Why Read by Mark Edmunson
I really kind of got sucked into "Why Read" by Mark Edmunson by surprise, literary criticism is not my fortes, and I've never really fully understood the critical approach properly enough to get a good cohesive paper written. I also was drawn in by the author's suggestion that literature can be a new religion, a religion of sorts I could really believe in. I was also intrigued by his comments on modern pop culture. And then, on a plus side, it is a short book.
I personally like how the book is open and an easier read than other books I have picked up on literary criticism. He talk about the humanities field is a more normal sense, like when you have a teacher that talks to you as a person and not just a student. Gives you that boost of confidence that makes you feel that the teacher sees you as an equal.
I decided to read East of Eden after hearing a friend share a short passage from it in his valedictory address. Although I do not remember the contents of that particular passage anymore, I remember that it was the power of Steinbeck's simple, direct language that urged me to take it on as my next big foray into what my high school English teacher called "real literature."
Richard Wright, in his essay “Discovering Books,” explains how reading books changed his outlook on life and eventually his life itself. The first book that widened his horizons was an overtly controversial book by H. L. Mencken. I have a story not so dissimilar from his.
I get my reading interest from my sister, when she was done with a book I would pick it up so that I can encounter those same experiences, and because I did so I realized every book is similar and different at the same time. Each author had a unique style, but each story would tell of another tale. For exam...
The topic that I chose for my research paper was Pot-Modernism. I absolutely love this type of writing. It is filled with Science Fiction and Syfy-ish writings. This makes for a very interesting read and it will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat. This was the only section that we read all year that I read the story all the way through and not just skim through just so I had a basic idea. I read the story from our post modernism book and not only that I also went and found the whole book and have begun reading it. This section was by far the best read that we had. Don’t get me wrong some of the other sections were really good but Post-Modernism was the most intriguing to me.
The book makes me understand the importance of reading and know how weak I’m in reading comprehension. Not only is my reading speed slow, but also my thoughts after reading are immature. I haven’t fix some time to read English books before so my background knowledge and vocabulary are far from abundant.
Over the years, as time passes by I have become to better understand myself and learn what captures and disappoints my attention. As a young boy I would think no books pertaining to school or gaining beneficial knowledge would ever interest me. As I read and learned about different cultures and heard mesmerizing stories of Prophets I became eager to read more along with interesting worldly based novels. Miraculous real life events and interesting action based novels are the only stories that grab my attention. This has been the case for me for some time and I continue to learn and explore to see what else I can find that interests me.
The two classic books that I read were very inspiring and interesting. They are both widely known books that have impacted people’s lives and views on various subjects greatly. These two books that are known worldwide are Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Uncle Tom’s Cabin revolves mainly around the aspect of slavery and how slaves were treated unfairly. We learn about how slavery was once lawful in our country, the United States of America, and how our government punished people who helped fugitive slaves escape.
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. Print.
...y Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Vol. 10. Detroit: Gale Research, 1985.Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
In high school for English class I did read a few books that actually held my interest but not enough to make me go out to Barnes and Noble and start buying books; however, it did make me realize that maybe I just needed to find stories and subject matters that I found interesting. The only problem with that was I did not know exactly which types of books I would like and I did not even know where to begin
For my book I chose to read The Body by Stephen King. This novel is about four young boys taking a journey to find a body somewhere in the woods that is at the county line. This story is about more than just four boys going on an adventure its about them becoming closer to each other and learning real life lessons along the way. The four boys are all going into their first year of middle school so this is a time in their life when they learn things that will help them in life.
Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jay Parini. Vol. 14. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.
As I mentioned earlier all my experience with books and reading were not bad. I was in middle school when I read two books that I really captivated my attention. One was a biography of Harriet Tubman and the story of the Underground Railroad. I admired Harriet Tubman for her selfness and dedication to freeing slaves.
Literature has many purposes, and opens doors to unique worlds. Through Literature, we discover ourselves and world time and again.
Literary criticism is used as a guideline to help analyze, deconstruct, interpret, or even evaluate literary works. Each type of criticism offers its own methods that help the reader to delve deeper into the text, revealing all of its innermost features. New Criticism portrays how a work is unified, Reader-Response Criticism establishes how the reader reacts to a work, Deconstructive Criticism demonstrates how a work falls apart, Historical Criticism illustrates how the history of the author and the author’s time period influence a text, and last of all, Psychological Criticism expresses how unconscious motivations drive the author in the creation of their work as well as how the reader’s motivations influence their own interpretation of the text (Lynn 139, 191). This creates a deep level of understanding of literature that simply cannot be gained through surface level reading. If not one criticism is beneficial to the reader, then taking all criticisms or a mixture of specific criticisms into consideration might be the best way to approach literary