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Reading and Analyzing Literature
“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”  C.S. Lewis quotes (British Scholar and Novelist. 1898-1963)
STEP I: WHAT IS YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION OF THE LITERARY WORK?
1. Whatexpectations or preconceptions do you have before you begin reading?
Do you have any prior knowledge of the author or this work or similar works?
Have introductory notes in textbooks or instructors' comments or study questions influenced your initial expectations?
(Note: In many editions of fiction or drama, if there is a long introduction, it may "give away" the outcome of the plot, so it is best not toread the complete introduction until you have read the work for the first time and are ready to analyze it as a whole.)
2. Do you enjoy reading this work?
Why or why not?
What motivates you to read through to the end, or reread it (besides the fact that it may be required for a class)?
3. What is your initial impression of the work's purpose?
Is it entertaining, informative, didactic(teaching a lesson), philosophical, argumentative, or some combination of these?
Do the title, division headings, and opening lines give precise indications of the purpose or subtle or symbolic clues, or misleading impressions of the whole work?
Try to begin reading with an open mind and attempt to understand the work on its own terms before judging its worth or quality.
4. Is this work difficult toread?
If so, why?
Have you looked up unfamiliar words in a dictionary?
Do foreign words or archaic (outdated) words or unusual sentence patterns make reading difficult?
Does the work violate our expectations about ordinary ways of using the English language?
Later decide whether it is "easy" or difficult to read for a good reason:  does the simplicity or difficulty of the language contributeto the author's message or does it seem either boring or unnecessarily obscure and complex?
5. Do your first impressions change between your reading of the beginning and end?
If so, why?
In the following steps, start to think more formally about why you have certain expectations about this type of literature and how this work uses literary techniques to create the impressions or effects ormessages you have noticed in reading it.
STEP II: WHAT TYPE OF LITERARY WORK IS IT? 
Literature is classified by genre (type or kind).
Although critics disagree on how to define and label different genres, the three basic forms of literature are prose, drama, and poetry.  Most works we read as literature are imaginative (fictional), but some nonimaginative (nonfictional) works are read asliterature as well.
Nonfiction prose includes history, biography, autobiography, religious and philosophical writing, literary criticism, political tracts, travel literature, and essays on many other subjects.
Prose fiction has been divided, since the origins of the modern novel in the eighteenth century, into the novel, the novella or novelette (a story of intermediate length), and the short story.Predecessors of these genres include fables, parables, and tales of various kinds (including folk tales, fabliaux, and fairy tales).
Drama may be written in prose or poetry. Most drama is meant to be performed, but closet drama is designed to be read rather than acted.  When we read a play we should take into consideration the differences between watching a performance and reading the script, withthe background and stage directions that are provided by some playwrights.
Poetry may be narrative (telling a story, as in a ballad or a long epic poem) or lyrical (shorter subjective or reflective poems that include specific types such as the sonnet, the ode, and the elegy).
Film, which combines techniques of drama, poetry, visual arts, and music, has been included in literary studies since the...