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Guidelines For Reading and Analyzing Literature

The document provides guidelines for reading and analyzing literature. It outlines a multi-step process for developing an initial impression of a literary work, determining the genre and type of work, and analyzing key elements like characters, themes, and literary techniques. Readers are advised to have an open mind when beginning, consider expectations, purpose and difficulty level, and note how first impressions may change from beginning to end. The document also defines the main genres of prose, drama, and poetry as well as some common subcategories.

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Abigail Cordero
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45 views3 pages

Guidelines For Reading and Analyzing Literature

The document provides guidelines for reading and analyzing literature. It outlines a multi-step process for developing an initial impression of a literary work, determining the genre and type of work, and analyzing key elements like characters, themes, and literary techniques. Readers are advised to have an open mind when beginning, consider expectations, purpose and difficulty level, and note how first impressions may change from beginning to end. The document also defines the main genres of prose, drama, and poetry as well as some common subcategories.

Uploaded by

Abigail Cordero
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GUIDELINES FOR READING AND ANALYZING

LITERATURE

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?

⇒ Have introductory notes in textbooks or instructors' comments or study


questions influenced your initial expectations?

⇒ (Note: In many editions of fiction or drama, if there is a long introduction, it


may "give away" the outcome of the plot, so it is best not to read the complete
introduction until you have read the work for the first time and be ready to
analyze it as a whole.)

2. DO YOU ENJOY READING THIS WORK?

⇒ Why or why not?

⇒ What motivates 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?
⇒ Have you looked up unfamiliar words in a dictionary?

⇒ Do foreign words or archaic (outdated) words or unusual sentence patterns


make reading difficult?

⇒ Does the work violate our expectations about ordinary ways of using the
English language?

⇒ Later decide whether it is "easy" or difficult to read for a good reason:  does the
simplicity or difficulty of the language contribute to the author's message or
does it seem either boring or unnecessarily obscure and complex?

5. DO YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS CHANGE BETWEEN YOUR READING OF THE


BEGINNING AND END?

⇒ If so, why?

⇒ In the following steps, start to think more formally about why you have certain
expectations about this type of literature and how this work uses literary
techniques to create the impressions or effects or messages you have noticed
in reading it.

STEP II: WHAT TYPE OF LITERARY WORK IS IT? 

Literature can be classified by genre. The three basic forms of literature are:

1. PROSE: essay, history, short stories, novels


2. DRAMA: plays, tragedies, comedies
3. POETRY: epic, lyric, and narrative

Most works we read in literature are imaginative (fictional), but some non-
imaginative (non-fictional) works are read as literature as well.

⇒ Prose fiction: It has been divided into the novel, the novella or novelette, and
the short story.

⇒ Non-fictional works include history, biography, autobiography, religious and


philosophical writing, literary criticism, political tracts, travel literature, and
essays on many other subjects.
⇒ Drama may be written in prose or poetry. Most drama is meant to be
performed in plays.
⇒ Poetry is divided into lyrical, epic or narrative.
⇒ Film (movie) combines technology of drama, poetry, visual arts and music.
⇒ Picture books sometimes have no words, but usually they use words and
pictures together to tell a story, present a poem or explore concepts.
⇒ Some other sub categories of fiction, drama and film include romantic comedy,
satire, mystery, horror, fantasy, science fiction, and magical realism,
psychological novels or plays, domestic romance or tragedy, historical fiction
or drama. Non-fiction novel is a contemporary term used by some for works
that combine elements of reporting or documentary of fiction.

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