Teaching Literary Texts Rhetorically: Advice for Teachers and Module Writers

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1 Teaching Literary Texts Rhetorically: Advice for Teachers and Module Writers John R. Edlund As might be expected, the Expository Reading and Writing Course is mostly about expository texts, broadly defined. However, it has also always contained some literary texts. This appendix serves as an overview of the ERWC approach to teaching literature, including novels and short stories. It contains the following sections: Introduction: Literature in the ERWC The Importance of Prereading: Asking Questions, Making Predictions Five Moves for Teaching Literature Rhetorically Another Approach: Making Friends with Books Introduction: Literature in the ERWC The revised version of ERWC contains modules based on two science fiction novels, George Orwell s 1984 and Aldous Huxley s Brave New World. The course also contains a revised version of the original module based on Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer s biography of Christopher McCandless, a young man who lost his life in the Alaskan wilderness pursuing his ideals. Into the Wild is a multi-faceted work that combines investigative journalism, biography, speculation based on implication and innuendo, character analysis, and philosophical questioning, along with many literary elements. The epigraphs from Thoreau, Tolstoy, Twain, and other writers and philosophers provide many opportunities for connecting important ideas to decisions and values in everyday life. In fact, all of these works were chosen for their ability to explore big ideas and connect them to the experiences of young readers. The ERWC Assignment Template was originally designed for teaching op-ed pieces and shorter articles. When designing modules based on full-length works, the usual ERWC practice is to apply the Reading Rhetorically part of the template to sections of the book, either following the explicit divisions provided by the author or other divisions based on themes, topics, chronology, modes of presentation, or other features. This means that the module might cycle through parts of the template multiple times repeating some activities, adding some new ones, and leaving others out. These divisions allow the module to explore the effects of details such as word choices and sentence style while keeping the larger organization and structure of the work in view. The first step in writing a module based on a full-length work is to plan how the work will be divided. ONLINE RESOURCE 7 1

2 The key to the ERWC approach is to engage in a rhetorical reading based on choices made by the author and their effects on the reader. Perhaps unfortunately, the history of literary criticism in the late twentieth century was largely a movement in the opposite direction, away from the study of authors and authorial intentions toward studies of linguistic systems and the ways in which readers make meaning out of texts. This trend begins with the formalism introduced by New Critics such as W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe C. Beardsley, who in a 1946 essay called the effort to discover an author s meaning and purpose the intentional fallacy. The New Critics argued that the literary work should be seen as a self-sufficient aesthetic object, cut off from history, culture, and the author who produced it. Their views are still influential. However, Wimsatt and Beardsley also say that We ought to impute the thoughts and attitudes of the poem immediately to the dramatic speaker, and if to the author at all, only by an act of biographical inference (811). Thus, even by New Critical standards, without indulging in any kind of fallacy at all, we can open the work up to a rhetorical reading by focusing on the fictional speaker or narrator of the text. Of course, many other approaches to literary criticism Marxist, feminist, New Historicist, Post- Colonial, psychological, etc. do not eliminate the author and history from consideration when interpreting a text. Of course, short stories, poems, and plays can also be read rhetorically. This approach has many advantages for teachers and students: Rhetorical appeals and effects are common to both fictional and non-fictional texts, so reading strategies learned in reading one kind of text can be applied to a wide range of different kinds of texts. The rhetorical approach sees a literary text as a type of communication rather than a puzzle with hidden meanings that must be decoded, which is a more natural approach for students. The various notes publications that students often buy or consult instead of reading the primary texts do not often offer rhetorical analysis, and thus students will have to actually read the texts. The Importance of Prereading: Asking Questions, Making Predictions Novelists and short story writers keep us reading by causing us to ask questions and look for answers. The best of them keep some questions suspended for a while or answer them with new questions. They create expectations and satisfy them in unexpected ways. Having questions is part of the force that keeps us reading. We are looking for answers. If we don t find answers, we get frustrated, but if we run out of questions, we stop reading. The first page of J. R. R. Tolkien s The Hobbit illustrates this well. In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. (11) These days, perhaps everyone knows what a hobbit is, but for a new reader of the novel, the question the first sentence brings to mind is What s a hobbit? Instead, the narrator goes on about the hole. This is followed by a whole paragraph on the hobbit-hole and another paragraph about the name and lineage of the hobbit, plus a bit about whether having adventures is respectable or not. Finally, at the bottom of the page, we find, The mother of this particular hobbit what is a hobbit? ONLINE RESOURCE 7 TEACHING LITERARY TEXTS 2

