Guidelines for Reading and Analyzing Literature

Guidelines for Reading and Analyzing Literature
English 11

STEP I: WHAT IS YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION OF THE LITERARY WORK?
1. What expectations or preconceptions do you have before you begin reading?
• Do you have any prior knowledge of the author or this work or similar works?

2. Do you enjoy reading this work?
• Why or why not?
• What motivated you to read through to the end, or reread it (besides the fact that it may be required for a class)?

3. What is your initial impression of the work's purpose?
• Is it entertaining, informative, didactic (teaching a lesson), philosophical, argumentative, or some combination of these?
• Do the title, division headings, and opening lines give precise indications of the purpose or subtle or symbolic clues, or misleading impressions of the whole work?
• Try to begin reading with an open mind and attempt to understand the work on its own terms before judging its worth or quality.

4. Is this work difficult to read?
• If so, why?
• Did you look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary?
• Do foreign or outdated words or unusual sentence patterns make reading difficult?

5. Do your first impressions change between your reading of the beginning and end?
• If so, why?

STEP II: WHAT TYPE OF LITERARY WORK IS IT?
Literature is classified by genre. Although critics disagree on how to define and label different genres, the three basic forms of literature are prose, drama, and poetry.
• Nonfiction prose includes history, biography, autobiography, religious and philosophical writing, literary criticism, political tracts, travel literature, and essays on many other subjects.
• Prose fiction has been divided into the novel, the novella or novelette (a story of intermediate length), and the short story. Predecessors of these genres include fables, parables, and tales of various kinds.
• Drama may be written in prose or poetry. Most drama is meant to be performed, but closet drama is designed to be read rather than acted.
• Poetry may be narrative (telling a story, as in a ballad or a long epic poem) or lyrical (shorter subjective or reflective poems that include specific types such as the sonnet, the ode, and the elegy).

STEP III: WHAT LITERARY TECHNIQUES ARE USED IN THIS WORK?
The following is a list of some of the major elements and techniques of literature. A single work of literature most likely will not contain all of them. Decide which elements are given the most emphasis in the particular work you are analyzing and consider why they may have highlighted this technique. Also, point out if you believe a particular literary technique was poorly used and how it could have been improved.

1. Plot
2. Character
3. Setting
4. Point of View
5. Theme
6. Irony
7. Images and Symbols
8. Style and Language

STEP IV: EVALUATION AND REVIEW
1. Personal Reactions 
• Has your reading of this work been enhanced in any way by your personal experience, other readings and studies, or plays and movies you have seen? (What have you learned from this work that could enhance your own life and work?)
• Are you judging the work solely on its own merits, unswayed by personal judgments about the author's life and reputation or private prejudices about the content of the work (including prejudices against required reading or long, difficult works)?
• Do you agree or disagree with evaluations made by other readers of this work (students, professors, critics)?
• Do you agree or disagree with the ideas or values presented in the work? Why?
• Has your enjoyment and appreciation of the work increased or decreased after analyzing it carefully on your own or in class?
• If you were writing a review of this work for a newspaper, what would you say to encourage others to read it or not read it?

2. Author's Accomplishment
• Do the images and ideas of the work seem vivid and alive? Does it present a mature and meaningful vision of reality that deserves serious reflection?
• Has the reputation of this work and its author changed since it was written? Does knowledge of the author's life enhance your understanding of the work?
• How does this work compare to other works by the same author, and to works by other authors?
• How is this work representative of literary trends of its nation and period? Does learning more about the history and culture of the work's origin enhance your understanding of the literature or does the work have a universal message that is clear to any reader?

Great works of literature should both enrich your appreciation of the past and give you new insights into common human experiences regardless of time or place.