Exploring Literature Writing and Arguing about Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay

Exploring Literature: Writing and Arguing About Fiction, Drama, Poetry and the Essay, 5/e
 
Frank Madden
 
With engaging selections, provocative themes, and comprehensive coverage of the writing process, Exploring Literature combines practical writing instruction with a carefully selected anthology of classic and contemporary literature from around the world.  Critical thinking is woven into every facet of its writing apparatus while guiding you through the process of crafting personal responses into persuasive arguments.  Following five opening chapters dedicated to reading, writing, arguing, and researching about literature, theanthology is divided into five thematically-arranged sections that include contextual case studies, writing prompts, and sample student essays to help you approach literature with a critical eye and write thoughtful essays.  Exploring Literature assembles stimulating literature and structured advice to create a valuable guide that will not only help you to write   about literature, but to improve your writing and thinking processes in general.
 
WHAT'S NEW IN THIS EDITION
 

• A new one-page “Primer on Punctuation” with basic rules and examples for the comma, semi-colon, colon, and apostrophe as part of the section on proofreading-adjoining the Basic Rules for a Literary Essay.
• Two new 10-minute dramas: Galsworthy “The Sun” (Faith and Doubt); and Anton Chekhov, “Swan Song.”
• Added four new selections to the thematic section including Marjane Satrapi from “Persepolis”-a work of graphic nonfiction.
• Added a mini-theme to Culture and Identity Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie paired with/against a Christopher Durang parody For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls.
• Added two student essays.

 
 
“One of the greatest strengths of this book is the author's tone and style. He is very down-to-earth and encouraging . . . you can tell that Madden is an experienced teacher because he anticipates common questions and problems . . . he bridges personal response to writing a critical essay quite well.”
Professor Daniel Schierenbeck - University of Central Missouri
 
“The writing coverage is this text's strongest element. From the process-based writing at the outset to the prompts and questions at the end of each reading, the book gives instructors more than sufficient material to work with and gives students a very healthy, well-rounded set of tools and ideas to create critical essays.  The student essays are very good . .  grounded enough and real enough that students can connect with them and use them as guides.”
Professor Mark Sheffield Brown - Illinois Valley Community College
 

List of contents

Detailed Contents
Alternate Contents by Genre
Preface to Instructors
About the Author
 
Part I Making Connections
 
Chapter 1 Participation: Personal Response and Critical Thinking 
The Personal Dimension of Reading Literature 
Personal Response and Critical Thinking 
Writing to Learn 
Your First Response 
Checklist: Your First Response 
Keeping a Journal or Reading Log 
Double-Entry Journals and Logs 
The Social Nature of Learning: Collaboration 
Personal, Not Private 
Ourselves as Readers 
Different Kinds of Reading 
Peter Meinke,  Advice to My Son 
Making Connections with Literature 
Images of Ourselves 
Connecting Through Experience 
Paul Zimmer, Zimmer in Grade School 
Culture, Experience, and Values 
Connecting Through Experience 
Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays 
Connecting Through Experience 
Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll 
Being in the Moment 
New York Times, “Birmingham Bomb Kills 4” 
Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham 
Participating, Not Solving 
Using Our Imaginations 
The Whole and Its Parts 
 
Chapter 2 Communication: Writing a Personal Response Essay   
The Personal Response Essay 
Checklist: The Basics of a Personal Response Essay
Voice and Writing 
Voice and Response to Literature 
Connecting Through Experience 
Countee Cullen, Incident 
Writing to Describe 
Choosing Details 
Choosing Details from Literature 
Connecting Through Experience 
Sandra Cisneros, Eleven 
Writing to Compare 
Comparing and Contrasting Using a Venn Diagram 
Connecting Through Experience 
Anna Quindlen, Mothers 
Connecting Through Experience 
Langston Hughes, Salvation 
Possible Worlds 
From First Response to Final Draft 
The Importance of Revision 
Using First or Third Person in Formal Essays 
Step 1: Using Your First Response 
Choosing a Topic 
Brainstorming 
Semantic Mapping, or Clustering 
Mix and Match 
Generating Ideas Through Collaboration 
Step 2: Composing a Draft 
Developing a Thesis Statement 
Checklist: Thesis Statement 
Writing Effective Paragraphs
Checklist: Paragraphs 
Dierdre's Draft 
Step 3: Revising the Essay 
Checklist: Revision 
Revising Dierdre's Draft 
Formatting and Documenting Your Essay 
Checklist: Basics for a Literary Essay 
A Primer on  Punctuation
Checklist: Editing and Proofreading  
Step 4: Dierdre's Revised Essay 
 