3 We might imagine that an impatient listener has gotten tired of waiting for the answer and finally blurts out, Please sir, what is a hobbit? The narrator finally acknowledges our question. By this time, however, we are wondering about a great many other things, and we are drawn into the book by our kindly, if long-winded, narrator, and we have some faith that we will be well taken care of and our questions will be respected and answered. However, our students often start reading with no expectations or with erroneous ones. For example, a group of students once decided not to read 1984, even though it had been assigned, because the title was a date in the past. They reasoned that the story must take place in the past, that the past was boring and irrelevant, and that therefore they would not read the book. A description of just a few of the themes and events in the book changed their minds. Of course, making predictions based on the title of a work is something perfectly reasonable that we all do. However, the title is only one factor. The Prereading section of the ERWC Assignment Template is thus especially important for full-length literary texts. Before beginning to read a book, students can survey it in various ways. We can ask them to consider the following questions: What impressions does the cover offer? Are there any descriptions or blurbs from reviewers or critics on the back cover? What do they tell you? Is there a table of contents? Are there chapter titles? What do the chapter titles make you think of? Is there a Foreword or Afterword? An Appendix? What do these seem to be about? If you flip through the book, does anything stand out? Bold-faced text? Pictures? Drawings? Quotations? What do the first few sentences make you think? After reading the first page of the book, what do you predict the book will be about? From a paragraph in the middle of the book, how does it fit with your predictions after reading the first page? These activities will activate background knowledge and help generate some questions that will begin the student s engagement with the book. A good book will usually teach us what we need to know to read it, but students sometimes need help getting started. Even for short stories, some prereading work such as a discussion of the implications of the title and the first line or the first paragraph is often useful. Five Moves for Teaching Literature Rhetorically The first move in a rhetorical reading of a literary text, whether a novel or a short story, is to emphasize the implied author. Wayne Booth introduces this concept in his influential book The Rhetoric of Fiction. The implied author is an ethos, a version of the actual author, a second self constructed for the purposes of the literary work. Booth points out that Just as one s personal letters imply different relationships with each correspondent and the purpose of each letter, so the writer sets himself out with a different air depending on the needs of particular works (71). Once we focus on the implied author, who is not quite the same as the narrator, Aristotle s three appeals ethos, logos, and pathos are as relevant CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE 3

4 to a literary work as they are to a persuasive text. We can analyze how this ethos is created and what sort of agenda this implied author has. Questions for Students What kind of person is this author? What makes you think this? How do you imagine the appearance of this author? What does he or she look like? What does he or she wear? What makes you think so? Do you trust this author? A lot? A little? Not at all? How close is the author to the narrator of the story? The second move is to emphasize effects on the reader beyond the "meaning" of a text. This is the pathos of the text. Literary texts are written to create a series of effects on the reader. Rather than being created to mean something, they set in motion a process of psychological and intellectual effects. This process connects to ideas and causes thinking but does not result in a single interpretation. For example, in the 1984 module, Activity 13 notes that the narrative shifts back and forth in time, sometimes describing dreams or memories. Then it asks What is the effect of this time shifting on the reader? Does it help keep us engaged, or does it confuse us? Why does Orwell do it? The chronological shifts create some possible difficulty for the reader, but they also allow the author to juxtapose events and decisions in ways that change their significance, sometimes because the reader knows more about what is going to happen than the character does at that moment. In Activity 15, students are asked about the effects of representing a character s speech in dialect, a practice which requires extra concentration from the reader, but reveals much about the character. In Activity 30, students are asked about the effect on the reader of a rare intrusion by the narrator, who, after having Julia say that it is probably safe to meet in the clearing one more time, states as an aside, As it happened they never went back to the clearing in the wood. This comment takes us out of the immediate moment of the narrative and shifts to a future perspective when the story of Winston and Julia is over. It is a statement, not a prediction. We have just read what is probably the happiest moment in the novel, but in effect, the narrator is warning us, Don t get your hopes up. Things turn out badly. The reader s exhilaration at the success of Winston and Julia in connecting in spite of Big Brother is immediately tamped down. ERWC literary modules tend to discuss stylistic choices, including sequencing, choices about scene and summary, sentence construction, and word choice in terms of such effects on the reader. Questions for Students Are there any stylistic choices including sequencing, choices about scene and summary, sentence construction, and word choice that stand out? How do these affect the reader? Ask, Why did the author choose to...? The third move is to emphasize story craft such as plot, setting, character, and theme. In a sense, this is the logos of the text, the logic of the events and the world. In dealing with character, ERWC modules tend to focus on actions, motives, and themes, asking "What did he or she do?" "Why did he or she do it?" ONLINE RESOURCE 7 TEACHING LITERARY TEXTS 4

