Literature : reading, reacting, writing / Laurie G. Kirszner, and Stephen R. Mandell.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Understanding Literature.
Imaginative Literature.
Conventional Themes.
The Literary Canon
Interpreting Literature
Evaluating Literature
The Function of Literary Criticism

2. Reading and Writing About Literature
Reading Literature
Previewing. Highlighting
Writing About Literature
Etc.

FICTION

3. Understanding Fiction
Defining Fiction
The Short Story. Gary Gildner, "Sleepytime Gal"
Margaret Atwood, "Happy Endings"
A Final Note

4. Reading and Writing About Fiction
Reading Fiction
Active Reading
Writing About Fiction
Planning an Essay
Drafting an Essay.

5. Plot
Conflict
Stages of Plot
Order and Sequence.
A Final Note
Writing Suggestions: Plot

6. Character
Round and Flat Characters
Dynamic and Static Characters
Motivation
Writing Suggestions: Character

7. Setting
Historical Setting
Geographical Setting
Physical Setting
Writing Suggestions: Setting

8. Point of View
First Person Narrator
Unreliable Narrators
Third Person Narrator
Selecting an Appropriate Point of View
Writing Suggestions: Point of View

9. Style, Tone, and Language
Style and Tone
The Uses of Language
Formal and Informal Diction
Imagery
Figures of Speech
A Final Note
Writing Suggestions: Style, Tone, and Language

10. Symbol and Allegory
Symbol
Literary Symbols
Recognizing Symbols
Allegory
Writing Suggestions: Symbol and Allegory

11. Theme
Interpreting Themes
Identifying Themes
Writing Suggestions: Theme

12. Joyce Carol Oates's " Where are You Going, Where have You Been?": A Casebook for Reading Research, and Writing
Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Joyce Carol Oates, When Characters from the Page Are Made Flesh on the Screen
Gretchen Schulz and R. J. R. Rockwood, From In Fairyland, without a Map: Connie''''s. Exploration Inward in Joyce Carol Oates'''' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
Mike Tierce and John Michael Grafton, From Connie''''s Tambourine Man: A New Reading of Arnold Friend".
Bob Dylan, It''''s All Over Now, Baby Blue.
Etc.

13. Fiction for Further Reading
Chinua Achebe, Dead Man''''s Path
Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson
Donald Barthelme, City of Churches
Amy Bloom, Hold Tight
T.Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake
Etc.

POETRY

14. Understanding Poetry
Marianne Moore, Poetry
Nikki Giovanni, Poetry
Archibald MacLeish, Ars Poetica

Defining Poetry
William Shakespeare, That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold
Louis Zukofsky, I Walk in the Old Street
E. E. Cummings, l-a. Approaching Poetry
Reading Poetry
Recognizing Kinds of Poetry
Narrative Poetry
Lyric Poetry

15. Discovering Themes in Poetry
Adrienne Rich, A Woman Mourned by Daughters
Raymond Carver, Photograph of my Father in His Twenty Second Year
Judith Ortiz Cofer, My Father In the Navy: A Childhood Memory

Poems About Parents
Theodore Roethke, My Papa''''s Waltz
Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
Lucille Clifton, My Mama Moved among the Days
Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays
Etc.

Poems about Love
Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Nymph''''s Reply to the Shepherd
Thomas Campion, There Is a Garden in Her Face
William Shakespeare, My Mistress'''' Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun
Robert Browning, Meeting at Night
Etc.

Poems About War
Rupert Brooke, The Soldier
Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth
William Butler Yeats, An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Robert Lowell, For the Union Dead
Denise Levertov, What Were They Like
Carl Phillips, On the Notion of Tenderness in Wartime
Etc.

16. Reading and Writing About Poetry
Reading Poetry
Active Reading
Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays
Seamus Heaney, Digging

Writing About Poetry
Planning an Essay
Drafting an Essay

17. Voice. Emily Dickinson, I''''m Nobody! Who Are You?
The Speaker in the Poem

Louise Gluck, Gretel in Darkness
Leonard Adame, My Grandmother Would Rock Quietly and Hum
Langston Hughes, Negro
Robert Browning, My Last Duchess
Janice Mirikitani, Suicide Note

The Tone of the Poem
Robert Frost, Fire and Ice
Thomas Hardy, The Man He Killed
Amy Lowell, Patterns
Adam Zagajewski, Try to Praise the Mutilated World
William Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much with Us
Sylvia Plath, Morning Song

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.