Part II Analysis, Argumentation, and Research
 
Chapter 3 Exploration and Analysis: Genre and the Elements of Literature 
Close Reading 
Annotating the Text 
First Annotation: Exploration 
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias 
Second Annotation: Analysis 
Literature in Its Many Contexts 
Your Critical Approach 
Reading and Analyzing Fiction 
Narration 
Point of View 
Setting 
Conflict 
Plot 
Character 
Language and Style 
Diction 
Symbol 
Irony
Theme 
Checklist: Analyzing Fiction 
Getting Ideas for Writing About Fiction 
Kate Chopin,   The Story of an Hour 
Reading and Analyzing Poetry 
Billy Collins, Introduction to Poetry
Language and Style 
Denotation and Connotation 
Voice 
Tone 
Irony 
Stephen Crane, War Is Kind 
Imagery           
Helen Chasin, The Word Plum 
Robert Browning, Meeting at Night 
Parting at Morning 
Figurative Language: Everyday Poetry 
Langston Hughes, A Dream Deferred 
N. Scott Momaday, Simile 
Carl Sandburg, Fog 
James Stephens, The Wind Symbol 
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken 
Sound and Structure 
Alliteration, Assonance, and Rhyme 
Rhyme and Rhythm: Limericks
Haiku Poetry: Chiyojo, Basho, Buson, Matsushita, Brutschy
Meter 
Formal Verse: The Sonnet 
Francis Petrarch, The Eyes that Drew from Me
William Shakespeare, Sonnet No. 29
Blank Verse 
Free or Open Form Verse 
Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer 
Interpretation: What Does the Poem Mean? 
Explication 
Types of Poetry 
Lyric Poetry 
Narrative Poetry 
Checklist: Analyzing Poetry 
Getting Ideas for Writing About Poetry 
May Swenson, Pigeon Woman 
Reading and Analyzing Drama 
Reading a Play 
Point of View 
Set and Setting 
Conflict 
Plot 
The Poetics 
Tragedy 
Comedy 
Characterization 
Language and Style 
Diction 
Symbol
Irony 
Theme 
Periods of Drama: A Brief Background 
Greek Drama 
Shakespearean Drama 
Tips on Reading the Language of Shakespeare
Modern Drama
Checklist: Analyzing Drama 
Getting Ideas for Writing About Drama 
Edith Hamilton, from The Royal House of Thebes: “Oedipus”
Tips on Reading Antigone
Sophocles, Antigone
Reading and Analyzing Essays 
Types of Essays 
Narrative 
Expository 
Argumentative 
Language, Style, and Structure 
Formal or Informal 
Voice 
Irony 
Word Choice and Style 
Theme: What's the Point? 
The Aims of an Essay: Inform, Preach, or Reveal
Checklist: Analyzing Essays 
Getting Ideas for Writing About the Essay 
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue
 
Chapter 4 Argumentation: Writing a Critical Essay 
The Critical Essay 
Suzanne's Response to Antigone 
Interpretation and Evaluation 
Interpretation: What Does It Mean? 
Evaluation: How Well Does It Work? 
Options for a Critical Essay: Process and Product 
Checklist: Options for a Critical Essay 
An Analytical Essay 
A Comparative Essay 
A Thematic Essay 
A Philosophical or Ethical Evaluation
A Contextual Essay 
Argumentation: Writing a Critical Essay 
Other Models: Classical, Toulmin, and Rogerian 
The Shape of an Argument 
Checklist: Writing a Critical Essay
Planning Your Argument 
Supporting Your Argument: Induction and Substantiation 
Opening, Closing, and Revising Your Argument 
The Development of a Critical Essay 
Step 1: Using Your First Response 
Step 2: Composing a Draft 
Suzanne's Draft 
Step 3: Revising the Essay 
Step 4: Suzanne's Revised Essay 
 
