Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Print and Digital Reading
Part I: Reading Lyric Poetryâ"5 Ways In
Prelude I: The Pleasures of Lyric Poetry
1. Speaker, Structure, Soundâ"William Butler Yeats: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"
2. Argumentâ"Andrew Marvell: "To His Coy Mistress"
3. Toneâ"Stephen Crane: "War is Kind"
4. Literature and the Artsâ"Pieter Brueghel the Elder, W. H. Auden, William Carlos Williams, and Walt Whitman
5. Interrupted Readingâ"Robert Frost: "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
Interlude I: Epic Poetry
Part II: Reading Fictionâ"Five Ways In
Prelude II: The Pleasures of Fiction
6. Questionsâ"Katherine Anne Porter: "Rope"
7. Surprisesâ"Edgar Allan Poe: "The Cask of Amontillado"
8. Voicesâ"Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
9. Fiction, History, Artâ"Ernest Hemingway: "The Revolutionist" and A Farewell to Arms
10. Interrupted Readingâ"Kate Chopin: "The Story of an Hour"
Interlude II: The Novel and Novella
Part III: Reading Dramaâ"Five Ways In
Prelude III: The Pleasures of Drama
11. Mental Theaterâ"August Strindberg: The Stronger
12. Subtextâ"Wendy Wasserstein: Tender Offer
13. Language and Styleâ"William Shakespeare: Othello
14. Scene and Sound â"William Shakespeare: Macbeth
15. Interrupted Readingâ"George Bernard Shaw: Arms and the Man
Interlude III: Types of Drama
Part IV: Reading the Essayâ"Five Ways In
Prelude IV: The Pleasures of the Essay
16. Annotationâ"Francis Bacon: "Of Youth and Age"
17. Style and Toneâ"Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
18. Slow Readingâ"Leslie Jamison: "A Street Full of Splendid Strangers"
19. Reading Frameworkâ"Jamaica Kincaid: "On Seeing England for the First Time"
20. Interrupted Readingâ"George Orwell: "A Hanging "
Interlude IV: The Video Essay
Part V: Reading with Literary Elementsâ"Five Takes
Prelude V: The Value of Literary Elements
21. Elements of Lyric Poetryâ"Gerard Manley Hopkins: "Spring and Fall: to a young child"
22. Elements of Epic Poetryâ"John Milton: Paradise Lost
23. Elements of Fictionâ"James Joyce: "Araby"
24. Elements of Dramaâ"Isabella Augusta Persse, Lady Gregory: The Rising of the Moon
25. Elements of the Essayâ"Zora Neale Hurston: "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"
Interlude V: Literary Conventions
Part VI: Reading Literature Through Critical Lensesâ"Twelve Takes
Prelude VI: The Value of Literary Perspectives
26. Formalist
27. Reader-Response
28. Biographical
29. Historical
30. Psychological
31. Sociological
32. Mythological
33. Structuralist
34. Deconstructionist
35. Postcolonial
36. Ecocritical
37. Influence and Values
Appendix: Writing about Literature
References
Index