The Writing and Reading Center Writing a Literary Analysis

1. The Writing and Reading Center Writing a Literary Analysis

2. What is Literary Analysis? Literary Analysis is: • An argumentative analysis about a literary work • The writer's interpretation of the text • Examination of literary devices and elements in relation to the theme or plot Literary devices & elements Include: • Diction (word choice) • Imagery • Personification • Repetition • Foreshadowing • Metaphor/Simile • Syntax

3. Why is Literary Analysis Important? • Aids readers in understanding the theme of the literature • Reveals hidden meanings and messages from the author • Helps strengthen reading comprehension and critical thinking skills

4. Tips on Writing A Literary Paper • The key is to not lose sight of your thesis • Make sure all your analysis is connected to and supports your thesis and your paper’s claim about the literary work you are analyzing • Your focus is analysis and not summary • Use textual evidence (quotes) from your chosen work and do close reading of these excerpts to show how they prove and substantiate your thesis. • The purpose of this assignment is to make you focus on what the author is doing and why, rather than just what the text is saying, i.e. summary.

5. Tips on Writing A Literary Paper: Introduction • Introduce the work and author • Give background about the author and the time period • Identify the argument you will be making about the work • Provide some sense as to why this issue is important • State your thesis - give a preview of the paper’s content • The thesis should depend on your analysis and argument about the text • You should discuss all the elements of the thesis in the order you present them in the introduction

6. Writing the body of the analysis: • The body of the essay will lay out your evidence and analysis of the work. You will need to use quotes to build your analysis. Make sure you use a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph. Your goal should be to relate all of the relevant details in the body to that thesis. This means that some details may be omitted in the paper because they do not support or concern the thesis being argued. Note that the order of the evidence you present should not follow the order of the passage you discuss. Rather, the order of the evidence depends on how it relates to your central argument and how you lay it out in your thesis. • Make sure, in your close reading of a text, that you do not transform a clear thought or a complex passage into a bundle of unsupported or farfetched claims.

7. Writing the conclusion: • The conclusion should restate your thesis and sum up the main claims your paper discussed and your insight based on your analysis. • Make sure you do not copy your thesis from your introduction. Reword it. • End the essay with a final thought about the effectiveness of the writer in conveying his/her theme and what message she/he was conveying to the audience. You can also discuss what we learn about the writer/character from this literary text.

8. Poetic Devices • Simile: thecomparison of two things that are usually unlike using “like” or “as. • Metaphor: the comparison of two things that are usually unlike. It is a shortcut to the meaning; it sets two unlike things side by side and makes us see the likeness between them, usually using Verb To Be. • Personification: a figure of speech in which a thing, an animal or an abstract term is spoken about as having human attributes, qualities and feelings • Imagery: Language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. • Symbol: It is using an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning • Repetition: The repetition of images, ideas, words, or phrases to emphasize a point or relay a theme • Ellipsis: The omission of a word or part of a sentence to create a certain effect on the readers. The purpose could be to leave the readers to fill in the gaps or because the poet is emotionally overwhelmed and does not complete his thought • Contrast: including one viewpoint then its opposite at a later stage to show the difference between the two. • Rhetorical question: to make the readers think and to put emphasis on the question posed by the author or speaker • Assonance: repetition of similar or identical vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words. Ex. yard- dark • Alliteration: the repetition of the same sound, usually consonants, at the beginning of successive nearby words. Ex. slush street; dark day • Rhyme: the repetition of the final vowel and consonant sounds in the same stanza or consecutive ones. Ex. seem-mean; day-say-may. • Theme: the central point of the poem

9. Fiction Elements • Plot: the events taking place in the story • Pont of view: the narrator, whether the story is told from a first person POV, third person, or third person omniscient • Characters: Who are the central characters? What are the internal and external conflicts facing the characters? • Setting: it is where the story takes place. Is it central in the story or serves merely as a backdrop for the plot. • Theme: the central point of the story • Simile: thecomparison of two things that are usually unlike using “like” or “as. • Metaphor: the comparison of two things that are usually unlike. It is a shortcut to the meaning; it sets two unlike things side by side and makes us see the likeness between them, usually using Verb To Be. • Personification: a figure of speech in which a thing, an animal or an abstract term is spoken about as having human attributes, qualities and feelings • Symbol: It is using an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning • Imagery: Language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. • Dramatic Irony: It is a literary technique by which the full significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character • Repetition: The repetition of images, ideas, words, or phrases to emphasize a point or relay a theme • Imagery: Language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching.

10. Poetry Analysis Activity: • Gabriel Okara’s “You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed”: https://theafricanbookreview.com/2014/05/09/you-laughed-and-laughed-and-laughed-gabriel-okara/ • For five minutes, write about the central theme/idea of the poem and one of the central literary devices used that support the poem’s message. Provide examples of the use of this device from the poem.