CompFAQ/ENGL 1102

📖 Index	ENGL 1101	ENGL 1102	Lit Survey	Digital Writing

Decoding the Text: A Guide to Literary Analysis and Composition

In a world increasingly driven by technology, data, and immediacy, the study of literature may seem, to some, an unnecessary and antiquated indulgence. Why pore over poetry or ponder the ambiguities of a novel when there are concrete skills to acquire and more tangible goals to achieve? This question is particularly relevant to college students who take literature courses only because they are required. Yet, it is precisely in the study of literature that we find an opportunity to slow down, reflect, and engage in the kind of deep thinking that is essential for intellectual and personal growth.

Read the Introduction »

---

Directions: For each lesson below, follow all links and read them carefully. All assigned literary texts may be found on my server, by doing a Google search, or in the required book. See your individual syllabus for due dates and additional instructions.

I. Introduction to College-Level Literary Studies

1. Read the background materials:
   • Introduction to Decoding the Text: A Guide to Literary Analysis and Composition
2. Read the following:
   • F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Babylon Revisited”

II. Reader-Response Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is “reader response”?
2. Read the following:
   • Ernest Hemingway: “Indian Camp”
   • James Joyce: “Araby”

III. Formalist Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “formalist” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Anton Chekhov: “The Lady with the Pet Dog”
   • Emily Dickinson “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”

IV. Ethical Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is an “ethical” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • James Baldwin: “Sonny’s Blues”
   • Patricia Smith: “10-Year-Old Shot Three Times, but She’s Fine”

V. Civic Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “civic” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: “Harrison Bergeron”
   • Audre Lord: “Who Said It Was Simple”

VI. Cultural Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “cultural” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Jack London: “To Build a Fire”
   • John Donne: “February 15, 2023|The Flea”

VII. Feminist Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “feminist” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Kate Chopin: “The Story of an Hour”
   • Adrienne Rich: “Diving Into the Wreck”
   • Lord Byron: “She Walks in Beauty”

VIII. Psychological Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “psychoanalytical” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Herman Melville: “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
   • William Shakespeare: Sonnets 33, 34, and 35
   • Edgar Allan Poe: “The Cask of Amontillado”

IX. Deconstructive Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “deconstructive” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • William Shakespeare: “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?”

X. Marxist Criticism

1. Read the background materials:
   • What is a “Marxist” approach to literature?
2. Read the following:
   • Guy de Maupassant: “The Necklace”
   • William Blake: “The Chimney Sweeper (SE)” (from Songs of Experience)