Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, 2009 Mla Update - 7th edition

Laurie Kirszner is a bestselling author and a practicing teacher who is well known nationally. Kirszner, together with coauthor Stephen R. Mandell, has written bestsellers for nearly every English market. They have the deepest publishing record of any handbook author team and have successfully published up and down the curriculum from Developmental to Literature.

Stephen Mandell is a bestselling author and a practicing teacher who is well known nationally. Mandell, together with coauthor Laurie G. Kirszner, has written bestsellers for nearly every English market. They have the deepest publishing record of any handbook author team and have successfully published up and down the curriculum from Developmental to Literature.

Preface. Part I: A GUIDE TO WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE. 1. Reading and Writing about Literature. Reading Literature. Previewing. Highlighting. Checklist: Using Highlighting Symbols. Maya Angelou, My Arkansas. Annotating. Writing about Literature. Planning an Essay. Drafting an Essay. Revising and Editing an Essay. Checklist: Using Sources. Checklist: Conventions of Writing about Literature. Three Model Student Papers. Student Paper: "The Secret Lion": Everything Changes. Student Paper: Digging for Memories. Student Paper: Desperate Measures: Acts of Defiance in Trifles. 2. Writing Literary Arguments. Planning a Literary Argument. Choosing a Debatable Topic. Developing an Argumentative Thesis. Defining Your Terms. Considering Your Audience. Refuting Opposing Arguments. Using Evidence Effectively. Supporting Your Literary Argument. Establishing Credibility. Being Fair. Using Visuals as Evidence. Organizing a Literary Argument. Writing a Literary Argument. Student Paper: The Politics of "Everyday Use". 3. Documenting Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism. Avoiding Plagiarism. Document All Material That Requires Documentation. Enclose Borrowed Words in Quotation Marks. Do Not Imitate a Source's Syntax and Phrasing. Differentiate Your Words from Those of Your Source. Checklist: Plagiarism and Internet Sources. Documenting Sources. Parenthetical References in the Text. Checklist: Guidelines for Punctuating Parenthetical References. The Works-Cited List. Content Notes. Part II: FICTION. 4. Understanding Fiction. Origins of Modern Fiction. The History of the Novel. The History of the Short Story. Defining the Short Story. Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants. Recognizing Kinds of Fiction. 5. Fiction Sampler: The Short-Short. Julia Alvarez, Snow. Aimee Bender, Jinx. Jorge Luis Borges, The Plot. Dave Eggers, Accident. Amanda Holzer, Love and Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape. Jamaica Kincaid, Girl. Alice Munro, Prue. ZZ Packer, Buffalo Soldiers. Annie Proulx, 55 Miles to the Gas Pump. 6. Plot. Conflict. Stages of Plot. Order and Sequence. Checklist: Writing about Plot. Graphic Fiction: Ben Katchor, Goner Pillow Company. Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour. Stephen Dobyns, Kansas. William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily. Writing Suggestions: Plot. 7. Character. Round and Flat Characters. Dynamic and Static Characters. Motivation. Checklist: Writing about Character. Graphic Fiction: Art Spiegelman, Eye Ball. John Updike, A&P. Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill. Charles Baxter, Gryphon. Writing Suggestions: Character. 8. Setting. Historical Setting. Geographical Setting. Physical Setting. Checklist: Writing about Setting. Graphic Fiction: Marjane Satrapi, from Persepolis. Kate Chopin, The Storm. Sherman J. Alexie, This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona. Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing. Writing Suggestions: Setting. 9. Point of View. First-Person Narrators. Unreliable Narrators. Third-Person Narrators. Omniscient Narrators. Limited Omniscient Narrators. Objective Narrators. Selecting an Appropriate Point of View. Checklist: Selecting an Appropriate Point of View: Review. Checklist: Writing about Point of View. Graphic Fiction: Shaun Tan, from The Arrival. Richard Wright, Big Black Good Man. Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado. William Faulkner, Barn Burning. Writing Suggestions: Point of View. 10. Style, Tone, and Language. Style and Tone. The Uses of Language. Formal and Informal Diction. Imagery. Figures of Speech. Checklist: Writing about Style, Tone, and Language. Graphic Fiction: R. Crumb, A Hunger Artist. James Joyce, Araby. Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried. Writing Suggestions: Style, Tone, and Language. 