Writing About Literature: Write now, right now
Roberts, Appendix B -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
Literary works spring into life with each and every reading. You may thus assume that everything happening takes place in the present, and when writing about literature, you should use the present tense of verbs.
I've always wondered whether this is a "rule" or not, and I've sometimes found myself jumping back and forth between present and past tense in my critical essays.
Comments
It becomes trickier in works that include flashbacks, or that otherwise present events out of chronological order. But in general, in a play, if you're referring to events that happened before the curtain went up and the play began, or events in a novel that happen before the novel starts, you should refer to them as if they happened in the past. The events described in the work itself happen again each time you encounter the text, so the conevention is to describe them in the present tense.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz | February 22, 2006 12:31 PM