Literature Seminar

This page has resources to help you with understanding and exploring complex literature.

“Thinking critically about literature is not simply a matter of understanding story and character but also of paying attention to how language makes meaning.” --Naomi Milthorpe in Literature: 101 Exercises for the College Classroom edited by Diana Fuss & William A. Gleason, pg 265

Literary Terminology

• Literary Terminology grouped by AP Lit skills or List #2 (will soon be consolidated with the first list)

• Online Glossary of Literary Terms - includes definitions for most terms

• Dictionary of Literary Terms by J.A. Cuddon

• The Essential Poet's Glossary by Edward Hirsch

• A Handbook to Literature, 12th Edition by William Harmon

Film Terminology

• Writing About Film: Terminology and Starting Prompts from Purdue OWL

Close Reading Exercises

Act It Out

Use this reading and acting activity to help students connect literary techniques and language choices with function.

1. Choose a short prose FRQ and passage to review in class.

2. Review the prompt. Read it out loud, identify key information and have students come up with a "Golden Question" that they will need to answer in order to respond to the prompt.

3. Read & act out the passage. Choose students to act out the passage on stage. The teacher reads the narration while the students act it out and read the dialogue.

4. Discuss function. Throughout the reading, stop to ask students about function of words and phrases in the passage.

More Close Reading Exercises

from UT Arlington Library Guide on Literary Theories & Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism: An introduction to theory and practice. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003.

The Blow Up

1. Choose a passage of no more than two hundred words from the text that your class is reading.

2. Format the passage on a handout with large font (14 point) and at least half-inch margins all around the text.

3. Ask students to read and annotate the passage with any observations or associations that come to them.

4. Ask on student to read the passage aloud. Direct the student to read "very slowly and very loudly." Give students a few minutes to respond by marking up their passages.

5. Invite students to share their observations and comments (an interesting word, a curious turn of phrase, a notable repetition, an arresting metaphor, etc.). Discuss observations about form, style, and any other topics you would like to discuss.

The Cut Up

This exercise invites students to take pieces of a text and put it back together again. It challenges students to get inside a writer's mind-set and reminds them of the infinite choices--in word and design--that any writer must negotiate. The text you select will depend largely on the level of challenge you want to present.

1. Reproduce your poem or prose passage on a handout and keep this in reserve.

2. Digitally cut the text into parts: for poems, make the cuts after every line break; for prose, make the cuts after every sentence. Place each individual line or sentence on a separate page and be sure to increase the font size to at least 20.

3. In class, separate students into groups of three or four and give each group a set of the cut-up passages.

4. Now ask each group to reconstruct the text without the aid of electronic devices. Their mission is to place the cut-up lines in the proper order. Invite groups to move around the room and use any surface: table, wall, floor, blackboard. 

   • Let groups strategize on their own, discussing among themselves the best way to put the mystery text back together. Part of the point of the exercise is to alert students to some of the more subtle formal features that convey style and carry meaning, so resist the impulse to give them clues.

5. When students are reasonably confident of their final order, mark off for them exactly which of their lines are in the right places. Give them a couple more minutes to try to reorder the text one more time with this new information in hand.

   • For groups that have put all or nearly all of the lines in the wrong place, offer them the first and last line of the poem or passage.

6. When time is up, hand out the original text and let each group discover exactly how close or how far they came to getting everything where it belongs. If a particular group did well, ask them how they did it--what did they look for and what clues did they follow? If  they were off base, ask them what obstacles they encountered or misdirections they followed, and why.

7. Keep a record on the board of every formal feature they mention: language, tone, punctuation, and so on. The list of terms on the board becomes a checklist of sorts, guiding the class to a more sophisticated understanding of how literature works. 

Short Fiction: Noticing & Appreciating Artistry

Lenses offered by George Saunders in A Swim in a Pond in the Rain:

• TICHN “things I couldn’t help notice” (84)

• 3 questions (14), “curiosity as caring”

• writer as juggler - what bowling pins has Lahiri thrown into the air? (14)

• reader’s expectations, anticipating the reader (14, 17)

• structure (19)

• “ritual banality avoidance” (35)

• escalation (60, 137)

• characterization & character development (16)

• character change, story vs. anecdote, what makes this a story? (51)

• “ruthlessly efficient,” use everything, no waste (41, 48)

• sidecar of motorcycle (58)

• pattern creates expectation (134, 147)

• “in specificity lies nascent plot” (142)

First Sentences

In short stories, the first sentence is germinal, catalytic, and atomic. It must not only pull the reader into the story, but it must also set the parameters for what the story will be. Within the context of the story, a good first sentence is truthful (within the context of the storytelling), it is efficient, it immediately sets expectations, and it piques curiosity. 

Example: In “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri, the first sentence sets up a scenario in a way that let’s the reader know that something worth reading will occur:

“The notice informed them that it was a temporary matter: for five days their electricity would be cut off for one hour, beginning at eight pm.” 

From the outset we know that the characters are being thrust into unusual circumstances, and we are wondering who these characters are and how these circumstances will lead to a fundamental change in their lives.

Question: In what ways do the first sentences of other stories fulfill these requirements? Can you write an interesting and engaging first sentence that contains the seeds of a potential story? 

The Power of Literature

“I think that the power of art is the power to wake us up, strike us to our depths, change us. What are we searching for when we read a novel, see a film, listen to a piece of music? We are searching, through a work of art, for something that alters us, that we weren’t aware of before. We want to transform ourselves…” —"Teach Yourself Italian" by Jhumpa Lahiri in The New Yorker

Question: Does the story move you in any way? Does it make you view life any differently? Does it inspire you in any way?