How to Write a Paper about Literature
By Jo Ray McCuen-Metherell and Anthony C. Winkler
Literature is a difficult subject to write about. First, it is a subject about which there is no shortage of opinions; a famous play such as Hamlet has been so thoroughly studied and interpreted that it would take a tome or two to collect every that has been written about it. Beginning writers must therefore always live in dread that what they have to say about a work may be blasphemously contrary to established opinion.
Second, the beginning writer is often unaware of the tradition or era into which the piece of literature falls. Yet to write intelligently about a piece of literature, a student must be able to distinguish the qualities of its literary tradition from the properties singular to the particular work. It is nearly impossible, for instance, to write about the work of a Romanic poet unless one knows something about the disposition of Romanticism.
However, the beginning student is rarely called upon to perform any such feat of interpretation. Instead, what an instructor generally wishes to evoke from a student writer is simply an intelligent exploration of a work’s meaning, along with a straightforward discussion of one or two of its techniques. The student might therefore be asked to analyze the meaning of a sonnet and to comment briefly on its prosody, to discuss the theme of a short story and to examine the actions and attitudes of a principal character, or to explain the social customs upon which a certain play is based.
Even so, there are numerous pitfalls awaiting the beginning commentator on literature. The first of these is a tendency to emote over a literary favorite. Students who fall victim to this trait mistake sentimentality for judgment, and write enthusiastically about how much they like a particular work. But this is not what the instructor is generally looking for in a student’s essay. What is desired is not an outpouring of affection but the careful expression of critical judgment.
A second mistake beginning students of literature often make is assuming that one opinion about a literary piece is as valid and as good as another. It is only in literature classes that one finds such extreme democracy. Geologists do not assume that one opinion about a rock is the same as another, nor do chemists or astronomers blithely accept every theory about chemicals and plants. This fallacious view of criticism has its origin in the mistaken belief that one’s primary reaction toward literature is emotional. But the emotional response evoked by the literary work is not what a writing assignment is designed to draw out of a student. Instead, what the inst5ructor is looking for is reasoned opinion based on a close reading of the text6.
Disagreements in interpretation can then be referred to the text, and evidence can be gathered to support one view over another. It is very much like two lawyers getting together to interpret the fine print on a contract. It is not at all like two people trying to reconcile their differing reactions to anchovy pizza. Interpretations that cannot be supported by the text may be judged far-fetched or simply wrong; those that can be supported may be judged more right.
But perhaps the most common mistake of the student-critic is a tendency to serve up inconsistent, unproven, and fanciful interpretations of the literary work. Often, these take the guise of rather exotic meanings that the student has inferred and for which scanty (if any) evidence exists. In its most extreme form, this tendency leads to rampant symbol hunting, whereby the writer finds complex and knotty meanings bristling behind the most innocent statements. The only known cure is the insistence that all interpretations be grounded in material taken from the text itself. If you have devised an ingenious explanation or reading of a work, be certain that you can point to specific passages from it that support your interpretat6ions, and always make sure that other passages do not contradict your thesis.
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Finding and Expressing a Theme The theme of a literary work is its central or dominant idea, its comment on life. Finding and expressing the idea involves a form of literary algebra that requires students to think logically from cause to effect. Of course, writers say more than any summary theme can possibly express; finding a theme should not involve smothering a writer’s work under a crude and simplistic summary. Instead, the summary you should compress into a few brief sentences what you interpret as the emphasis of the work.
Consider the poem “Design” (p. 553). A moth has been found dead in a spider’s web spun on a heal-all flower. The poet wonders what could have brought the moth to this particular flower, where a web was spun and a spider was waiting. Why didn’t the moth go to another, safer flower? This apparently trivial discovery leads the poem to speculate that destiny operates in a random and mysterious ways, which is more or less the central emphasis or theme of this poem.
This theme can, of course be stated in several ways …
Analyzing Character and Action Fictional characters behave according to the same homes, fears, hates, and loves that motivate real people, but the characters of fiction are found in exotic dilemmas real people hardly ever encounter. Consequently, fiction provides us with an opportunity to ponder how common people might react in uncommon situations; we can then draw moral lessons, psychological principles, and philosophical insights from their behavior. Without fiction, we would remain hemmed in y the narrow horizons of reality and experience.
By asking you to write an essay explaining why a certain character performed a certain action, your instructor is fostering valuable skills of social analysis. If you can understand the rage and jealousy of Othello or the isolated pride of Hester Prynne, you are better equipped to understand these emotions in yourself and in your acquaintances.
When you state that a certain character behaves in certain way, the burden of proof is on you. It is not enough to say that Hamlet was decisive or weak, or that Lear was overweening and arrogant, or that the unidentified male character in “Hills Like White Elephants” is petty and selfish. In every instance, you must quote passages that prove your interpretation.
Interpreting Symbols In its most literal sense … [..]
Commenting on Form … For this most part, this type of assignment applied to poetry, where the student has numerous opportunities to express a knowledge of the terms and concepts of prosody. [..]
In summary, when writing about literature, you should do more than simply ascribe a certain interpretation to the literary work. Your prime purpose should be to prove that your reading of the work is reasonable and logical. Passages from the work should be liberally quoted to support your paper’s interpretation of it. Above all, never assume that any reading of a work no matter how unsupported or farfetched, will do.
Bear one thing in mind before you begin to write your paper: Famous literary works, especially works regarded as classics, have been thoroughly studied to the point where prevailing opinion on them has assumed the character of orthodoxy. What may seem to you a brilliant insight may, in fact, be nothing more than what critics have been saying about the writer and his or her works for years. Saying that Hemingway’s male characters suffer from machismo is a little like the anthropology student opining that humans are bipedal. Both remarks are undoubtedly true, but they are neither original or insightful. You should, therefore, check out the prevailing critical opinions on a writer before attempting to dogmatize on your own.
This excerpt comes from:
McCuen-Metherell, Jo Ray and Anthony C. Winkler, eds. Readings for Writers. 12th ed. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2099. 780-783. Print.
Take away message for our class this semester:
- When writing about literary works, always incorporate a reference to the work’s theme or themes.
- When writing about literary works, always use and correctly exemplify literary terms. Aim for a minimum of two or three related terms and their concepts and examples per post or short essay; four or more terms may be required in specific and longer compositions.
- When writing about literary works, use analysis and synthesis. In general, we are analyzing the text (breaking down some part of it) and synthesizing critical opinion and sources (critical casebook materials and any research outside of the textbook anthology). The composition’s or paragraph’s main idea (thesis or topic sentence) is articulated specifically and addressed in some manner throughout the discussion. That is, the material presented for discussion is related in a specified way to the essay’s specific topic.
- Practice and master the art of incorporating authors, titles, page numbers, quotations both short and long, and parenthetical citations into your sentences. Punctuation, capitalization and the graceful order of these complicating elements is a necessity. Recognize there is a specific connection of this sort of information starting in the sentence, moving through all the elements of the citation and culminating in a nicely indexed works cited section at the end of the composition. Read all of our selections carefully for examples of how this is done.
General Assumptions About Audience
You are writing for an audience that knows the literary work well. This means you don’t have to retell the whole story. In fact, little — if any — essay credit is earned from a composition that is mainly plot summary. Summarize plots and actions with selected, well-edited paraphrases that help capture the point you want to make by referring to that part of the story or text.
You are writing for an audience that owns and uses dictionaries. This means you don’t have to write definitions or quote dictionaries (“According to Webster’s …). This class’s writing — from weekly discussion board posts to the final essay — requires you to use and exemplify technical terms and concepts, not copy out dictionary definitions of them.
Syllabus 