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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780205230310 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Pearson Education |
| Publication date: | 10/24/2011 |
| Edition description: | New Edition |
| Pages: | 400 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d) |
About the Author
He served in the U.S. Army in 1946 and 1947, seeing duty in Arkansas, the Philippine Islands, and Colorado.
He has published articles about the plays of Henry Fielding, the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation. In 1968 he published a scholarly edition of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728), and in 1969 he published a similar edition of Fielding's The Grub-Street Opera (1731), both with the University of Nebraska Press. He first published Writing About Literature (then named Writing Themes About Literature) in 1964, with Prentice Hall. Since then, this book has undergone eleven separate revisions, for a total of twelve editions. In 1986, with Henry E. Jacobs of the University of Alabama, he published the first edition of Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. After Professor Jacobs's untimely death in the summer of 1986, Professor Roberts continued working on changes and revisions to keep this text up to date. The Ninth Edition was published early in 2009, with Pearson Longman. The Fourth Compact Edition of Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing was published in 2008.
Professor Roberts is an enthusiastic devoté of symphonic music and choral singing, having sung in local church choirs for forty years. Recently he has sung (bass) with the New Choral Society of Scarsdale, New York (where he lives), singing in classic works by Handel, Beethoven, Bruckner, Bach, Orff, Britten, Brahms, and others. He is a fan of both the New York Mets and the New York Yankees. When the two teams play in inter-league games, he is uneasy because he dislikes seeing either team lose. He also likes both the Giants and the Jets. He has been an avid jogger ever since the early 1960s, and he enjoys watching national and international track meets.
Professor Roberts encourages queries, comments, and suggestions from students who have been using any of the various books. Use the following email address: <edgar.roberts@verizon.net>.
Table of Contents
T o the I nstructor xvPart I Introduction
C hapter 1 T he P rocess of R eading , R esponding to , and W riting
A bout L iterature 1
What Is Literature, and Why Do We Study It? 1
Types of Literature: The Genres 2
Reading Literature and Responding to It Actively 4
Alice Walker, Everyday Use 5
Reading and Responding in a Computer File or Notebook 14
Major Stages in Thinking and Writing About Literary Topics: Discovering Ideas,
Preparing to Write, Making an Initial Draft of Your Essay, and Completing the
Essay 17
Discovering Ideas (“Brainstorming”) 19
Box: Essays and Paragraphs—Foundation Stones of Writing 24
Preparing to Write 25
Box: The Need for the Actual Physical Process of Writing 27
Making an Initial Draft of Your Assignment 30
Box: The Need for a Sound Argument in Writing About Literature 31
Box: Referring to the Names of Authors 33
Box: The Use of Verb Tenses in the Discussion of Literary Works 34
Illustrative Paragraph 35
Commentary on the Paragraph 38
Illustrative Essay: Mrs. Johnson’s Overly Self-Assured Daughter, Dee, in Walker’s
“Everyday Use” 39
Completing the Essay: Developing and Strengthening Your Essay Through
Revision 41
Illustrative Student Essay (Revised and Improved Draft) 48
Illustrative Essay (Revised and Improved Draft): Mrs. Johnson’s Overly Self-Assured
Daughter, Dee, in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” 49
Commentary on the Essay 52
Essay Commentaries 52
A Summary of Guidelines 52
Writing Topics About the Writing Process 53
A Short Guide to Using Quotations and Making References in Essays About
Literature 53
Part II Writing Essays on Designated Literary Topics
C hapter 2 W riting A bout P lot : T he D evelopment of C onflict and
T ension in L iterature 58
Plot: The Motivation and Causality of Literature 58
Determining the Conflicts in a Story, Drama, or Narrative Poem 58
Writing About the Plot of a Particular Work 60
Organize Your Essay About Plot 60
Illustrative Essay: The Plot of Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” 61
Commentary on the Essay 63
Writing Topics About Plot 63
C hapter 3 W riting A bout P oint of V iew : T he P osition or S tance
of the W ork ’ s N arrator or S peaker 65
An Exercise in Point of View: Reporting an Accident 66
Conditions That Affect Point of View 67
Box: Point of View and Opinions 68
Determining a Work’s Point of View 68
Box: Point of View and Verb Tense 72
