Contents Resources for Reading and Writing about Literature Preface for Instructors Introduction The Nature of Literature Emily Dickinson, "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" The Value of Literature The Changing Literary Canon Fiction The Elements of Fiction 1. Reading Fiction Reading Fiction Responsively Kate Chopin, "The Story of an Hour" A Sample Close Reading: Annotated Section of "The Story of an Hour" A Sample Paper: Differences in Responses to Kate Chopin''s "The Story of an Hour" Explorations and Formulas A Comparison of Two Stories *Grace Paley, "Wants" *Judith Ortiz Cofer, "Volar" 2. Plot *T.C. Boyle, "The Hit Man" Alice Walker, "The Flowers" William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily" PERSPECTIVE: William Faulkner, On "A Rose for Emily" A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Section of "A Rose for Emily" A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Conflict in the Plot of William Faulkner''s "A Rose for Emily" Andre Dubus, "Killings" A.L. Bader, "Nothing Happens in Modern Short Stories" 3. Character *Tobias Wolff, "Powder" Jamaica Kincaid, "Girl" Xu Xi, "Famine" *James Baldwin, "Sonny''s Blues" 4.

Setting Ernest Hemingway, "Soldier''s Home" PERSPECTIVE: Ernest Hemingway, "On What Every Writer Needs" *Ursula LeGuin, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" *Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" 5. Point of View Third-Person and First-Person Narrators John Updike, "A & P" *Manuel Muñoz, "Zigzagger" Maggie Mitchell, "It Would Be Different If" 6. Symbolism *Louise Erdrich, "The Red Convertible" *Ralph Ellison, "King of the Bingo Game" *Cynthia Ozick, "The Shawl" A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: On Cynthia Ozick''s "The Shawl" *Ann Beattie, "Janus" 7. Theme *Shirley Jackson, "The Lottery" Katherine Mansfield, "Miss Brill" *Zora Neale Hurston, "Sweat" 8. Style, Tone, and Irony Style Tone Irony Raymond Carver, "Popular Mechanics" PERSPECTIVE: John Barth, "On Minimalist Fiction" A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Minimalist Style of Raymond Carver''s "Popular Mechanics" Susan Minot, "Lust" *Jim Shepard, "Reach for the Sky" Approaches to Fiction 9. A Study of Nathaniel Hawthorne A Brief Biography and Introduction Nathaniel Hawthorne, *"The Minister''s Black Veil" "Young Goodman Brown" "The Birthmark" PERSPECTIVES Nathaniel Hawthorne, "On Solitude" "On the Power of the Writer''s Imagination" "On His Short Stories" Herman Melville, "On Nathaniel Hawthorne''s Tragic Vision" Gaylord Brewer, "The Joys of Secret Sin" 10. A Study of Flannery O''Connor A Brief Biography and Introduction Flannery O''Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" "Good Country People" "Revelation" PERSPECTIVES Flannery O''Connor, "On the Use of Exaggeration and Distortion" Josephine Hendin, "On O''Connor''s Refusal to ''Do Pretty''" Claire Katz, "The Function of Violence in O''Connor''s Fiction" Edward Kessler, "On O''Connor''s Use of History" TIME Magazine, "On A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories" 11. A Cultural Case Study: James Joyce''s "Eveline" A Brief Biography and Introduction James Joyce, "Eveline" DOCUMENTS The Alliance Temperance Almanack, "On the Resources of Ireland" Bridget Burke, "A Letter Home From an Irish Emigrant" -- "A Plot Synopsis of The Bohemian Girl" 12.

A Study of Dagoberto Gilb: The Author Reflects on Three Stories Introduction A Brief Biography Dagoberto Gilb, "How Books Bounce" (Introduction) Dagoberto Gilb, "Love in L.A." (Story) Dagoberto Gilb, "On Writing ''Love in L.A.''" (Essay) Dagoberto Gilb, "Shout" (Story) Dagoberto Gilb, "On Writing ''Shout''" (Essay) Dagoberto Gilb, "Uncle Rock" (Story) Dagoberto Gilb, "On Writing ''Uncle Rock''" (Essay) PERSPECTIVES Dagoberto Gilb, "On Physical Labor" "On Distortions of Mexican American Culture" "Michael Meyer Interviews Dagoberto Gilb" FACSIMILES: Dagoberto Gilb, Two Draft Manuscript Pages 13. Thematic Case Study: War and Its Aftermath Tim O''Brien, "How to Tell a True War Story" *Kurt Vonnegut, "Happy Birthday, 1951" *Edwidge Danticat, "The Missing Peace" 14. Thematic Case Study: Humor and Satire Annie Proulx, "55 Miles to the Gas Pump" *George Saunders, "I Can Speak (tm)" Ron Hansen, "My Kid''s Dog" Mark Twain, "The Story of the Good Little Boy" 15. Thematic Case Study: Privacy *Oscar Wilde, "The Sphinx Without a Secret" *David Long, "Morphine" *ZZ Packer, "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" *John Cheever, "The Enormous Radio" 16.

