INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY ANALYSIS

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INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY ANALYSIS

(a few words of advice and perspective)

By Dr. David B. Axelrod

MY FIRST LITERATURE PAPER

My first literature paper, much like the paper you may write, asked me to analyze a work of literature--a poem. I'd like to say it was a great success but it isn't as easy as that to tell you how I did. Academically, it bombed! The grade was awful. In terms of the paper's shaping my own future, it actually was quite significant. If I tell you about the experience, I think it can help you gauge where I am coming from. Better yet, it could help you succeed in your own papers you write for me.

As an English major and a lover of poetry from an early age, I read the poetry enthusiastically. I selected William Blake's "The Tyger" and wrote at length about the fierceness of the tiger. The poem raised questions about why such a fierce, predatory creature was put on earth. I was convinced of the worthiness of my discussion, absolutely confident that the meaning of the poem was clear to me. (Link to "The Tyger" http://www.classicauthors.net/Blake/PoemsOfWilliamBlake/PoemsOfWilliamBlake1.html)

My grade was a "C-" and you can imagine my concern. I went to the professor with every desire not to complain or confront but to understand and learn.

            "What did I do wrong?" I asked. "Please help me do a better job."
            "Well," said the learned professor. "I could have given you a much lower grade but I took pity on you. To begin with, you got the interpretation of the poem completely wrong."
            I was startled. If anything I thought I knew what the theme was. I asked "How could that be? It is about a tiger isn't it? The theme teaches us that every creature has its purpose."
            "No," the professor said, correcting me, "It is about the Industrial Revolution. Blake is protesting what factories, machinery, industry are doing to people."

Thereafter he took great pains to explain each symbol, each figure of speech, each historical circumstance that would have precipitated the poem's composition. He may also have included some details of Blake's life that lead to his artistic and rebellious nature and his finely tuned sense of injustice.

WHY CAN'T A POEM

(or any work of literature you read)

JUST SAY WHAT IT MEANS?

Once explained, those unknown elements of the poem, of course, were clearer to me. It was at that moment, however, that I had another closure. Never, if I should ever rise to such a position of authority as to be an English Literature Professor, would I ever impose a meaning on a poem that was not preeminently clear to a student reading it. Yes, a good critic will open up a work of literature for the reader with new possibilities, new meanings. However, none but a dictator would impose a meaning on a work.

A poem, a story, any work of literature begins with just the words on the page. Given the possibility that some words need defining, even explaining, one counts on the "ideal reader" to do the work--to look up and learn what is needed to understand the words that are written. But to require a world of knowledge, annotation and fact beyond the poem (or any work of literature) before settling on what the poem means is not reasonable. It is enough to raise a very basic question regarding teaching itself:

WHY ASK A QUESTION IF YOU ALREADY

KNOW THE ANSWER?

Too many teachers, as was true for my first, introduction to literature professor, use their classroom to show off what they know and their students don't. If my professor desired to teach a course in the historical antecedents of William Blake, he might have labeled it as such. Asking me to interpret what I read was a straightforward and honest task I undertook, only to be snookered with a dishonest evaluation. It wasn't the low grade I was wounded by, it was the basic premise--that literature could only be understood by the most erudite, the most educated.

No wonder people would shy away from literature--particularly poetry. To understand the work, one might have to be a scholar, a mind-reader, a broad generalist knowing all the times and places surrounding the work and a specialist familiar with the intimate details of an author's life. That doesn't seem fair!

WHAT I WANT FROM YOU…

So, when I assign students poems to read, I tell them, "There is no wrong way to interpret the literature." Rather, there are just the words on the page and what a student can make of them. If it says "tiger" it must, first and foremost, be about a tiger. If it walks like one, growls like one, looks like one, then it is indeed one very fascinating tiger.

If, in the course of reading and writing about a work of literature, the student/reader ignores many words, phrases, lines, then it is quite possible the interpretation will be flawed. It may be less "right" an interpretation in comparison to what other more careful readers think. As there is no accounting for the ways in which we each, individually, use the language, there will always be room for "interpretation," and new readings of even the most venerable classics therefore are always forthcoming.

Thus, it should be clear from the start that:

1. I truly do not want papers that treat the literature or poetry as a riddle with deep, hidden, symbolic meanings. Poetry papers, in particular, which tell me that one thing must be symbolic of another, tend to go far astray.

2. I don't want, don't allow papers with outside source material because I believe literature is something you read, "recreate" for yourself, and enjoy. It is not an exercise in doing research.

That is why when I ask a question, I am just as glad to learn what new answers might be there among my students which I hadn't considered. The Bible has been translated dozens of times since it's first "source." Just as certainly, our Supreme Court can re-interpret a finite body of words a different way on a different day, I am fascinated by how many ways readers can see and speak of "The Tyger" or any work they have chosen.

A WORD OF CAUTION!

To this story, however, I must add one note of caution, one sobering statement in the form of some "control."

I asked my professor why I had gotten the minus that lowered me from the "C" even further. That, he informed me, was because my spelling was atroshious [sic]. I am, alas, still a poor speller. However, I have forced myself to be a better proofreader!