Summary: Guidelines for Point of View 73
Writing About Point of View 74
Illustrative Essay: Shirley Jackson’s Dramatic Point of View in “The Lottery” 77
Commentary on the Essay 80
Writing Topics About Point of View 80
C hapter 4 W riting A bout C haracter : T he P eople in L iterature 82
Character Traits 82
How Authors Disclose Character in Literature 83
Types of Characters: Round and Flat 85
Reality and Probability: Verisimilitude 87
Writing About Character 88
Illustrative Essay: The Character of Minnie Wright of Glaspell’s “Trifles” 90
Commentary on the Essay 93
Writing Topics About Character 93
C hapter 5 W riting A bout a C lose R eading : A nalyzing E ntire S hort
P oems or S elected S hort P assages from F iction , L onger
P oems , and P lays 95
The Purpose and Requirements of a Close-Reading Essay 95
The Location of the Passage in a Longer Work 96
Writing About the Close Reading of a Passage in Prose Work, Drama,
or Longer Poem 97
Box: Number the Passage for Easy Reference 98
Illustrative Essay: A Close Reading of a Paragraph from Frank O’Connor’s
Story “First Confession” 98
Commentary on the Essay 101
Writing an Essay on the Close Reading of a Poem 101
Illustrative Essay: A Close Reading of Thomas Hardy’s “The Man He Killed” 103
Commentary on the Essay 106
Writing Topics for a Close-Reading Essay 106
C hapter 6 W riting A bout S tructure : T he O rganization of
L iterature 107
Formal Categories of Structure 107
Formal and Actual Structure 108
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayst
in Me Behold 110
Writing About Structure in Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 112
Organize Your Essay About Structure 113
Illustrative Essay: The Structure of Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” 113
Commentary on the Essay 116
Writing Topics About Structure 116
C hapter 7 W riting A bout S etting : T he B ackground of P lace ,
O bjects , and C ult ure in L iterature 118
What Is Setting? 118
The Importance of Setting in Literature 119
Writing About Setting 122
Organize Your Essay About Setting 122
Illustrative Essay: Maupassant’s Use of Setting in “The Necklace” to Show the
Character of Mathilde 124
Commentary on the Essay 126
Writing Topics About Setting 127
C hapter 8 W riting A bout an I dea or T heme : T he M eaning and the
“M essage ” in L iterature 128
Ideas and Assertions 128
Ideas and Values 129
The Place of Ideas in Literature 129
How to Locate Ideas 130
Writing About a Major Idea in Literature 133
Organize Your Essay on a Major Idea or Theme 134
Illustrative Essay: The Idea of the Importance of Minor and “Trifling” Details
in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles 135
Commentary on the Essay 139
Special Topics for Studying and Discussing Ideas 140
C hapter 9 W riting A bout I magery : T he L iterary W ork ’ s L ink
to the S enses 141
Responses and the Writer’s Use of Detail 141
The Relationship of Imagery to Ideas and Attitudes 142
Types of Imagery 142
Writing About Imagery 144
Organize Your Essay About Imagery 145
Illustrative Essay: The Images of Masefield’s “Cargoes” 146
Commentary on the Essay 148
Writing Topics About Imagery 149
C hapter 10 W riting A bout M etaphor and S imile : A S ource of D epth
and R ange in L iterature 151
Metaphors and Similes: The Major Figures of Speech 151
Characteristics of Metaphors and Similes 153
John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer 153
Box: Vehicle and Tenor 155
Writing About Metaphors and Similes 155
Organize Your Essay About Metaphors and Similes 156
Illustrative Essay: Shakespeare’s Metaphors in “Sonnet 30:
When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought” 157
Commentary on the Essay 160
Writing Topics About Metaphors and Similes 161
C hapter 11 W riting A bout S ymbolism and A llegory : K eys to
E xtended M eaning 162
Symbolism and Meaning 162
Allegory 164
Fable, Parable, and Myth 166
Allusion in Symbolism and Allegory 166
Writing About Symbolism and Allegory 167
Organize Your Essay About Symbolism or Allegory 168
Illustrative Essay (Symbolism in a Poem): Symbolism in William Butler Yeats’s
“The Second Coming” 170
Commentary on the Essay 172
Illustrative Essay (Allegory in a Story): The Allegory of
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” 173
Commentary on the Essay 177
Writing Topics About Symbolism and Allegory 177
C hapter 12 W riting A bout T one : T he W riter ’ s C ontrol
over A ttitudes and F eelings 179
Tone and Attitudes 180
Tone and Humor 181
Tone and Irony 182
Writing About Tone 184
Organize Your Essay about Tone 185
Illustrative Essay: Kate Chopin’s Irony in “The Story of an Hour” 186
Commentary on the Essay 190
Writing Topics About Tone 190
C hapter 13 W riting A bout R hyme in P oetry :
