In class today, we wrote a bit about writing about literature: what we learned from the readings, as well as what questions that were still outstanding. Professor Rodgers introduced this exercise by talking about her frustration regarding the fact that often more time is spent discussing the technical aspects of writing about literature, e.g., MLA in-text citation formatting guidelines, versus the rhetorical and stylistic issues related to writing about literature, e.g., how to select quotes, how to introduce quotes, etc.
Here are some of the questions:
Re: “Close Reading”: Should you use this as a model for reading passages or entire stories?
Re: Author Biographies: When can you use them in your interpretations of stories?
