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LITERARY ANALYSIS THE BASICS Literary Analysis: The Basics is an insightful introduction to analysing a wide range of literary forms. Providing a clear outline of the methodologies employed in twenty-first-century literary analysis, it introduces readers to the genres, canons, terms, issues, critical approaches, and contexts that affect the analysis of any text. It addresses such questions as: • What counts as literature? • Is analysis a dissection? • How do gender, race, class, and culture affect the meaning of a text? • Why is the social and historical context of a text important? • Can digital media be analysed in the same way as a poem? With examples ranging from ancient myths to young adult fiction, a glossary of key terms, and suggestions for further reading, Literary Analysis: The Basics is essential reading for anyone wishing to improve their analytical reading skills. Celena Kusch is Associate Professor of American Literature at the University of South Carolina Upstate, USA. THE BASICS ACTING THE CITY BELLA MERLIN KEVIN ARCHER AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE NANCY STANLICK SUMAN GUPTA ANCIENT NEAR EAST CRIMINAL LAW DANIEL C. SNELL JONATHAN HERRING ANIMAL ETHICS CRIMINOLOGY (SECOND EDITION) TONY MILLIGAN SANDRA WALKLATE ANTHROPOLOGY DANCE STUDIES PETER METCALF JO BUTTERWORTH ARCHAEOLOGY (SECOND EDITION) EASTERN PHILOSOPHY CLIVE GAMBLE VICTORIA S. HARRISON ART HISTORY ECONOMICS (THIRD EDITION) GRANT POOKE AND DIANA NEWALL TONY CLEAVER ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EDUCATION KEVIN WARWICK KAY WOOD THE BIBLE ENERGY JOHN BARTON MICHAEL SCHOBERT THE BIBLE AND LITERATURE EUROPEAN UNION (SECOND EDITION) NORMAN W. JONES ALEX WARLEIGH-LACK BIOETHICS EVOLUTION ALASTAIR V. CAMPBELL SHERRIE LYONS BODY STUDIES FILM STUDIES (SECOND EDITION) NIALL RICHARDSON AND ADAM LOCKS AMY VILLAREJO BRITISH POLITICS FINANCE (THIRD EDITION) BILL JONES ERIK BANKS BUDDHISM FOOD ETHICS CATHY CANTWELL RONALD SANDLER CAPITALISM FREE WILL DAVID COATES MEGHAN GRIFFITH CHRISTIANITY GENDER BRUCE CHILTON HILARY LIPS GENOCIDE METAPHYSICS PAUL R. BARTROP MICHAEL REA GLOBAL MIGRATION NARRATIVE BERNADETTE HANLON AND THOMAS BRONWEN THOMAS VICINIO THE OLYMPICS GREEK HISTORY ANDY MIAH AND BEATRIZ GARCIA ROBIN OSBORNE PHILOSOPHY (FIFTH EDITION) HUMAN GENETICS NIGEL WARBURTON RICKI LEWIS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY HUMAN GEOGRAPHY JOSEPH HOLDEN ANDREW JONES POETRY (THIRD EDITION) INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS JEFFREY WAINWRIGHT PETER SUTCH AND JUANITA ELIAS POLITICS (FIFTH EDITION) ISLAM (SECOND EDITION) NIGEL JACKSON AND STEPHEN TANSEY COLIN TURNER PUBLIC RELATIONS JOURNALISM STUDIES RON SMITH MARTIN CONBOY THE QUR’AN JUDAISM MASSIMO CAMPANINI JACOB NEUSNER RACE AND ETHNICITY LANGUAGE (SECOND EDITION) PETER KIVISTO AND PAUL R. CROLL R.L. TRASK RELIGION (SECOND EDITION) LAW MALORY NYE GARY SLAPPER AND DAVID KELLY RELIGION AND SCIENCE LITERARY ANALYSIS PHILIP CLAYTON CELENA KUSCH RESEARCH METHODS LITERARY THEORY (THIRD EDITION) NICHOLAS WALLIMAN HANS BERTENS ROMAN CATHOLICISM LOGIC MICHAEL WALSH JC BEALL MANAGEMENT SEMIOTICS (SECOND EDITION) MORGEN WITZEL DANIEL CHANDLER MARKETING (SECOND EDITION) SHAKESPEARE (THIRD EDITION) KARL MOORE AND NIKETH PAREEK SEAN MCEVOY MEDIA STUDIES SOCIAL WORK JULIAN MCDOUGALL MARK DOEL SOCIOLOGY SUSTAINABILITY KEN PLUMMER PETER JACQUES SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND TELEVISION STUDIES DISABILITY (SECOND EDITION) TOBY MILLER JANICE WEARMOUTH TERRORISM SPORT MANAGEMENT JAMES LUTZ AND BRENDA LUTZ ROBERT WILSON AND MARK PIEKARZ THEATRE STUDIES (SECOND EDITION) SPORT PSYCHOLOGY ROBERT LEACH DAVID TOD WOMEN’S STUDIES STANISLAVSKI BONNIE SMITH ROSE WHYMAN WORLD HISTORY SUBCULTURES PETER N. STEARNS ROSS HAENFLER LITERARY ANALYSIS THE BASICS Celena Kusch First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Celena Kusch The right of Celena Kusch to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kusch, Celena.Title: Literary analysis: the basics/Celena Kusch. Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015034080| ISBN 9780415747097 (hardback: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780415747103 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315688374 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Literature—Philosophy. | Literary form. | Literature—History and criticism—Theory, etc. Classification: LCC PN45 .K834 2016 | DDC 801—dc23LC record available at http:// lccn.loc.gov/2015034080 ISBN: 978-0-415-74709-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-74710-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-68837-4 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Book Now Ltd, London CONTENTS 1 Introduction: thinking about literature 1 What is literature? 1 Analysis, classics, and the literary canon 6 Readers, authors, and meanings 13 What does it really mean? Analysis and evidence 19 References and further reading 21 2 Close reading: words and forms 23 Animal, vegetable, or mineral: Why genre matters 24 Analysing language 30 Poetics and literary terms 37 References and further reading 49 3 Analysis in context 52 History and literature, literature as history 55 Literary periods and movements: Communities of writers 59 Cultural contexts 75 References and further reading 78 viii contents 4 Comparative analysis 80 Common themes 83 Translation, variation, repetition, and remixing 85 References and further reading 92 5 Analysis and the critics 94 About criticism 96 Reading criticism and identifying critical debates 98 Critical response 101 References and further reading 106 6 Analysis and literary theory 108 Everyone has a theory 110 Everything is a construction 123 Everything is a text 125 References and further reading 128 7 Conclusion: analytical writing 132 Academic writing about literature 133 The popular critic: Writing about literature in the world 138 References and further reading 142 Glossary 143 Index 147 1 INTRODUCTION: THINKING ABOUT LITERATURE WHAT IS LITERATURE? From ancient myths and oral stories to today’s fan fiction and self- publishing boom, literature has served a variety of functions in society. Literature conveys sacred knowledge, teaches moral and social lessons, announces new ideas, records revolutions, tests the limits of cultural values, and shows us our best and worst selves. As the set of stories we tell of ourselves through narrative, performance, lyrical reflection, and many other forms, literature encapsulates human experience and records the messy, painful, triumphant, and sublime realities of the passage of humans through our world. While other fields of study attempt to understand humans by measuring and compiling facts about our psychological responses, economic behaviours, sociologi- cal institutions, and anthropological patterns, those fields smooth out the edges of our rough and often irrational behaviours by highlight- ing general tendencies or statistical probabilities. Literature offers us the human life in total – not reduced – with its inconsistent logic, morality, and identity on full display. For instance, when William Shakespeare’s Macbeth was first per- formed in 1606, three years after Queen Elizabeth I’s death, the play provided an imaginative forum from which to consider and debate questions of power, gender, ambition, political machination, and the nation itself.