T he R epetition of I dentical S ounds to
E mphasize I deas 192
The Nature and Function of Rhyme 192
Writing About Rhyme 196
Organize Your Essay About Rhyme 196
Illustrative Essay: The Rhymes in Christina Rossetti’s “Echo” 197
Commentary on the Essay 200
Writing Topics About Rhyme in Poetry 201
Part III Writing About More General Literary Topics
C hapter 14 W riting A bout a L iterary P roblem : C hallenges to
O vercome in R eading 202
Strategies for Developing an Essay About a Problem 203
Writing About a Problem 205
Organize Your Essay About a Problem 205
Illustrative Essay: The Problem of Robert Frost’s Use of the Term
“Desert Places” in the Poem “Desert Places”
206
Commentary on the Essay 208
Writing Topics About Studying Problems in Literature 209
C hapter 15 W riting E ssays of C omparison -C ontrast and
E xtended C omparison -C ontrast : L earning by
S eeing L iterary W orks T ogether 210
Guidelines for the Comparison-Contrast Essay 211
The Extended Comparison-Contrast Essay 214
Box: Citing References in a Longer Comparison-Contrast Essay 215
Writing a Comparison-Contrast Essay 215
Organize Your Comparison-Contrast Essay 215
Illustrative Essay (Comparing and Contrasting Two Works): The Views
of War in Amy Lowell’s “Patterns” and Wilfred Owen’s “Anthem for
Doomed Youth” 216
Commentary on the Essay 220
Illustrative Essay (Extended Comparison-Contrast): Literary Treatments
of the Tension Between Private and Public Life 220
Commentary on the Essay 225
Writing Topics About Comparison and Contrast 226
C hapter 16 W riting A bout a W ork in I ts H istorical ,
I ntellectual , and C ult ural C ontext 228
History, Culture, and Multiculturalism 229
Literature in Its Time and Place 230
Writing About a Work in Its Historical and Cultural Context 230
Organize Your Essay About a Work and Its Context 232
Illustrative Essay: Langston Hughes’s References to Black Servitude and
Black Pride in “
Negro” 234
Commentary on the Essay 237
Writing Topics About Works in Their Historical, Intellectual, and
Cultural Context 237
C hapter 17 W riting a R eview E ssay : D eveloping I deas and E valuating
L iterary W orks for S pecial or
G eneral A udiences 239
Writing a Review Essay 240
Organize Your Review Essay 240
First Illustrative Essay (A Review for General Readers): Nathaniel
Hawthorne’s Story “Young Goodman Brown”: A View of Mistaken
Zeal 242
Commentary on the Essay 244
Second Illustrative Essay (Designed for a Particular Group—Here, a
Religious Group): Religious Intolerance and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Story
“Young Goodman Brown” 244
Commentary on the Essay 246
Third Illustrative Essay (A Personal Review for a General Audience):
Security and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Story “Young Goodman Brown,” 247
Commentary on the Essay 249
Topics for Studying and Discussing the Writing of Reviews 250
C hapter 18 W riting E xaminations on L iterature 251
Answer the Questions That Are Asked 251
Systematic Preparation 253
Two Basic Types of Questions About Literature 256
C hapter 19 W riting and D ocumenting the R esearch E ssay ; U sing
E xtra R esources for U nderstanding 262
Selecting a Topic 262
Setting Up a Working Bibliography 264
Locating Sources 264
Box: Evaluating Sources 265
Box: Important Considerations About Computer-Aided Research 267
Taking Notes and Paraphrasing Material 270
Box: Plagiarism: An Embarrassing But Vital
Subject—and a Danger to Be Overcome 273
Classify Your Cards and Group Them Accordingly 277
Documenting Your Work 280
Organize Your Research Essay 283
Illustrative Research Essay: The Structure of Katherine Mansfield’s
“Miss Brill” 284
Commentary on the Essay 290
Writing Topics for Research Essays 292
Part IV Appendixes
A ppendix A
C ritical A pproaches I mportant in the S tudy
of L iterature 293
Moral / Intellectual 294
Topical/Historical 295
New Critical/Formalist 296
Structuralist 297
Feminist Criticism, Gender Studies, and Queer Theory 299
Economic Determinist/Marxist 300
Psychological/Psychoanalytic 301
Archetypal/Symbolic/Mythic 302
Deconstructionist 303
Reader-Response 305
A ppendix B
MLA R ecommendations for D ocumenting
S ources 307
(Nonelectronic) Books, Articles, Poems, Letters, Reviews, Recordings,
Programs 307
The Citation of Electronic Sources 312
A ppendix C
W orks U sed in the T ext for I llustrative E ssays
and R eferences 315
Stories
Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour 316
A woman is shocked by news of her husband’s death, but there is still a greater shock in
store for her.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown 317
Living in colonial Salem, Young Goodman Brown has a bewildering encounter that
affects his outlook on life and his attitudes towards people.