Chapter 5 Research: Writing with Secondary Sources 
The Research Essay 
Creating, Expanding, and Joining Interpretive Communities 
It Is Your Interpretation 
Getting Started 
Choosing a Topic 
Some Popular Areas of Literary Research 
Your Search 
Peer Support 
The Library 
Reference Works 
Some Other Encyclopedias and Indexes Useful for Literary Research 
Some Bibliographies, Indexes, and Abstracts Useful for Literary Research  Finding Sources on the Internet 
Some Internet Sources Useful for Literary Research 
Evaluating Internet Sources 
Checklist: Evaluating Internet Sources 
Taking Notes 
Integrating Sources into Your Writing 
What Must Be Documented 
Where and How 
Paraphrasing and Summarizing 
Quoting 
Avoiding Plagiarism 
Examples of Paraphrasing, Summarizing, Quoting, and Plagiarizing 
From First Response to Research Essay 
Checklist: Writing a Research Essay 
Case Study in Research
James Joyce and “Eveline”
Step 1: Using Your First Response 
James Joyce, Eveline 
Step 2: Composing a Draft 
Professor Devenish's Commentary 
Kevin's Motivation and Process 
Step 3: Revising the Essay 
Step 4: Kevin's Revised Essay 
 
Part III A Thematic Anthology
 
Family and Friends 
A Dialogue Across History 
Family and Friends: Exploring Your Own Values and Beliefs 
Reading and Writing About Family and Friends 
Fiction 
Connecting Through Comparison: Sibling Relationships 
James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues 
Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible 
Other Stories
Chinua Achebe, Marriage Is a Private Affair 
John Cheever, Reunion 
Linda Ching Sledge, The Road 
Connecting Through Comparison: Parent and Children 
Amy Tan, Two Kinds 
Poetry
Julia Alvarez, Dusting 
Janice Mirikitani, For My Father 
Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz 
Cathy Song, The Youngest Daughter 
Other Poems
Margaret Atwood, Siren Song 
Robert Frost, Mending Wall 
Seamus Heaney, Digging 
Philip Larkin, This Be the Verse 
Li-Young Lee, The Gift 
Sharon Olds, 35/10  
Susan Musgrave, You Didn't Fit
William Stafford, Friends 
Connecting Through Comparison: Remembrance 
Elizabeth Gaffney, Losses That Turn Up in Dreams 
William Shakespeare, When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought (Sonnet No. 30)                                                                                            
Drama 
Essays 
bell hooks, Inspired Eccentricity 
Graphic narrative:  Marjane Satrapi from PERSEPOLIS
Case Study in Biographical Context
Lorraine Hansberry and A Raisin in the Sun 
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun 
Lorraine Hansberry-In Her Own Words 
In Others' Words 
James Baldwin, Sweet Lorraine 
Julius Lester, The Heroic Dimension in A Raisin in the Sun 
Anne Cheney, The African Heritage in A Raisin in the Sun 
Steven R. Carter, Hansberry's Artistic Misstep 
Margaret B. Wilkerson, Hansberry's Awareness of Culture and Gender 
Michael Anderson, A Raisin in the Sun: A Landmark Lesson in Being Black 
A Student's Research Essay 
Exploring the Literature of Family and Friends: Options for Making Connections, Building Arguments, and Using Research 
Writing About Connections Across Themes 
Collaboration: Writing and Revising with Your Peers 
A Writing/Research Portfolio Option 
 