Stories For Further Reading *Washington Irving, "Rip Van Winkle" *Jhumpa Lahiri, "Sexy" *Alecia McKenzie, "Private School" *Joyce Carol Oates, "Tick" Edgar Allan Poe, "The Cask of Amontillado" *Carol Shields, "Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass" *John Edgar Wideman, "All Stories are True" Poetry The Elements of Poetry 17. Reading Poetry Reading Poetry Responsively Lisa Parker, "Snapping Beans" Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays" John Updike, "Dog''s Death" The Pleasure of Words *Gregory Corso: "I am 25" Robert Francis, "Catch" A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: Tossing Metaphors in Robert Francis''s "Catch" Philip Larkin, "A Study of Reading Habits" Robert Morgan, "Mountain Graveyard" e.e. Cummings, "l(a" Anonymous, "Western Wind" Regina Barreca, "Nighttime Fires" Poetic Definitions of Poetry *Marianne Moore, "Poetry" Billy Collins, "Introduction to Poetry" Ruth Forman, "Poetry Should Ride the Bus" *Charles Bukowski, "A Poem is a City" Recurrent Poetic Figures: Five Ways of Looking at Roses Robert Burns, "A Red, Red Rose" Edmund Waller, "Go, Lovely Rose" *William Blake, "The Sick Rose" *Dorothy Parker, "One Perfect Rose" *H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), "Sea Rose" Poems for Further Study Mary Oliver, "The Poet with His Face in His Hands" Jim Tilley, "The Big Questions" Alberto Ríos, "Seniors" Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Eagle" Edgar Allan Poe, "Sonnet - To Science" Cornelius Eady, "The Supremes" Encountering Poetry: Images of Poetry in Popular Culture Dorothy Parker, "Unfortunate Coincidence" (Poster) Carl Sandberg, "Window" (Photo) Roz Chast, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Crew" (Cartoon) Tim Taylor, "I Shake the Delicate Apparatus" (Photo) Eric Dunn and Mike Wigton, "National Poetry Slam" (Poster) Kevin Fleming, 560 (Photo) Ted Kooser, "American Life in Poetry" (Web Screen) Michael McFee, "Spitwads" (Poem in Newspaper) 18.

Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone Word choice Diction Denotations and Connotations Randall Jarrell, "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" Word Order Tone Marilyn Nelson, "How I Discovered Poetry" Katharyn Howd Machan, "Hazel Tells LaVerne" A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Tone in Katharyn Howd Machan''s "Hazel Tells Laverne" Martin Espada, "Latin Night at the Pawnshop" *Jonathan Swift, "The Character of Sir Robert Walpole" Diction and Tone in Four Love Poems Robert Herrick, "To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time" Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress" Ann Lauinger, "Marvell Noir" Poems for Further Study Walt Whitman, "The Dalliance of the Eagles" *Kwame Dawes, "History Lesson at Eight a.m." Cathy Song, "The Youngest Daughter" John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" Alice Jones, "The Lungs" Louis Simpson, "In the Suburbs" A Note on Reading Translations Three Translations of a Poem by Sappho Sappho, "Immortal Aphrodite of the Broidered Throne" (trans. Henry T. Wharton) Sappho, "Beautiful-Throned, Immortal Aphrodite" (trans. Thomas Wentworth Higgins) Sappho, "Pray to My Lady of Paphos" (trans. Mary Barnard) 19. Images Poetry''s Appeal to the Senses William Carlos Williams, "Poem" Walt Whitman, "Cavalry Crossing a Ford" David Solway, "Windsurfing" Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach" Poems for Further Study Adelaide Crapsey, "November Night" Ruth Fainlight, "Crocuses" Mary Robinson, "London''s Summer Morning" William Blake, "London" A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Imagery in William Blake''s "London" and Mary Robinson''s "London''s Summer Morning" *Kwame Dawes, "The Habits of Love" Charles Simic, "Fork" Sally Croft, "Home-Baked Bread" *John Keats, "To Autumn" PERSPECTIVE: T.

E. Hulme, "On the Differences between Poetry and Prose" 20. Figures of Speech William Shakespeare, From Macbeth Simile and Metaphor Langston Hughes, "Harlem" *Jane Kenyon, "The Socks" Anne Bradstreet, "The Author to her Book" Other Figures Edmund Conti, "Pragmatist" Dylan Thomas, "The Hand that Signed the Paper" Janice Townley Moore, "To a Wasp" Tajana Kovics, "Text Message" Poems for Further Study William Carlos Williams, "To Waken an Old Lady" Ernest Slyman, "Lightning Bugs" Martin Espada, "The Mexican Cabdriver''s Poem for his Wife, Who Has Left Him" Judy Page Heitzman, "The Schoolroom on the Second Floor of the Knitting Mill" *Robert Pinsky, "Icicles" Jim Stevens, "Schizophrenia" Lucille Clifton, "Com.