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery 327
Why does the prize-winner of a community-sponsored lottery make the claim that the
drawing was not fair?
Frank O’Connor, First Confession 332
Jackie as a young man recalls his mixed memories of the events surrounding his first
childhood experience with confession.
Mark Twain, Luck 338
A follower of a famous British general tells what really happened.
Eudora Welty, A Worn Path 341
Phoenix Jackson, a devoted grandmother, walks a well-worn path on a mission of great
love.
Poems
Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach 347
When you lose certainty, what remains for you?
William Blake, The Tyger 348
What mysterious force creates evil as well as good?
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool 348
Just how cool are they, really? How successful are they going to be?
Robert Browning, My Last Duchess 349
An arrogant duke shows his dead wife’s portrait to the envoy of the count.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan 350
What does Kubla Khan create to give himself the greatest joy?
John Donne, Holy Sonnet 10: Death Be Not Proud 352
How does eternal life put down death?
Robert Frost, Desert Places 352
What is more frightening than the emptiness of outer space?
Thomas Hardy, Channel Firing 353
What is loud enough to waken the dead, and then, what do the dead say about it?
Thomas Hardy, The Man He Killed 354
A combat soldier muses about the irony of battlefield conflict.
Langston Hughes, Negro 354
What are some of the outrages experienced throughout history by blacks?
John Keats, Bright Star 355
The speaker dedicates himself to constancy and steadfastness.
John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer 356
How can reading a translation be as exciting as discovering a new planet or a new
ocean?
Irving Layton, Rhine Boat Trip 356
What terrible memory counterbalances the beauty of German castles, fields, and
traditions?
Amy Lowell, Patterns 357
What does a woman think when she learns that her fiancé will never return from
overseas battle?
John Masefield, Cargoes 360
How do modern cargo ships differ from those of the past?
Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth 360
War forces poignant changes in normally peaceful ceremonies.
Christina Rossetti, Echo 361
A love from the distant past still lingers in memory.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 30: When to the Sessions of Sweet
Silent Thought 361
The speaker remembers his past, judges his life , and finds great value in the present.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou May’st
in Me Behold 362
Even though age is closing in, the speaker finds his reason for dedication to the past.
Walt Whitman, Reconciliation 362
In what way is the speaker reconciled to his former enemy?
William Wordsworth, Lines Written in Early Spring 363
The songs of woodland birds lead the speaker to moral thoughts.
William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming 364
What new and dangerous forces are being turned loose in our modern world?
NOTE—The following selections are referenced throughout Writing About Literature ,
but do not physically appear in the text:
Guy de Maupassant, “The Necklace”
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”
Katharine Mansfield, “Miss Brill”
Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess”
Susan Glaspell, Trifles
William Shakespeare, Hamlet
However, these selections are available in the eAnthology featured in
MyLiteratureLab (www.myliteraturelab.com), along with more than 200
additional literary works. Please refer to the inside front and back cover
for a complete listing of available selections. For more information on
packaging this text with MyLiteratureLab at no additional cost, refer to page xvi.
A G lossary of I mportant L iterary T erms 365
C redits 377
I ndex of T itles , A uthors , and F irst L ines of P oetry 379
Preface
To the Instructor
In this tenth edition of Writing About Literature, I have kept and strengthened those features that so many of you have valued over the years. As in the past, I base my approach not on genres, with specific assignments to be determined, but rather on topics for full-length essays on texts in any genre. While the constant emphasis is on writing complete essays about literature, the chapters may also be used as starting points for classroom study and discussion, and thus may also be adapted for shorter writing assignments. In a one-semester course the book offers selective choices for study and writing; whereas in a two- or three-semester sequence, it is extensive enough to offer the possibility of complete or close-to-complete use.