11. Symbol, Allegory, and Myth. Symbol. Literary Symbols. Recognizing Symbols. Allegory. Myth. Checklist: Writing about Symbol, Allegory, and Myth. Graphic Fiction: Alison Bechdel, from Fun Home. Shirley Jackson, The Lottery. Alice Walker, Everyday Use. Raymond Carver, Cathedral. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown. Writing Suggestions: Symbol, Allegory, and Myth. 12. Theme. Interpreting Themes. Identifying Themes. Checklist: Writing about Theme. Graphic Fiction: Lynda Barry, Two Questions. Eudora Welty, A Worn Path. David Michael Kaplan, Doe Season. D.H. Lawrence, The Rocking-Horse Winner. Writing Suggestions: Theme. 13. Fiction for Further Reading. Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings. T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake. Louise Erdrich, Sister Godzilla. Gabriel Garcia Márquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper. Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?. Flannery O'Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge. Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart. Alberto Alvaro Rios, The Secret Lion. Amy Tan, Two Kinds. Part III: POETRY. 14. Understanding Poetry. Marianne Moore, Poetry. Nikki Giovanni, Poetry. Origins of Modern Poetry. Defining Poetry. William Shakespeare, That time of year thou mayst in me behold. E. E. Cummings, l(a. Recognizing Kinds of Poetry. Narrative Poetry. Lyric Poetry. 15. Poetry Sampler: Poetry and Art. Rita Dove, Sonnet in Primary Colors. Allen Ginsberg, Cezanne's Ports. Robert Hayden, Monet's "Waterlilies". Cathy Song, Girl Powdering Her Neck. May Swenson, The Tall Figures of Giacometti. William Carlos Williams, The Dance. Kevin Young, The Fun Gallery. 16. Voice. Emily Dickinson, I'm nobody! Who are you?. The Speaker in the Poem. Louise Glück, Gretel in Darkness. Leonard Adame, My Grandmother Would Rock Quietly and Hum. Langston Hughes, Negro. Robert Browning, My Last Duchess. Further Reading: The Speaker in the Poem. Leslie Marmon Silko, Where Mountain Lion Lay Down with Deer. Janice Mirikitani, Suicide Note. The Tone of the Poem. Robert Frost, Fire and Ice. Thomas Hardy, The Man He Killed. Amy Lowell, Patterns. Further Reading: The Tone of the Poem. Adam Zagajewski, Try to Praise the Mutilated World. William Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much with Us. Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time. Irony. Robert Browning, Porphyria's Lover. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias. Ariel Dorfman, Hope. Further Reading: Irony. W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen. Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham. Checklist: Writing about Voice. Writing Suggestions: Voice. 17. Word Choice, Word Order. Sipho Sepamla, Words, Words, Words. Word Choice. Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer. William Stafford, For the Grave of Daniel Boone. Further Reading: Word Choice. Rhina Espaillat, Bilingual/Bilingue. Adrienne Rich, Living in Sin. E. E. Cummings, in Just-. Robert Pinsky, ABC. Levels of Diction. Margaret Atwood, The City Planners. Jim Sagel, Baca Grande. Further Reading: Levels of Diction. Wanda Coleman, Sears Life. Mark Halliday, The Value of Education. Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool. Gwendolyn Brooks, What shall I give my children? Word Order. Edmund Spenser, One day I wrote her name upon the strand. E. E. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how town. Further Reading: Word Order. A. E. Housman, To an Athlete Dying Young. Checklist: Writing about Word Choice and Word Order. Writing Suggestions: Word Choice, Word Order. 18. Imagery. Jane Flanders, Cloud Painter. William Carlos Williams, Red Wheelbarrow. Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro. Gary Snyder, Some Good Things to Be Said for the Iron Age. Suzanne E. Berger, The Meal. William Carlos Williams, The Great Figure. Further Reading: Imagery. Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay. William Shakespeare, My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun. Checklist: Writing about Imagery. Writing Suggestions: Imagery. 19. Figures of Speech. William Shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?. Simile, Metaphor, and Personification. Langston Hughes, Harlem. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Constantly Risking Absurdity. Audre Lorde, Rooming houses are old women. Further Reading: Simile, Metaphor, and Personification. Robert Burns, Oh, my love is like a red, red rose. N. Scott Momaday, Simile. Sylvia Plath, Metaphors. Richard Wilbur, Mind. Randall Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner. Marge Piercy, The Secretary Chant. John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning. Hyperbole and Understatement. Sylvia Plath, Daddy. David Huddle, Holes Commence Falling. Further Reading: Hyperbole and Understatement. Anne Bradstreet, To My Dear and Loving Husband. Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress. Robert Frost, "Out, Out--". Margaret Atwood, you fit into me. Metonymy and Synecdoche. Richard Lovelace, To Lucasta Going to the Wars. Apostrophe. Sonia Sanchez, On Passing thru Morgantown, Pa. Further Reading: Apostrophe. John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale. Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California. Checklist: Writing about Figures of Speech. Writing Suggestions: Figures of Speech. 20. Sound. Walt Whitman, Had I the Choice. Rhythm. Gwendolyn Brooks, Sadie and Maud. Meter. Emily Dickinson, I like to see it lap the Miles--. Further Reading: Rhythm and Meter. Adrienne Rich, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers. Alliteration and Assonance. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle. Robert Herrick, Delight in Disorder. Rhyme. Ogden Nash, The Lama. Richard Wilbur, In Trackless Woods. Further Reading: Alliteration, Assonance, and Rhyme. Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty. W. H. Auden, As I Walked Out One Evening. Galway Kinnell, Blackberry Eating. Kay Ryan, Lighthouse Keeping. Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky. Checklist: Writing about Sound. Writing Suggestions: Sound. 21. Form. John Keats, On the Sonnet. Billy Collins, Sonnet. Closed Form. Blank Verse. Stanza. The Sonnet. William Shakespeare, When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes. Further Reading: The Sonnet. John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer. A. E. Stallings, Explaining an Affinity for Bats. Gwendolyn Brooks, First Fight. Then Fiddle. The Sestina. Alberto Alvaro Rios, Nani. Further Reading: The Sestina. Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina. The Villanelle. Theodore Roethke, The Waking. The Epigram. Further Reading: The Epigram. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, What Is an Epigram?. William Blake, Her Whole Life Is an Epigram. Martin Espada, Why I Went to College. Haiku. Further Reading: Haiku. Matsuo Bash?, Four Haiku. Carolyn Kizer, After Bash?. Jack Kerouac, American Haiku. Open Form. Carl Sandburg, Chicago. E. E. Cummings, the sky was can dy. Further Reading: Open Form. Walt Whitman, from "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking". William Carlos Williams, Spring and All. Carolyn Forche, The Colonel. Pat Mora, Immigrants. Checklist: Writing about Form. Writing Suggestions: Form. 22. Symbol, Allegory, Allusion, Myth. William Blake, The Sick Rose. Symbol. Robert Frost, For Once, Then, Something. Emily Dickinson, Volcanoes be in Sicily. Further Reading: Symbol. Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven. Allegory. Christina Rossetti, Uphill. Further Reading: Allegory. Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck. Allusion. Wole Soyinka, Future Plans. William Meredith, Dreams of Suicide. Further Reading: Allusion. Bill Coyle, Post-Colonial Studies. Myth. Countee Cullen, Yet Do I Marvel. Further Reading: Myth. H. D., Helen. William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan. W. H. Auden, Musee des Beaux Arts. T. S. Eliot, Journey of the Magi. Checklist: Writing about Symbol, Allegory, Allusion, Myth. Writing Suggestions: Symbol, Allegory, Allusion, Myth. 23. Discovering Themes in Poetry. Robert Herrick, The Argument of His Book. Poems about Parents. Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz. Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays. Louis Simpson, Working Late. Edna St. Vincent Millay, The courage that my mother had. Seamus Heaney, Digging. Raymond Carver, Photograph of my Father in His Twenty-Second Year. Mitsuye Yamada, The Night Before Good-bye. Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night. Poems about Nature. William Wordsworth, I wandered lonely as a cloud. Mary Oliver, Sleeping in the Forest. Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover. Robert Frost, Birches. William Stafford, Traveling through the Dark. Carl Sandburg, Fog. Joy Harjo, Morning Song. Poems about Love. Robert Browning, Meeting at Night. Robert Browning, Parting at Morning. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee?. Edna St. Vincent Millay, What Lips My Lips Have Kissed. Dorothy Parker, General Review of the Sex Situation. George Elliott Clarke, Monologue for Selah Bringing Sleep to Whylah Falls. Poems about War. Rupert Brooke, The Soldier. Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est. Robert Lowell, For the Union Dead. Denise Levertov, What Were They Like?. Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It. Edwin Muir, The Horses. Wislawa Szymborska, The End and the Beginning. 24. Poetry for Further Reading. Sherman Alexie, Defending Walt Whitman. Julia Alvarez, Papi Working. Maya Angelou, Africa. Anonymous, Bonny Barbara Allan. Anonymous, Go Down Moses. Anonymous, Western Wind. Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach. Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish. Elizabeth Bishop, One Art. William Blake, The Lamb. William Blake, To see a World in a Grain of Sand. William Blake, The Tyger. Anne Bradstreet, The Author to Her Book. Gwendolyn Brooks, Medgar Evers. George Gordon, Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty. Thomas Campion, There is a garden in her face. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan. Billy Collins, Introduction to Poetry. E. E. Cummings, Buffalo Bill's. E. E. Cummings, next to of course god america I. Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death--. Emily Dickinson, "Faith" is a fine invention. Emily Dickinson, I heard a Fly buzz--when I died--. John Donne, Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God. John Donne, Death Be Not Proud. John Donne, The Flea. Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask. T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Louise Erdrich, Indian Boarding School: The Runaways. Robert Frost, Mending Wall. Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Thom Gunn, The Man with Night Sweats. Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain. Seamus Heaney, Mid-Term Break. Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur. Langston Hughes, Theme for English B. Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers. Ted Hughes, Where I Sit Writing My Letter. John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad. John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn. John Keats, When I Have Fears. Ted Kooser, Selecting a Reader. Philip Larkin, The Explosion. Doris Lessing, Learning Geography, 1943. Doris Lessing, And in 2005. Archibald Macleish, Ars Poetica. Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. Claude McKay, If We Must Die. James Merrill, Page from the Koran. Thylias Moss, Interpretation of a Poem by Frost. Pablo Neruda, The United Fruit Co. Sharon Olds, The One Girl at the Boys' Party. Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll. Robert Pinsky, Shirt. Sylvia Plath, Mirror. Sir Walter Raleigh, The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd. Henry Reed, Naming of Parts. Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory. Sonia Sanchez, right on: white america. William Shakespeare, Let me not to the marriage of true minds. William Shakespeare, Not marble, nor the gilded monuments. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind. Charles Simic, Old Soldier. Wallace Stevens, Anecdote of the Jar. Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice-Cream. Adrienne Su, The English Canon. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses. Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill. Mona Van Duyn, Earth Tremors Felt in Missouri. Phillis Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America. Walt Whitman, A Noiseless Patient Spider. Walt Whitman, from "Song of Myself". William Wordsworth, London, 1802. William Wordsworth, My heart leaps up when I behold. William Butler Yeats, Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop. William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree. William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium. William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming. Part IV: DRAMA. 25. Understanding Drama. Origins of Modern Drama. The Ancient Greek Theater. The Elizabethan Theater. The Modern Theater. A Note on Translations. Reading Drama. Anton Chekhov, The Brute. 26. Drama Sampler: Ten-Minute Plays. Wendy Wasserstein, Workout. Jane Martin, Beauty. Jose Rivera, Tape. Zora Neale Hurston, Poker!. 27. Plot. Plot Structure. Plot and Subplot. Plot Development. Flashbacks. Foreshadowing. Checklist: Writing about Plot. Warren Leight, Nine Ten. Susan Glaspell, Trifles. Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House. Writing Suggestions: Plot. 28. Character. Characters' Words. Formal and Informal Language. Plain and Elaborate Language. Tone. Irony. Characters' Actions. Stage Directions. Actors' Interpretations. Checklist: Writing about Character. August Strindberg, The Stronger. Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman. William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Writing Suggestions: Character. 29. Staging. Stage Directions. The Uses of Staging. Costumes. Props and Furnishings. Scenery and Lighting. Music and Sound Effects. A Final Note. Checklist: Writing about Staging. David Ives, Words, Words, Words. Sophocles, Oedipus the King. Writing Suggestions: Staging. 30. Theme. Titles. Conflicts. Dialogue. Characters. Staging. A Final Note. Checklist: Writing about Theme. August Wilson, Fences. Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie. Writing Suggestions: Theme. Credits. Index of First Lines of Poetry. Index of Authors and Titles. Index of Literary Terms.