1. A guide to more critical reading and writing

2. Writing about literature begins with reading What is “good reading”? Not necessarily fast reading About paying attention Often requires re-reading---at least key sections Terms—active reading, close reading, or critical reading Does this mean I am looking for hidden meanings? No, no, and NO! Not a deliberate attempt to make reading difficult or to exclude reading Not “digging” for buried treasure Not necessarily ONE single, true meaning

3. Do you find this difficult? Actually a good sign—you’re at least paying attention to the reading Do not assume English teachers have the one magical key that unlocks the truth of a text More experience---collaboration---he/she learns WITH you

4. Instructions for active reading Slow down—I know your time is limited, but try to allow time for “revisiting” the literature. Read with a pencil in hand—annotate the text and/or take notes Don’t try to do this in a neat or orderly fashion—circle, underline, question, make notes Underline passages that strike you as important (even if you don’t know why) Make notes in the margins as to why certain points strike you Ask questions of the text Talk back to the text Look for the usual features of language Develop your own system of shorthand

5. Extra steps If the text is particularly difficult—you may need to take extra steps Different notes A reading journal Paraphrase Reflect Use a dictionary—for goodness sake! If you don’t know a word look it up!

6. Asking critical questions of literature The first step to successful critical reading is asking questions Simple inquiries of fact Complex, probing queries with multiple, complex, or even contradictory answers DON’T WORRY SO MUCH ABOUT FINDING THE ANSWERS TO ALL OF YOUR QUESTIONS!

7. Critical reading cont.. As you begin to work through it, discuss it, and even possibly respond… As you begin to realize and/or accept you may never find an answer… As you begin to question why and think of larger questions or issues that have springboard from your original questions… YOU HAVE BEGUN TO READ CRITICALLY AND THINK CRITICALLY!

8. Questions of literature fall into four categories Those about the text Focus on issues such as genre, structure, language, and style Those about the author Must learn to distinguish between narrative voice and the actual author Those about the reader Who was the originally intended audience? Does it stand the test of time? Those about the cultural contexts of the work What was going on at the time and place the work was written?

9. How can specific questions really lead me to critical reading? In Ben Johnson’s poem “On My First Son,” a grieving father bids goodbye to his dead child. After the poem is a list of set of questions that by no means represent a complete list of what an attentive reader might ask, but it should give you a sense of how even a short piece of literature can generate much bigger topics for discussion and/or writing.

10. On My First Son By Ben Jonson (1572-1637) Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy: Seven ears thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O could I lose all father now! For why5 Will man lament the state he should envy, To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage, And, if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and asked, say “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.”10 For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loves may never like too much. [1616]

11. Questions about the text Genre, structure, language, style Is there a presence or absence of certain images that you may expect Juxtaposition of images or language—purpose? Effect? Meanings of certain words? Has the meaning evolved over time? Purpose and effect of sound, rhythm, rhyme, and so on Previous experiences might affect your expectations---does the text fulfill or frustrate those expectations? Are certain images arresting? Unexpected? Are the words powerful? Strange? Noteworthy?

12. Specific question examples Why is hope for his child a “sin”? Isn’t it natural to hope for your children? Why the words lent and pay, as if the son is a bank transaction? Borrowed from and paid to whom? (God? Jonson mentions fate.) The word just has two meanings: exact and fair. Which does the poet mean? Both? How can a child’s death be fair? What does he mean by “O could I lose all father now”? (confusing) Is the Ben Jonson in line 8 the father or the son? Both?

13. Questions about the author Two major issues Ignore the biography of the author entirely and focus solely on the work at hand Look closely at the author’s life to see what might have led him to write this particular piece (motivation) We cannot deny that a writer’s life does have an affect on his expression—age, gender, religious beliefs, family structure, etc… Not everything an author writes should be taken at surface value—not every piece of lit is biographical—much is fictional—speaker or writer?

14. For example: Suppose you were to discover that Ben Jonson’s eldest son did not die in childhood, or that Jonson was a lifelong bachelor who had no children. How would that change your interpretation of this poem?

15. Neither is true. Young Ben was Jonson’s real child, and he really did die on his seventh birthday. But if this speculation were true, the poem would no longer be a sincere expression of a father’s mourning. It would be more like a character study, an attempt on the part of the poet to get inside the mind of a man in mourning. Would this make it a worse poem? A different poem?

16. So what would good author questions be? How old was Jonson when his son died? Did he have other children? Other boys? (“First Son” suggests he did.) Did he lose any other children? How long after his son’s death did Jonson write the poem? What religion was Jonson? How pious was he? Did he really stop loving his family after his son’s death, as the last line suggests?

17. Questions about cultural context We are all creatures of a particular time and place. Nobody is so unique that he/she is immune to the pervasive forces of social history. Consider the culture, beliefs, events, power of the time of which a work is written. Consider your own time. How does being a member of 21 st century America affect your reading and understanding? Is there any connectivity? Universality?

18. For example: How common was childhood death in the seventeenth century? What was the life expectancy? Typically, how involved were fathers in young children’s lives at the time? Is the quotation in the poem (lines 9-10) the boy’s epitaph? How difficult was life then? What does he mean by the “world’s flesh and rage”? How common was poetry on this topic? How original was Jonson’s poem? What attitudes about God and heaven were common then? What was the conception of sin?

19. Questions about the reader Who was the intended audience? Did it affect the tone and structure of the piece? Does it have the same or a similar effect on contemporary readers? Something totally different? Has the work endured?

20. For example: If childhood death was common in the seventeenth century, would many of Jonson’s readers have related to the subject? People who actually knew the boy (and the father) would have a strong response to the boy’s death. Did Jonson write this for wide circulation, or was it meant just for family and friends? Where and when was it first published, and who was likely to read it? Do readers with children of their own read it differently? Would I? Now that childhood death is fairly uncommon, do we take this poem more seriously than past readers? Or less seriously?

21. In conclusion: Some of these questions were easily answered—did Jonson have other children? When and where was this published? Others were more complex---how can a child’s death be considered fair? Still others require discussion—do readers with children respond differently? Do readers today take it more or less seriously? SO HOW WILL THIS HELP ME ?

22. You have taken the first step… To becoming a critical reader, an active reader, a close reader You can deconstruct a piece of literature with a few categorical questions—and from that you can begin to make some kind of sense of it. You have the tools to begin working on writing analytically rather than reproducing a plot type summary.