The various chapter discussions may actually be considered as essay assignments, for that is how they were developed. Many years ago, when I was just starting out as a teacher of literature, and, inevitably, as a teacher of writing, I learned that there was a direct connection between the ways I made my assignments and the quality of student work. The more I explained to students what I wanted from them, the better their final essays turned out to be. Soon, however, I found myself taking up entire classroom periods in making assignments, and it was then that I began to write and hand out my directions, thus saving considerable classroom time. When I put these directions together, Writing Themes About Literature, now Writing About Literature, was the result, first published in 1964. Every assignment was tried out in the classroom, and I was able to make changes and improvements based on the questions Iwas asked and also based on the written assignments my students turned in.
Organization
As in each past edition of Writing About Literature, each chapter consists of two parts. The first is a discussion of a literary approach, and the second consists of suggestions for writing, together with a demonstrative essay or essays showing how students might deal with the approach.
A major characteristic preserved in this edition is that, after the preliminary discussion in Chapter 1, the chapters are arranged in a loose order of increasing difficulty. Beginning with Chapter 2, which helps students connect their reading with their responses and preferences, the chapters contain topics relevant to all the genres. The comparison-contrast chapter (Chapter 14), for example, illustrates the ways in which the earlier techniques may be focused on any of the chapter-title topics in the book. The chapter also demonstrates how an extensive comparison-contrast technique may be applied simultaneously to fiction, poetry, and drama. The later chapters, such as those on form in poetry, on film, and on research (Chapters 13,16, and 18, respectively), are increasingly involved, but they also combine and build on the various techniques of analysis presented in the earlier chapters.
Although you might assign the chapters in sequence throughout your course, you may also choose them according to your objectives and needs. One instructor, for example, might pass over the earlier chapters and go directly to the later ones. Another might choose the chapter on comparison-contrast for separate assignments such as comparative studies of symbolism, structure, character, and point of view. Still another might use just a few of the chapters, assigning them two or more times until students overcome initial difficulties. No matter how the chapters are used, the two parts—discussion and illustration—enable students to improve their skills as readers and writers.
The illustrative parts of the chapters—the demonstrative essays—are presented in the belief that the word imitation need not be preceded by adjectives like slavish and mere. These demonstrative essays represent suggestions and guidance for thematic development, and therefore represent a full treatment of each of the various topics. Nevertheless, they have been kept within the approximate lengths of most assignments in undergraduate courses. If students are writing outside of class, they can readily create full-length essays. And even though the demonstrative essays treat three or more aspects of particular topics, there is nothing to prevent assigning only one aspect, either for an impromptu or for an outside-class essay. Thus, using the chapter on setting, you might assign a paragraph about the use of setting in only the first scene of a story, or a paragraph about descriptions of interior settings, colors, or shades of color and light.
I emphasize that the purpose of the demonstrative essays is to show what might be done—not what must be done—on particular assignments. It is clear that students writing about literary works are facing a complex task. First, they must read a work for the first time; second, they must attempt to understand it; and third, they must then apply new or unfamiliar concepts to that work as they begin to write about it. By guiding them in developing a thematic form in which to express their ideas, the demonstrative essays are intended to help them overcome the third difficulty. Guidance is key here, not prescription. At first, of course, some students may follow the demonstrative essays closely, whereas others may adapt them or else use them as points of departure. My hope is that students will free themselves to go their own ways as they become more experienced as writers.
Following the demonstrative essays are commentaries, something students recommended that I include in the fourth edition and that I have kept ever since. These are designed to connect the precepts in the first parts of the chapters to the demonstrative writing in the second parts.
Additions. Revisions. Other Changes, and Retentions
All changes in the tenth edition of Writing About Literature, as in earlier editions, are designed to help students read, study, think, plan, draft, and write. I have left no part of the book untouched. A number of chapters are extensively revised; some are almost entirely rewritten. This is particularly true of the revisions in Chapter 1, "Preliminary: The Process of Reading, Responding to, and Writing About Literature." There are many changes here, and also the addition of some drawings that I hope will prove helpful to students beginning to write about literature on a serious level. Of particular note is the addition of Chapter 13, "Writing About Poetic Form." This chapter, here for the first time in the tenth edition, replaces the chapter on prosody from all the earlier editions, but it also contains introductory material on rhythm and rhyme. This change has also required the addition of more specimen poems than were included previously in the book. Also of particular note is the chapter on review essays (Chapter 15) included in the ninth edition and continued here. The reason for retaining this chapter is a practical one: Of all the writing about literature that students may be called on to do in their lives and future careers, review writing is the most likely, whether for general audiences or for audiences united by a common concern.
