Intended as a guide for students of literature, this book introduces literary analysis through discussion of forms, elements, and genres. The first half of the book focuses on theory, with each section preceded by literary passages and interpretative questions. The second half is devoted to practice, and contains three contrasting literary genre…

To parallel Lester Asheim's doctoral thesis that compared the endings of 24 novels with their 1935-1945 filmed adaptations, this study examined the endings of 88 films produced between 1946 and 1977, comparing the literary endings with the filmed endings by the same criteria that Asheim used. The data indicate both similarities and differences to…

This paper describes a methodology for studying the ideologies of social movements from a rhetorical perspective and tests the methodology by studying the ideology of the feminist movement. The methodology is a three-step approach: first, a descriptive analysis provides an operational definition of the group's ideology--its self-image, central…

A dialectical heuristic that can be used to guide students through the stages of writing about a literary experience is discussed in this paper. The first section of the paper provides a working definition of literature as an area of discourse and divides the process of reading and writing about literature into three general phases: progressive,…

Over 200 participants from 10 states and 17 universities attended "The First National Symposium on Chicano Literature and Critical Analysis." Five of the papers presented at the symposium are given in this publication. The papers cover Chicano poetry, novel, drama, and popular folklore humor. "National Character vs Universality in…

To compare structural analysis with experiential reflective analysis as teaching techniques for literature, a study was made of the written responses of three groups of typical 10th-graders after reading four modern novels--Paul Annixter's "Swiftwater," Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451," Bel Kaufman's "Up the Down Staircase," and John…

Recent developments and the present state of scholarship in Ciceroniana are surveyed in this booklet. Roman history and literature are reflected in discussion of the speeches, letters, philosophical and rhetorical writings, and political involvement of Cicero. Nineteenth-century literary criticism of Cicero is largely rejected in this survey in…

Comedy is the middle ground upon which the absurd and the serious meet. Concerned with illuminating pain, human imperfection, and man's failure to measure up to his own or the world's concept of perfection, comedy provides "an escape, not from truth but from despair." If tragedy says that some ideals are worth dying for, comedy asserts…

The primary purpose of this article is to clarify the place of myth in literature and the English curriculum. Conceived of as symbolic form, myth underpins all human expression, as a way of organizing human response to reality. It holds a central place in literature and can make clear the intimate connections between history and literature because…

Much of the clamor about instructional relevance today results from student dissatisfaction with (1) the narrow and anachronistic definition of literature commonly given by teachers, (2) the artificial compartmentalizing of literary works, and (3) the assumption that literature can only be apprehended through analysis. Rather than concentrating…

The best literature dealing with the Holocaust assumes the worthwhileness and preciousness of human life. (JH)

The Bible still offers artists their basic myths and patterns for interpreting the American experience.

The focus story forms are differentiated by their characteristic uses of time and space and by the psychological processes they engage.

Successful fantasies may either force us to look freshly at everyday things or expand our capacity to believe.