she received both the Presidents Excellence in Teaching Award from the University at Albany and the Chancellors Award for Excellence in Teaching from the SUNY system.

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Instructor’s Manual for Digging into Literature 1e