Another major change is the repositioning of Chapters 3 through 7, which now include a chapter on a close reading of texts, a preliminary technique for all students just beginning the actual study of literature. These five chapters, all of which are suitable for fiction and three of which are suitable for drama, are now arranged in the order of close reading, character, point of view, plot and structure, and setting. In this edition the description of the extended comparison-contrast essay in Chapter 14 has been added at the request of reviewers of the ninth edition. This addition, together with the full chapter on research (Chapter 18), makes for two challenging extended assignments that instructors might give students.
There are many other changes designed to improve the tenth edition. In making the many revisions, alterations, repositionings, and additions (as well as subtractions), I have tried to clarify, improve, and freshen the underlying information and examples. Many of the titles, headings, and subheadings have been retained as complete sentences so as to make them encapsulate the discussions they precede. My hope is that these informative headings will assist students in their understanding of the various topics. In a number of the chapters, the writing sections headed "Raise Questions to Discover Ideas" are augmented, and in the various "Special Topics" sections I have kept the topics designed to help students do library research.
Of the major sections retained from the eighth and ninth editions, Appendix A is worthy of note. This appendix contains brief descriptions of important critical approaches such as New Criticism, structuralism, feminism, deconstructionism, and reader-response criticism. Also of major importance in the tenth edition are the lists of "Special Topics for Studying and Discussing" at the ends of the chapters. These are mainly keyed to the works anthologized in Appendix C, but you are encouraged to adapt them to the selections in whatever anthologies you may be using. In several chapters, there are short related topics that are boxed and shaded to set them apart for emphasis. These discussions, such as "Using the Names of Authors When Writing About Literature," "Vehicle and Tenor;" and "DVD Technology and Film Study;" are designed as short notes to help students think about and develop their own writing. Users of previous editions have singled out these short boxed discussions for praise.
Aside from the extensive revisions and improvements, the chapters are internally different because of changes in Appendix C. The additions are Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," Hardy's "The Man He Killed," Herbert's "Virtue," Randall's "Ballad of Birmingham," Wordsworth's "Lines Written in Early Spring, 'and Yeats's "The Second Coming." (And Chapter 13 now includes Herbert's "Easter Wings," Tennyson's "The Eagle," and Whitman's "Reconciliation.") Also, a few poems from the ninth edition have been omitted. To accompany these changes, there are changes in the topics of the demonstrative essays. I hope that these will make the book richer and, within the confines of the short number of selections, timely. With all the changes, the tenth edition of Writing About Literature remains a comprehensive guide for composition courses in which literature is introduced, and also for literature courses at any level.
An innovation of the sixth edition that has been retained in all subsequent editions is the glossary, which is based on the terms set in boldface in the text. The increasing number of students taking entrance examinations and the GRE has justified this continuation. A student may consult the glossary, which includes definitions and page numbers for further reference, and thereby develop full and systematic knowledge of many important literary concepts.
A particular word is in order about the works included in Appendix C. At one time I believed that clarifying references could be drawn from a pool of works commonly known by advanced high school and college students, and I therefore thought that no reference anthology was necessary. I presented a small number of works in the second edition, keyed to some but not all of the demonstrative essays, but reviewers recommended against it for subsequent editions. Recently, however, readers have emphasized that references to unknown works, even complete and self-explanatory ones, do not fully explain and clarify. Therefore, after the fifth edition, I made the book almost completely self-contained with the increased number of works in Appendix C. (For the chapter on problems, however, I have continued to assume that students are acquainted with Shakespeare's Hamlet; and for the essay on film I have assumed that they might know or learn to know Welles's Citizen Kane.) The result is that both references and demonstrative essays may be easily verified by a reading of the works included in the book. Experience has shown that the unity and coherence provided by these works help students understand and develop their own assignments.
