Paper #1

Paper #1 – A Focused Close Reading


While it is true that there are many different critical lenses with which we can view, appreciate and analyze literature, and while it is also true that comparison between authors, texts and eras, as well as the survey and recognition of existing scholarship/criticism regarding any particular text, can be beneficial modes of the study of literature, the foundation to the appreciation and study of literature begins with close reading. Close reading involves taking a text or a passage of a text and “putting it under the microscope,” trying to come to an understanding of the elements that make the text what it is—how it makes its meanings or represents its themes/ideas. Many times a checklist of sorts can be produced to help guide us through the process of a general close reading. That said, it is easy to see how close reading is the foundation for Literary Analysis; it lays the groundwork for other forms of analysis (critical, contextual, etc.). Focused close reading brings us that much closer to a true literary analysis in that through the focusing upon “certain” elements that are deemed important, dominant, or defining about a text, one formulates a thesis of sorts (The use of Point of View in “Hills Like White Elephants” or the use of Setting in “Heart of Darkness” for example).

Your task will be to choose a story from the following list:

The Student’s Wife – Raymond Carver
A Wagner Matinee – Willa Cather
The Enormous Radio – John Cheever
We Didn’t – Stuart Dybek
Constant Pain in Tuscaloosa – Barry Hannah
In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried – Amy Hempel
Rules of the Game – Amy Tan
Everyday Use – Alice Walker
A Worn Path – Eudora Welty
The Man Who Was Almost a Man – Richard Wright


then—write a focused close reading of that text. In other words read/re-read the text, decide which element/elements of fiction to focus your reading on, and examine how those elements contribute to the text’s overall meaning(s). I will provide you with some handouts that detail the close reading process in varying amount of detail for those that are interested.

This assignment sheet, along with the essays about close reading will be posted on our WebCT homepage, as well as on the class blog.


DUE DATES: Paper Proposal/Progress paragraphs: Sunday, 2/24
Final Draft: Sunday, 3/2

Requirements:
o You must support your own assertions with specific details and explanations thereof.
o Do not spend long paragraphs only describing the texts’ elements, similarities, or differences. Try to begin each paragraph with an argument about the texts. In other words, always answer “so what.”
o Show your work. Saying something doesn’t make it so. Be sure you slow down and explain your reasoning, step by step.
o Explain the evidence and its relevance to your argument/idea–a reader may not be able to follow your thinking, so explain it to them. Quote the text extensively, but, remember not to rely only on the quotes (never leave a quote to explain itself) to do all of the work, as your reader may interpret the quote differently than you.

Form: 1000 - 1500 words (4-6 fully-typed pages); 12-point Times New Roman. Do not use outside sources unless you properly cite them. MLA style for both primary sources (the story) and secondary sources (if you choose to use them, though they are not assigned nor required). When you are finished, post your essay to your blog, as well as submitting a word.doc. As always, blog posts should be free of proofreading and grammatical errors.

Essays should demonstrate clear analysis, sound organization, and evidence in the form of reasoning and close-reading.

Grades will be determined as follows:
Topic/Purpose Development 50%
Organization and Support 30%
Style and Mechanics 20%

When you have completed your essay blog post, and are ready for me to evaluate it, please submit a link to your blog in the space provided at the right of the assignment page. Also attach it as a Word Document on the assignment sheet as well: this is so I can make comments and return the document to you. If you have questions about this assignment, please feel free to contact me at jjoelthomas@netscape.net.

A recommended process:
1. Take extensive notes (on paper or in the margins) of the story
2. Reread the story again, noting dominant or important patterns that relate to the fiction element(s) you are focusing on.
3. Freewrite on the topic for 10-15 minutes, letting yourself write anything that relates. Some of these “gut” responses may translate to the final draft, or illuminate other ideas.
4. Look over your notes and review parts of the poems again, noting patterns and differences between the 2 texts.
5. Draft some body paragraphs in which you lay out evidence (examples of elements) and interpret them.
6. Let it sit for a day or so, if possible. Reread your draft to see what it is adding up to; find more/further evidence in the text you had yet to consider.
7. Revise and edit, making sure you have fully supported your ideas with evidence (quotes and reasoning) and explanations.

Setting - Where are we and how did we get here?

Setting on its most base level seems quite simple - it is the place and time of the story. On the primary level setting is an important as aspect of the "populating" of a story, that is, the things in a story that lend it the ability to suspend your disbelief, to cause you to forget that what you are reading is a fiction and to invest in the characters and the narrative. Part of that involves filling this fictional world with a setting that readers can "see" and that supports our imaginative conception of the "world" a given story takes place in.

But setting should also serve a dramatic purpose, if it is going to maximize its usefulness as an element of fiction. The stories that best use setting use it in a dual capacity. Think of Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown - this story, at its outset, describes a Puritan street in a town, but it is not until Brown enters the forest that the setting is fully rendered and used to help turn the forest (the wild) itself into a sort of a character. "The Open Boat," by Crane is an example from this week's reading. Obviously, setting plays a large part of the story. They are drifting at sea in a life-raft. The place, or physical surroundings, cannot help but play a large part in the story, after all, the setting is part of the conflict/complication in this story. But ask yourself what purpose the setting serves when the boat comes within view of land - the setting is described there as well, and it has an effect upon the characters and subsequently upon our reading(s) of the story.

That is to say, setting can also affect characters' motives/actions/emotions, as well as being the basis for conflict. In Richard Ford's "Great Falls," think of the part that "place" plays in the developing conflict between the mother and father.

Setting is a major force when used to its utmost advantage - it can help drive the conflict and can even affect characters, sometimes it can even be seen as a character of sorts - and it is often an overlooked part of the story - kind of like good bass players in rock and roll bands. you almost never notice them until they are removed from the mix.

Plot - its story

Plot is the plan of a literary work, in our case, short stories. but it suggests more than merely explanation of the sequence of events; there is also causation (cause and effect) a pattern of relationships between events - this happens because of this and so on. Though many use the words "story" and "plot" interchangeably, let us distinguish between the two.


A "story" is a string of events put down in chronological order. A "plot" is a series of events arranged so as to illuminate their dramatic, thematic, emotional experience. If a "story' is concerned with "what" happened, a "plot" is concerned with "what, how and why." That is not to say that a plot doesn't have a beginning middle and an end - it does, which is why we so often use the words story nd plot interchangeably. The beginning is where the conflict happens, the middle ofers us a series of complications, and the end resolves the conflict to a greater or leser degree. Ultimately, it is that sense of causation from one event to another that drives the plot. "The Queen dies and then the King dies" is not a plot - "The Queen dies and then the King dies . . . of grief" is.

Suspense is also a vital aspect of the entertaiing or satisfying plot; we should want to know what happens next, and be surprised by the incidents, but also know that each new evetn grows logically out of the earlier.

It needs to be mentioned that "plot" is artificial. Discerning a pattern in the muddle of huamn life is a willed creaive act. A story with a beginning, middle, and end, with its various events bound together by cause and effect, exhibiting some view of morality or universality (typical experience) is an artifice, albeit one that has the ability to entertain and even teach.