Innocence and Experience 
A Dialogue Across History 
Innocence and Experience: Exploring Your Own Values and Beliefs 
Reading and Writing About Innocence and Experience 
Fiction 
Connecting Through Comparison: Illusion and Disillusion 
Liliana Heker, The Stolen Party 
James Joyce, Araby 
Other Stories
Julia Alvarez, Snow 
Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson 
Thomas Bulfinch, The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus 
Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal 
Haruki Murakami, On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning 
Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? 
Colum McCann, Everything in this Country Must
Two Readers-Two Different Views: Exploring A&P and Making Connections 
John Updike, A&P 
Two Student Essays-Two Different Views 
Poetry 
Connecting Through Comparison: The City 
William Blake, London 
William Wordsworth, Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 
Connecting Through Comparison: The Chimney Sweepers 
William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper (From Songs of Innocence) 
The Chimney Sweeper (From Songs of Experience) 
Other Poems
A. E. Housman, When I Was One-and-Twenty 
Alberto Rios, In Second Grade Miss Lee I Promised Never to Forget You and I Never Did 
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory 
Anne Sexton, Pain for a Daughter 
Walt Whitman, There Was a Child Went Forth 
Stephen Crane, The Wayfarer 
Connecting Through Comparison: The Death of a Child 
Robert Frost, “Out, Out. . .” 
Seamus Heaney, Mid-Term Break 
Essays 
Judith Ortiz Cofer, I Fell in Love, or My Hormones Awakened 
David Sedaris, The Learning Curve 
Case Study in Theatrical Context
Hamlet and Performance 
Interpretation and Performance 
Multiple Interpretations of Hamlet 
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 
Desperately Seeking Hamlet: Four Interpretations 
Olivier's Hamlet 
Jacobi's Hamlet 
Gibson's Hamlet 
Branagh's Hamlet 
From Part to Whole, from Whole to Part
A Student's Critical Essay-Explication/Analysis of the “To be, or not to be” Soliloquy 
A Critic's Influential Interpretation
Ernest Jones, Hamlet's Oedipus Complex 
Hamlet On Screen 
Bernice W. Kliman, The BBC Hamlet 
Claire Bloom, Playing Gertrude on Television 
Stanley Kauffmann, Branagh's Hamlet 
Russell Jackson, A Film Diary of the Shooting of Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet 
Exploring the Literature of Innocence and Experience: Options for Making       Connections, Building Arguments, and Using  Research 
Writing About Connections Across Themes 
Collaboration: Writing and Revising with Your Peers 
A Writing/Research Portfolio Option 
Case Study in Aesthetic Context
Poetry and Painting 
 
Making Connections with Painting and Poetry 
Pieter Brueghel the Elder: Landscape with the Fall of Icarus 
W. H. Auden: Musée des Beaux Arts 
Alan Devenish: Icarus Again 
 Lun Yi Tsai  Disbelief
 Lucille Clifton--tuesday 9/11/01
Edward Hopper: Nighthawks 
Samuel Yellen: Nighthawks 
Vincent van Gogh: Starry Night 
Anne Sexton: The Starry Night 
Henri Matisse: Dance 
Natalie Safir: Matisse's Dance 
Kitagawa utamaro: Two Women Dressing Their Hair 
Cathy Song: Beauty and Sadness 
Edwin Romanzo Elmer: Mourning Picture 
Adrienne Rich: Mourning Picture 
Jan Vermeer: The Loveletter 
Sandra Nelson: When a Woman Holds a Letter 
A Student's Comparison and Contrast Essay: Process and Product 
Exploring Poetry and Painting: Options for Making Connections, Building Arguments, and Using Research 
 
Women and Men 
A Dialogue Across History 
Women and Men: Exploring Your Own Values and Beliefs 
Reading and Writing About Women and Men 
Fiction 
Robert Olen Butler, Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot 
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 
Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants 
D. H. Lawrence, The Horse Dealer's Daughter 
Bobbie Ann Mason, Shiloh 
Rosario Morales, The Day It Happened 
Poetry 
Connecting Through Comparison: Be My Love 
Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love 
Walter Raleigh, The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd 
Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress 
Other Poems
Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Woman 
Margaret Atwood, You Fit into Me 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee? 
Robert Browning, Porphyria's Lover 
Nikki Giovanni, Woman 
Sharon Olds, Rite of Passage
Judy Grahn, Ella, in a Square Apron, Along Highway
Donald Hall, The Wedding Couple 
Essex Hemphill, Commitments 
Michael Lassell, How to Watch Your Brother Die 
Edna St. Vincent Millay, What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why Love Is Not All 
Sharon Olds, Sex Without Love 
Octavio Paz, Two Bodies 
Sylvia Plath, Mirror 
Connecting Through Comparison: Shall I Compare Thee? 
William Shakespeare, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? (Sonnet No. 18) 
            My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun (Sonnet No. 130) 
Howard Moss, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? 
Connecting and Comparing Across Genres: Cinderella 
Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm and Wilhelm Karl Grimm, Cinderella 
Anne Sexton, Cinderella 
Bruno Bettelheim, Cinderella 
Drama 
Anton Chekhov, The Proposal 
Connecting and Comparing Across Genres: Fiction and Drama 
Susan Glaspell, Trifles 
            A Jury of Her Peers 
Essays 
Steven Doloff, The Opposite Sex 
Virginia Woolf, If Shakespeare Had a Sister 
Case Study in Historical Context
Women in Culture and History 
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House 
The Adams Letters 
A Husband's Letter to His Wife 
Sojourner Truth, Ain't I a Woman 
Henrik Ibsen, Notes for the Modern Tragedy 
The Changed Ending of A Doll's House for a German Production 
Speech at the Banquet of the Norwegian League for Women's Rights 
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Excerpt from “The Solitude of Self” 
Wilbur Fisk Tillett, Excerpt from “Southern Womanhood” 
Dorothy Dix, The American Wife 
Women and Suicide 
Charlotte Perkins Stetson (Gilman), Excerpt from “Women and Economics” 
Natalie Zemon Davis and Jill Ker Conway, The Rest of the Story 
A Student's Personal Response Essay 
A Student's Critical Essay
A Student's Research Essay
Exploring the Literature of Women and Men: Options for Making Connections,     Building Arguments, and Using Research 
Writing About Connections Across Themes 
Collaboration: Writing and Revising with Your Peers 
A Writing/Research Portfolio Option 
 