Writing and Literature
The tenth edition brings into focus something that has been true of Writing About Literature since it first appeared in 1964. The book is primarily a practical guide for writing; the emphasis throughout is on how the reading of literature may improve writing. This emphasis is made to help students not only in composition and literature but also in most of their classes. In other subjects such as psychology, economics, sociology, biology, and political science, instructors use texts and ask students to develop papers from raw data. Writing is based on external, written materials, not on the student's own experiences or opinions. Writing is about reading.
Yet instructors of writing and literature face the problems we have always faced. Throughout all our colleges and universities, the demands for good student writing have gone beyond a requirement and a goal, and have now reached a clamor. The needs of other departments have been brought into strong focus by the creation of programs for writing across the curriculum. Such demands have correspondingly imposed a wide diversification of subject matter, straining the general knowledge of English department staffs and also creating a certain topical and thematic pressure on English composition and literature courses. Writing programs that stress internalized subject matter, such as personal experiences or occasional topic materials, have little bearing on writing for other courses. We as English faculty, with a background in literature, have the task of meeting the service needs of our institutions without compromising our own disciplinary commitment.
The approach in this book is aimed at these problems. English teachers can work within their own discipline—literature—while also fulfilling their primary and often required responsibility of teaching writing that is externally, not internally, directed. The book thus keeps the following issues in perspective:
- The requirement of the institution for composition
- The need of students to develop writing skills based on written texts
- The responsibility of the English faculty to teach writing while still working within their own expertise
It is therefore gratifying to claim that, for close to four decades, Writing About Literature has been offering assistance to meet these needs. The approach works, but it is still novel. It gives coherence to the sometimes fragmented composition course: It also provides for adaptation and, as I have stressed, variety Using the book, you can develop a virtually endless number of new topics for essays. One obvious benefit is the possibility of entirely eliminating not only the traditional "theme barrels" of infamous memory in fraternity and sorority houses but also the newer interference from online "enterprises" that provide critical essays to order. I find it difficult to find words to express my contempt for such businesses.
Although Writing About Literature is designed, as I have said in the past, as a rhetoric of practical criticism for students, it is based on profoundly held convictions. I believe that true liberation in a liberal arts curriculum is achieved only through clearly defined goals. Just to make assignments and let students do with them what they can is to encourage frustration and mental enslavement. If students develop a deep knowledge of specific approaches to subject material, however, they can begin to develop some of that expertness that is essential to freedom. As Pope said in An Essay on Criticism,
- True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance,
- As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.
It is almost axiomatic that the development of writing skill in one area (in this instance, the interpretation of literature) has an enabling effect for skills in other areas. The search for information with a particular goal in mind; the asking of pointed questions; the testing, rephrasing, and developing of ideas—all these and more are transferable skills for students to build on throughput their college years and beyond.
I have one concluding article of faith. Those of us whose careers have been established in the study of literature have made commitments to our belief in its value. The study of literature is valid in and of itself; but literature as an art form employs techniques and creates problems for readers that can be dealt with only through analysis, and analysis means work. Thus the immediate aim of Writing About Literature is to help students to read and write about individual literary works. The ultimate objective (in the past I wrote "primary objective") is to promote the lifelong pleasurable study and love of literature.
Acknowledgments
As I complete the tenth edition of Writing About Literature, I renew my deepest thanks to all of you who have been loyal to the earlier editions. Your approval of the book is a great honor. As I think about the revisions for the tenth edition, I am impressed with how much Writing About Literature has been influenced by the collective wisdom of many students and teachers. The reviewers who have been particularly helpful for the tenth edition are Michael Stedillie, Casper College; John Stratton, Ashland University; Elizabeth Velez, Georgetown University; Lisa Williams, Jacksonville State University; John Landry, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth; Dale Carter, California State University; and Troy Nordham, Butler County Community College. Conversations and discussions with many others have influenced my changes in innumerable and immeasurable ways.
I thank Carrie Brandon, Prentice Hall's Senior Acquisitions Editor for English, for her thoughtfulness, encouragement, and helpfulness. Phil Miller of Prentice Hall has given me firm and friendly support over a number of years. In addition, I thank Kari Callaghan Mazzola of Big Sky Composition, and, especially, Mary Anne Shahidi, who copyedited the manuscript and offered many, many corrections and improvements. I particularly thank Jonathan Roberts for his skilled and unfailing help in preparing the manuscripts and disks of the halting and tentative drafts leading to the final copy. Thank you each and every one.
Edgar V. Roberts