Reading Literature - Practical Approaches to Engaging with Literature

Why do we read literature? Literature enables us to develop our judgment through observation and reflection. We read literature for the many pleasures it offers. These pleasures range widely across genres, with those reading fiction and drama differing from what readers experience in their encounters with poems and essays.
Reading Literature is a practical guide ranging across the literary genres-poetry, fiction, drama, and essay. For each of these genres, Robert DiYanni outlines six "ways in" to literary works. Each section closes with the technique of "interrupted reading". 'Reading Literature' helps readers experience the rich rewards literature provides; understand the complexities of human psychology; navigate the intricacies of social relationships; take pleasure in the ways language creates alternate worlds which echo the world in which we live. It also includes sections on literary elements and the basics of literary theory. Part five uses the familiar literary elements as the basis for sample analyses of poem, story, play, essay, and epic. The final part offers an overview of a dozen paired critical approaches, or theoretical perspectives, on literature.
Helping readers read closely and critically, this is an essential guide to find "ways in" to reading literature to result in valuable encounters and rewarding literary experiences for general readers or those beginning literary studies courses.

List of contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Print and Digital Reading
Part I: Reading Lyric Poetry-5 Ways In
Prelude I: The Pleasures of Lyric Poetry
1. Speaker, Structure, Sound-W. B. Yeats: An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
2. Argument-Andrew Marvell: To His Coy Mistress
3. Tone-Stephen Crane: War is Kind
4. Poetry & Arts-W. H. Auden: Musée des Beaux Arts; William Carlos Williams: Landscape with the Fall of Icarus; Walt Whitman: from Song of Myself
5. Interrupted Reading-Robert Frost: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Interlude I: Epic Poetry
Part II: Reading Fiction-5 Ways In
Prelude II: The Pleasures of Fiction
6. Questions-Katherine Anne Porter: Rope
7. Surprises-Edgar Allan Poe: The Cask of Amontillado
8. Voices-Jane Austen: from Pride and Prejudice
9. Fiction & Arts-Ernest Hemingway: from The Revolutionist / from A Farewell to Arms
10. Interrupted Reading-Kate Chopin: The Story of an Hour
Interlude II: The Novel and Novella
Part III: Reading Drama-5 Ways In
Prelude III: The Pleasures of Drama
11. Mental Theater-August Strindberg: The Stronger
12. Subtext-Wendy Wasserstein: from Tender Offer
13. Language & Style-William Shakespeare: from Othello
14. Scene and Sound -William Shakespeare: from Macbeth
15. Interrupted Reading-George Bernard Shaw: from Arms and the Man
Interlude III: Types of Drama
Part IV: Reading the Essay-5 Ways In
Prelude IV: The Pleasures of the Essay
16. Annotation-Francis Bacon: Of Youth and Age
17. Style and Tone-Mary Wollstonecraft: from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
18. Slow Reading-Leslie Jamison: from A Street Full of Splendid Strangers
19. Reading Framework-Jamaica Kincaid: from On Seeing England for the First Time
20. Interrupted Reading-George Orwell: A Hanging
Interlude IV: The Video Essay
Part V: Reading with Literary Elements-5 Ways In
Prelude V: The Value of Literary Elements
21. Elements of Lyric Poetry-G. M. Hopkins: Spring and Fall: to a young child
22. Elements of Epic Poetry-Milton: Paradise Lost
23. Elements of Fiction-James Joyce: Araby
24. Elements of Drama-Lady Gregory, Isabella Persse: The Rising of the Moon
25. Elements of the Essay-Zora Neale Hurston: How It Feels to Be Colored Me
Interlude V: Literary Conventions
Part VI: Reading Literature Through Critical Lenses-12 Ways In
Prelude VI: Perspectives
26. Formalist
27. Reader-Response
28. Biographical
29. Historical
30. Psychological
31. Sociological
32. Mythological
33. Structuralist
34. Deconstructionist
35. Post-Colonial
36. Eco-Critical
37. Influence and Values
Appendix: Writing about Literature
References
Index

About the author

Robert DiYanni is Professor of Humanities at New York University, USA where he serves on the faculties of the School of Professional Studies and the Stern School of Business, following a decade in the College of Arts and Science. His publications include The Pearson Guide to Critical and Creative Thinking (2014), Critical and Creative Thinking: A Brief Guide for Teachers (2015), and Critical Reading Across the Curriculum (with Anton Borst; 2017).

Product details

• Authors: Robert DiYanni
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 16.04.2026
• EAN: 9781041026310
• ISBN: 978-1-041-02631-0
• No. of pages: 250
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; LITERARY CRITICISM / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Books & Reading, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / General, Literary studies: general, Literary theory