Culture and Identity 
A Dialogue Across History 
Culture and Identity: Exploring Your Own Values and Beliefs 
Reading and Writing About Culture and Identity 
Fiction 
José Armas, EI Tonto del Barrio 
Kate Chopin, Désirée's Baby 
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily 
Jamaica Kincaid, Girl 
Thomas King, Borders 
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World 
Tahira Naqvi, Brave We Are 
Alice Walker, Everyday Use 
Poetry 
Connecting Through Comparison: The Mask We Wear 
W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen 
Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask 
T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 
Other Poems
Sherman Alexie, Evolution 
Gloria Anzaldúa, To Live in the Borderlands Means You 
Elizabeth Bishop, In the Waiting Room 
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool 
e. e. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how town  
Martin Espada, Coca-Cola and Coco Frío 
Connecting Through Comparison: Immigration 
Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus 
Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Learning to Love America 
Pat Mora, Immigrants 
John Updike, Ex-Basketball Player 
William Carlos Williams, At the Ball Game 
William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Drama 
Connecting through Comparison: Modern Realism and Parody
Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
Christopher Durang, For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls
Connecting through Comparison: Political Satire across Time and Genre
Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal 
Luis Valdez, Los Vendidos 
Essays 
Connecting Through Comparison: Work and Identity 
Richard Rodriguez, Workers 
Marge Piercy, To Be of Use 
Other Essays
Frederick Douglass, Learning to Read and Write 
Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream 
Henry David Thoreau, From Civil Disobedience   
Case Study in Cultural Context
Writers of the Harlem Renaissance 
Alain Locke, The New Negro 
Langston Hughes, From The Big Sea 
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain 
The Negro Speaks of Rivers 
I, Too 
The Weary Blues 
One Friday Morning 
Theme for English B 
Claude McKay, America 
Gwendolyn B. Bennett, Heritage 
Jean Toomer, Reapers 
Countee Cullen, Yet Do I Marvel 
            From the Dark Tower 
Anne Spencer, Lady, Lady 
Georgia Douglas Johnson, I Want to Die While You Love Me 
Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat 
Commentary on “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” 
Langston Hughes 
Jessie Fauset 
Onwuchekwa Jemie 
R. Baxter Miller 
Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston: A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View 
A Student's Critical Essay 
Exploring the Literature of Culture and Identity: Options for Making Connections, Building Arguments, and Using Research  
Writing About Connections Across Themes 
Collaboration: Writing and Revising with Your Peers 
A Writing/Research Portfolio Option 
 