5 and "What is this about?" not "What does this mean?" It might be helpful to think about asking questions on three levels: 1. Event a. What happened? b. What actions are in the text? List major deeds by major characters? 2. Motive c. Why did the character do what he or she did? d. What is the purpose of the action? 3. Theme e. What is this about? f. What questions does it make us ask? Of course, all of these things happen in a context, or what is traditionally called a setting. Kenneth Burke points out that this context, or scene, has a great deal to do with how we perceive actions and motives (Grammar of Motives, xx, 3-9). The fourth move is to de-emphasize teaching literary devices such as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, irony, etc. These figures occur, of course, but we focus on them only in the context of effects on the reader. For example, in Brave New World, the mesa where the Indian Reservation is located has a lot of nautical metaphors attached to it. It is described as a ship stuck in the desert and also stuck in time (107). This metaphor gives Huxley an opportunity not only to describe the reservation in vivid detail, but also to connect the setting to one of the themes of the novel. We focus on the metaphor because it has these effects on the reader, not just because it is a metaphor. The use of figurative language is not what makes a text literary. Non-fiction texts also contain metaphors, similes, and other devices. It is difficult, in fact, to make an absolute distinction between fiction and nonfiction except to say that the purposes of the texts are different and to point to the fact that literary texts tend to ask more questions than they answer. Finally, the fifth move is to treat students as potential authors. They are learning to read literary texts with comprehension and insight, but as they read, they are learning about how it is done. Stylistic analysis word choice, sentence structure, organization, and even figurative language can be a part of any of these moves. Another Approach: Making Friends with Books and Stories In The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction, Wayne Booth characterizes this relationship with a book as a friendship. In a review of this book, Thomas Conley summarizes Booth s perspective in this way: Booth suggests that we see the act of reading as one of people meeting and forming bonds. Considered under the friendship metaphor, all stories can be regarded not as puzzles or games but as companions, friends; and the implied authors of all stories can accordingly be viewed as offering me some sort of gift as a friendship offering, as it were. We view as friends those who offer us either something that will give us pleasure or something that will be useful to us, or a kind of company that is not only pleasurable and profitable, but good for its own sake. Just as we CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE 5

6 "rate" friends according to what they offer, with the fullest friendship being that which is "good for its own sake," so we can rate implied authors and the narratives they offer us. (163) From this perspective, the critical questions are What kind of friend is this book to me? and Why do I think so? We all have good friends, difficult friends, and friends that we might describe as wise, sympathetic, crazy, confused, disappointing, devious, troubled, or dependent. We even have false friends who trick us or take advantage of us. Booth outlines seven ways that books, our reading friends, can vary (179-80). These categories can be turned into several types of questions that could be used to help students think about their relationship to the book and the implied author and thus evaluate the nature and the quality of their friendship with the book. Quantity: By quantity Booth means how long the work is and how densely it is packed with experiences for the reader. Is the book (or story) too long, too short, or just right? Why do you say so? Is the book (or story) densely packed with important ideas and experiences, or is it wordy and full of unnecessary sentences? What are some examples? Responsibility: Booth says that books differ in the degree of responsibility they grant to us what we might call the level of reciprocity or domination between author and reader. Here Booth talks about whether or not the implied author treats us as equals or tries to appear superior to us. Does the author treat you as an equal? Does the author talk down to you or act like he or she is superior? Why do you feel this way? Are there some specific examples in the text that show why? Intimacy: By intimacy Booth means the degree to which the author allows us access to his or her thoughts and feelings. Does the author feel like a close friend? Does the author reveal intimate thoughts and feelings? Do you like this author? Why or why not? Are there examples in the text that support your feelings about the relationship? Intensity: By intensity Booth means the degree of concentration or engagement the book requires, or perhaps inspires, from total concentration to slack comfortable, slowly-ripening acquaintance (180). ONLINE RESOURCE 7 TEACHING LITERARY TEXTS 6

