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We create patterns or connect things in writing a narrative (like in our previous exercise). But how do we identify patterns when reading a literary piece?
Literary critics usually employ what's referred to as close reading. It's called that because it involves looking closely at a text, particularly at how words are used in a passage, how sentences and ideas are arranged in the text, how images and figurative language is used, how the whole text is structured, etc. (Here's a link to help us some more, some useful tips from the Writing Center at Harvard University.)
What we'll realize reading this guide is that close reading will lead us to identifying patterns in a text. Close reading also leads us to connecting the words, sentences, images, and ideas together to an understanding (our interpretation) of the text.
Let's do a group activity using close reading. Here's what we'll do with a text:
And once we're done doing a close reading of "Fish Out of Water," we'll put together all the groups' interpretations and see if we can come up with an interpretation from the whole class.
This group activity will also prepare you to do an individual close reading of another text: Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl."
Literary critics usually employ what's referred to as close reading. It's called that because it involves looking closely at a text, particularly at how words are used in a passage, how sentences and ideas are arranged in the text, how images and figurative language is used, how the whole text is structured, etc. (Here's a link to help us some more, some useful tips from the Writing Center at Harvard University.)
What we'll realize reading this guide is that close reading will lead us to identifying patterns in a text. Close reading also leads us to connecting the words, sentences, images, and ideas together to an understanding (our interpretation) of the text.
Let's do a group activity using close reading. Here's what we'll do with a text:
- We'll annotate, that is highlight and make notes, about certain words or passages or images and ideas we think are important or confusing or we have questions about.
- Then we'll look for patterns (repetitions, contradictions, similarities) and try to explain what these may mean.
- We'll also ask questions (how and why) about what these patterns mean in relation to the text as a whole. Our answers to these questions will eventually lead us to an interpretation of what the text means to us.
And once we're done doing a close reading of "Fish Out of Water," we'll put together all the groups' interpretations and see if we can come up with an interpretation from the whole class.
This group activity will also prepare you to do an individual close reading of another text: Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl."
The connections we discern from the text, and how these patterns become the basis of our readings and interpretations, are possible because of certain elements we as readers share with the creators of the texts we read.
The literary theorist M. H. Abrams provides the following diagram, which he developed to categorize different theories about literature, that may help explain how interpretation works (Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 2001).
Abrams shows that creative works are (1) based on the universe (or the actual world we live in), (2) created by artists, and (3) are apprehended by an audience. Because writers create something based on the world they share with their audience, and because they create these works using a language they share with the audience, readers are able to understand the world created in the text written in a language they also use.
One group from the class, for example, pointed out that Jenkins's work uses an idiomatic phrase for a title. Because we are familiar with the expression "fish out of water," meaning finding oneself in unfamiliar ground, we can apply this understanding to our interpretation of the text.
Tying up this understanding of the title with other parts of the text -- for example, how the man seems to always be caught offguard with the changes in his life -- we can put together an interpretation of the whole text by accounting for all the connections of the different parts.
This interpretation we can always write in a critical analysis of the literary piece. And if we are English majors, we'll be doing much of this task throughout our college life and even beyond.
But what if we aren't, and are just taking this course for the credit? Are there other ways of showing our appreciation and understanding of literary texts?
Next week: responding intertextually to literature.
The literary theorist M. H. Abrams provides the following diagram, which he developed to categorize different theories about literature, that may help explain how interpretation works (Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 2001).
Abrams shows that creative works are (1) based on the universe (or the actual world we live in), (2) created by artists, and (3) are apprehended by an audience. Because writers create something based on the world they share with their audience, and because they create these works using a language they share with the audience, readers are able to understand the world created in the text written in a language they also use.
One group from the class, for example, pointed out that Jenkins's work uses an idiomatic phrase for a title. Because we are familiar with the expression "fish out of water," meaning finding oneself in unfamiliar ground, we can apply this understanding to our interpretation of the text.
Tying up this understanding of the title with other parts of the text -- for example, how the man seems to always be caught offguard with the changes in his life -- we can put together an interpretation of the whole text by accounting for all the connections of the different parts.
This interpretation we can always write in a critical analysis of the literary piece. And if we are English majors, we'll be doing much of this task throughout our college life and even beyond.
But what if we aren't, and are just taking this course for the credit? Are there other ways of showing our appreciation and understanding of literary texts?
Next week: responding intertextually to literature.
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