Faith and Doubt 
A Dialogue Across History 
Faith and Doubt: Exploring Your Own Values and Beliefs 
Reading and Writing About Faith and Doubt 
Fiction 
Raymond Carver, Cathedral 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown 
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried 
Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find 
Poetry 
Connecting Through Comparison: Facing Our Own Mortality 
John Donne, Death, Be Not Proud 
John Keats, When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be 
Mary Oliver, When Death Comes 
Connecting Through Comparison: Nature and Humanity 
Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach 
Robert Bridges, London Snow 
Robert Frost, Fire and Ice 
Galway Kinnell, Saint Francis and the Sow 
William Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark 
Walt Whitman, Song of Myself   
Connecting Through Comparison: September   
Deborah Garrison, I Saw You Walking 
Brian Doyle, Leap 
Billy Collins, The Names 
Connecting Through Comparison: Belief in a Supreme Being 
Stephen Crane, A Man Said to the Universe 
Thomas Hardy, Hap 
Connecting Through Comparison: The Impact of War 
Thomas Hardy, The Man He Killed 
Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est 
Carl Sandburg, Grass 
Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It 
Connecting Through Comparison: Responding to the Deaths of Others 
Mark Doty, Brilliance 
A. E. Housman, To an Athlete Dying Young 
Pablo Neruda, The Dead Woman 
Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night 
Drama 
David Mamet, Oleanna 
John Millington Synge, Riders to the Sea 
Anton Chekhov, The Swan Song 
John Galsworthy, The Sun
Essays 
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus 
Plato, The Allegory of the Cave 
Philip Simmons, Learning to Fall 
Case Study in Contextual Criticism
The Poetry of Emily Dickinson 
Her Life 
Her Work 
The Poems 
Success is counted sweetest 
Faith is a fine invention 
There's a certain Slant of light 
I like a look of Agony 
Wild Nights-Wild Nights! 
The Brain-is wider than the Sky- 
Much Madness is divinest Sense- 
I've seen a Dying Eye 
I heard a Fly buzz-when I died- 
After great pain, a formal feeling comes- 
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church- 
This World is not Conclusion 
There is a pain-so utter- 
Because I could not stop for Death- 
The Bustle in a House 
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant- 
Emily Dickinson-In Her Own Words 
To Susan Gilbert (Dickinson) (1852) 
To T. W. Higginson (1862) 
In Others' Words 
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, On Meeting Dickinson for the First Time (1870) 
Mabel Loomis Todd, The Character of Amherst (1881) 
Richard Wilbur, On Dickinson's Sense of Privation (1960) 
Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, On Dickinson's White Dress (1979) 
Critical Commentary on Her Poetry 
Helen McNeil, Dickinson's Method 
Cynthia Griffin Wolff, On the Many Voices in Dickinson's Poetry 
Allen Tate, On “Because I could not stop for Death” 
Paula Bennett, On “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died-” 
Poems About Emily Dickinson 
Linda Pastan, Emily Dickinson 
Billy Collins, Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes 
A Student's Critical Essay 
Exploring the Literature of Faith and Doubt: Options for Making Connections,     Building Arguments, and Using Research  
Using Research 
Writing About Connections Across Themes 
Collaboration: Writing and Revising with Your Peers 
A Writing/Research Portfolio Option 
 
Appendix A: Critical Approaches to Literature 
Appendix B: Writing About Film 
Appendix C: Documentation 
Glossary of Literary Terms 
Literary and Photo Credits 
Index of Author Names, Titles, and First Lines of Poems 
Index of Terms 
 

About the author

Frank Madden is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Chair of the English Department at SUNY Westchester Community College where he also holds the Carol Russett Endowed Chair for English. He has a Ph.D. from NYU, has taught in graduate programs at CCNY, Iona College, and the New School for Social Reserach, and in 1998 was Chair of the NCTE College Section Institute on the Teaching of Literature. He is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship, the Foundation for Westchester Community College Award for Excellence in Scholarship, and the Phi Delta Kappan Educator of the Year Award from Iona College. He was awarded the 2003 Neil Ann Pickett Service Award, granted by the NCTE to an outstanding college teacher whose vision and voice have had a major impact, and who exemplifies such outstanding personal qualities as creativity, sensitivity, and leadership. He has been Chair of the College Section of the NCTE and Chair of TYCA, and served on the Executive Committee of the NCTE, the CCCC, the MLA ad hoc Committee on Teaching, and as NCTE delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies. His articles, chapters, and commentary about the teaching of literature have appeared in a variety of books and journals, including College English, PMLA, College Literature, English Journal, Computers and Composition, Computers and the Humanities, and the ADE Bulletin. 

Summary

Featuring culturally rich and diverse literature, this anthology weaves critical thinking into every facet of its writing apparatus and guides students through the process of crafting their personal responses into persuasive arguments. 
 
With engaging selections, provocative themes, and comprehensive coverage of the writing process, Madden's anthology is sure to capture the reader's imagination. Exploring Literature opens with five chapters dedicated to writing and arguing about literature. An anthology follows, organized around five themes. Each thematic unit includes an ethnically diverse collection of short stories, poems, plays, and essays, as well as a case study to help students explore literature from various perspectives. 
 
 

Product details

• Authors: Frank Madden
• Publisher: Pearson Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2012
• EAN: 9780205184798
• ISBN: 978-0-205-18479-8
• No. of pages: 1360
• Weight: 970 g
• Series: Longman; Longman
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics