Exploring the text
- Look up any words or allusions
you are unsure about
- Look for any gaps
you have have read over and into quickly
- Look for any repetitions
or patterns in the story
Exploring formal features
of the text:
Plot
- How do you now account
for sections that seemed irrelevant or tangential?
- Where do you see foreshadowing
of the climax and resolution of the story? How effective are they?
- Is the story more or less
interesting this time, now that you know the plot?
- What conflicts do you
see now? Any more or any different ones? Are they all resolved or
are any left open? If open, then why?
- If there are any dislocations
in order (e.g. of time or place) in the story, do you see any logic
behind the arrangement?
Character
- How are the different
characters defined--by words, actions (including thoughts and emotions),
dress, setting, narrative point of view, etc?
- Are the characters revealed
directly or indirectly?
- What purposes do any minor
characters serve? Do any characters act as "foils" for each other,
similar yet different in significant ways?
- If a character changes,
why and how does he or she change? Or did your attitude toward a character
change because you know him or her better?
- Are the characters round
(complex) or flat (one-dimensional)?
- How does the author cause
you to sympathize with certain characters?
- How does your response--sympathy
or lack of sympathy--contribute to your judgment of the conflict and
the "meaning" of the story?
Point of View
- How does the point of
view help shape the story and its meaning?
- What in the narrator's
language tells you what sort of person he/she is and what his/her
strengths and limitations might be?
Setting
- Does setting play a major
role in the story? What might that be? Could this same story have
happened in another place and time?
- Is the setting a kind
of character in the story? If so, how is it functioning?
Symbolism and style
- What additional dimensions
of representation do you now see in certain characters, the setting,
or the situation(s).
- ´How would you characterize
the style of this story? Is it heavily shaped by a narrator?
- Does the style ever shift
dramatically? If so, why?
Theme
- Are there any details,
sentences, or repetitions that particularly embody a "theme" in the
story?
- Does the author ever seem
to "editorialize" about the story's meaning? Is she/he to be trusted?
- Does the story reinforce
values that you hold; does it also challenge these values to any degree?
Reading for cultural and
literary repertoires
- How do you think the life
or the age, gender, race, social or financial status of the author
might be relevant to this story?
- What do you know about
the time, the place, and social, cultural, and/or political conditions
of the work? Which of these might be relevant to this particular text?
Matching up your own personal,
literary, and general repertoires
- What expectations do you
have a story like this? How does it meet or disappoint those expectations?
- How do your relevant personal
experiences (as recorded in your free association) match or clash
with those suggested in the poem? Are they so strong that they might
shape your interpretation?
- What differences (from
the author) in age, race, gender, social or political status, etc.
might color and shape your reading of this poem?
|