7 Does this book (or story) require intense concentration to read, or is it a good book to read at the beach? Do you feel powerfully engaged with the book (or story)? Do you strongly want to read it? Does it take time to get interested in it? Is it only mildly interesting? Are you bored by it? What about the book makes you feel the way you do? Coherence: By coherence Booth means whether the world of the work is consistent or contradictory. Does the world of the book (or story) make sense? If there are confusing or contradictory elements, is it because the narrator or viewpoint character has a limited understanding or viewpoint? Are the contradictions part of the reason the book (or story) is interesting? What are some examples? Distance: Booth discusses the distance between the world of the book and our own, that is, in the familiarity or strangeness of the world we enter the amount of challenge, or otherness, that it presents to the reader. Booth notes that an author demanding a great quantity of unfamiliar work from a reader is a very different kind of friend from an author who gives us a lot of what we already have and love (194). Science fiction novels that take place in alien worlds populated by alien characters often present this sort of problem. However, such an alien world can be strange, distant, but still coherent. Do you find the world of the book (or story) strange and hard to understand? Does the book (or story) help you understand a world and characters that are very different from what you are used to? Or is the world familiar and comfortable? What are some details from the book (or story) that support your feelings about the world of the book? Range: Booth argues that books differ in the range of activities suggested, invited, or demanded. He notes that some authors offer beauty, some truth, and some goodness, but others offer the whole range of experiences, covering every topic included in our real world. Some books are very focused on a single issue or kind of experience. What kinds of experiences does this book (or story) offer? Does it portray a wide-ranging world with lots of different issues and characters, or is it narrowly focused on a few individuals? Is it enjoyable because the language and the images are beautiful? Does it teach some kind of universal truth? Does it help you become a better person? CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE 7

8 What is it about this book that makes it worth reading? Or if it is not worth reading, what are its flaws and problems? A starting point might be for students to answer these questions for a favorite book with which they are very familiar, such as a Harry Potter book or other popular text. That will establish a baseline opinion for judging the nature of their relationship with another book. Booth s categories, along with the questions they inspire, can guide many decisions along the way in writing a module. They are useful in thinking about what kinds of difficulties students might have in engaging with the work, as well as what aspects might be potentially appealing. Difficulties can be addressed with specific activities, and appealing aspects can be emphasized. These categories are also useful in thinking about potential assessments, both formative and summative. For example, a student who does not feel engaged with a book, but can clearly articulate why he or she is not engaged, may in fact understand the book very well. A student whose life world is very different from the world of the book and its characters may be able to explore those differences and write about his or her own world and the ways it is different from the book. A student who can answer all of these questions about a book has probably understood it very well. Ultimately, we want our students to engage with books, to enjoy them, to critique them, and to learn to use them as tools for thinking about their own lives and the wider society. A well-designed ERWC module can help make this happen. ONLINE RESOURCE 7 TEACHING LITERARY TEXTS 8

9 Works Cited Booth Wayne. The Rhetoric of Fiction. 2nd ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, Print The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction. Berkeley: UC Press, Print. Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, Print. Conley, Thomas M. Booth s Company and the Rhetoric We Keep. Rhetorica 8.2 (1990): Print. Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World New York: HarperCollins, Print. Orwell, George Centennial ed. New York: Harcourt Brace, Print. Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Print. Wimsatt, W. K. and Monroe C. Beardsley. The Intentional Fallacy. The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. 3rd ed. Ed. David H. Richter. New York: Bedford St. Martin s, Print. CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE 9