Reading Literature: Practical Approaches to Engaging with Literature

Why do we read literature? Literature enables us to develop our judgment through observation and reflection. We read literature for the many pleasures it offers. These pleasures range widely across genres, with those reading fiction and drama differing from what readers experience in their encounters with poems and essays.

Reading Literature is a practical guide ranging across the literary genres—poetry, fiction, drama, and essay. For each of these genres, Robert DiYanni outlines five “ways ...