August 2009 Archives

Sorry about the late post...still waiting for the latest edition to come in the mail!

I realize that this chapter had some useful suggestions; however, they were squeezed between useless repeated comments on how to read? a piece of literature. I felt like I was being told how to summarize a piece not necessarily how to read between the lines. Since when are questions like "What is the situation in the work? Who is the speaker? Who is being addressed?" (55) questions that dig deep into the analysis of the work?  Maybe all those years of being forced to tear apart a piece of literature (not that I don't like analyzing writing- I actually love it) has lead to the skill of answering these mundane questions subconsciously, and it only appears that we jump straight into the hidden meanings of the literature.

Okay, when I first wrote this I was agitated with life and I started to think taking my frustration out on this reading was a little too harsh so here is what I liked about the chapter... Sometimes it is helpful to get back to the basics of reading, writing, and studying literature. I for one always forget what certain literary terms mean and have to resort to my handy dandy dictionary of literary terms to refresh my memory. I guess I should be appreciative that a college text took the liberty of focusing a whole chapter on the basics of close reading. Also, sample essays are always nice to see what the author thinks is an example of A+ work.