Gensantos Foundation College Incorporated

Bulaong Extension, General Santos City

Project

In

English and American Literature

Submitted to:

Ms. Haya Jane L. Estigoy

Submitted by:

Dinero

Lagadon

Luminares

Sipe

Lovelyn D. Supilanas

Nhova Mae Trojello

Table of ContentsIntroduction 1

What is Literature? 2History of Literature

Importance of Literature to Society 3Kinds of Literature 4

A.Poetry 5a.Lyric Poetry………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...6

“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare 7 Author’s

Background……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8

B. Essay……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9

“Of Revenge” by Francis Bacon………………………………………..………………………………………………………….10

Author’s Background

C.Drama.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…12

“Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare……………………………………………………………………………..13

Author’s Background

D.Novel and Short Story…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………15

Novel……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“The Old Man and The Sea” by Ernest Hemingway………………………………………………………………

Author’s Background

Short Story……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“A Clean,Well-Lighted Place “ by Ernest Hemingway…………………………………………………………….

Author’s Background

E.Epic………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. “Beowulf” by Anonymous……………………………………………………………………………………………….

Beowulf’s Short Information

References

Reflection

Introduction

English and American Literature explores ways that writers

portray human experience in their short stories, poems and plays. Through

class discussions, lectures and creative responses, students will gain a

deeper understanding and appreciation of literary works. Because the study

of literature has been closely entwined with literary theory in recent

decades, and because I find that literary theory provides students with

practical critical thinking tools for textual analysis, I have added the

following goal for this course: Students will develop and express personal

analytic responses to a variety of works of literature, paying special

attention to the ways that literary works are crafted and also to the ways

that readers’ interpretations of literary works are subject to their

perspectives and/or various theoretical frameworks.

There have been various attempts to define "literature".

Simon and Delyse Ryan begin their attempt to answer the question "What

is Literature?" with the observation:

The quest to discover a definition for "literature" is a road that is much

travelled, though the point of arrival, if ever reached, is seldom satisfactory. Most

attempted definitions are broad and vague, and they inevitably change over time.

In fact, the only thing that is certain about defining literature is that the definition

will change. Concepts of what is literature change over time as well.

Definitions of literature have varied over time; it is a

"culturally relative definition". In Western Europe prior to the

eighteenth century, literature as a term indicated all books and

writing. A more restricted sense of the term emerged during the

Romantic period, in which it began to demarcate "imaginative"

literature. Contemporary debates over what constitutes literature can

be seen as returning to the older, more inclusive notion of what

constitutes literature. Cultural studies, for instance, takes as its

subject of analysis both popular and minority genres, in addition to

canonical works.

The value judgement definition of literature considers it

to exclusively include writing that possesses a literary quality or

distinction, forming part of the so-called belles-lettres ('fine

writing') tradition. This is the definition used in the Encyclopædia

Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–11) when it classifies literature as

"the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing." However,

this has the result that there is no objective definition of what

constitutes "literature"; anything can be literature, and anything

which is universally regarded as literature has the potential to be

excluded, since value-judgements can change over time.

The formalist definition is that the history of

"literature" foregrounds poetic effects; it is the "literariness" or

"poeticity" of literature that distinguishes it from ordinary speech

or other kinds of writing (e.g. journalism). Jim Meyer considers this

a useful characteristic in explaining the use of the term to mean

published material in a particular field (e.g. "Scientific

literature"), as such writing must use language according to

particular standards. The problem with the formalist definition is

that in order to say that literature deviates from ordinary uses of

language, those uses must first be identified; this is difficult

because "ordinary language" is an unstable category, differing

according to social categories and across history.

Etymologically, the term derives from Latin

literatura/litteratura "learning,a writing, grammar," originally

"writing formed with letters," from litera/littera "letter". In spite

of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or sung texts.

Literature presents human experience through the use of

language-the medium used for literature. It is a term used to describe

written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, "literature" is used to

describe anything from creative writing to more technical or

scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works

of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama,

fiction, and nonfiction.

History of Literature

Taken to mean only written works, literature was first produced

by some of the world's earliest civilizations—those of Ancient Egypt and

Sumeria—as early as the 4th millennium BC; taken to include spoken or

sung texts, it originated even earlier, and some of the first written

works may have been based on an already-existing oral tradition. As

urban cultures and societies developed, there was a proliferation in the

forms of literature. Developments in print technology allowed for

literature to be distributed and experienced on an unprecedented scale,

which has culminated in the twenty-first century in electronic

literature..

The history of literature follows closely the development of

civilization. When defined exclusively as written work, Ancient Egyptian

literature, along with Sumerian literature are considered the world's

oldest literatures. The primary genres of the literature of Ancient

Egypt—didactic texts, hymns and prayers, and tales—were almost entirely

written in verse; while use of poetic devices is clearly recognisable,

the prosody of the verse is unknown.

Different historical periods are reflected in literature.

National and tribal sagas, accounts of the origin of the world and of

customs, and myths which sometimes carry moral or spiritual messages

predominate in the pre-urban eras. The epics of Homer, dating from the

early to middle Iron age, and the great Indian epics of a slightly later

period, have more evidence of deliberate literary authorship, surviving

like the older myths through oral tradition for long periods before

being written down.

As a more urban culture developed, academies provided a means of

transmission for speculative and philosophical literature in early

civilizations, resulting in the prevalence of literature in Ancient

China, Ancient India, Persia and Ancient Greece and Rome. Many works of

earlier periods, even in narrative form, had a covert moral or didactic

purpose, such as the Sanskrit Panchatantra or the Metamorphoses of Ovid.

Drama and satire also developed as urban culture provided a larger

public audience, and later readership, for literary production. Lyric

poetry (as opposed to epic poetry) was often the speciality of courts

and aristocratic circles, particularly in East Asia where songs were

collected by the Chinese aristocracy as poems, the most notable being

the Shijing or Book of Songs. Over a long period, the poetry of popular

pre-literate balladry and song interpenetrated and eventually influenced

poetry in the literary medium.

In ancient China, early literature was primarily focused on

philosophy, historiography, military science, agriculture, and poetry.

China, the origin of modern paper making and woodblock printing,

produced one of the world's first print cultures. Much of Chinese

literature originates with the Hundred Schools of Thought period that

occurred during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (769-269 BCE). The most

important of these include the Classics of Confucianism, of Daoism, of

Mohism, of Legalism, as well as works of military science (e.g. Sun

Tzu's The Art of War) and Chinese history (e.g. Sima Qian's Records of

the Grand Historian). Ancient Chinese literature had a heavy emphasis on

historiography, with often very detailed court records. An exemplary

piece of narrative history of ancient China was the Zuo Zhuan, which was

compiled no later than 389 BCE, and attributed to the blind 5th century

BCE historian Zuo Qiuming.

In ancient India, literature originated from stories that were

originally orally transmitted. Early genres included drama, fables,

sutras and epic poetry. Sanskrit literature begins with the Vedas,

dating back to 1500–1000 BCE, and continues with the Sanskrit Epics of

Iron Age India. The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts. The

Samhitas (vedic collections) date to roughly 1500–1000 BCE, and the

"circum-Vedic" texts, as well as the redaction of the Samhitas, date to

c. 1000-500 BCE, resulting in a Vedic period, spanning the mid 2nd to

mid 1st millennium BCE, or the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The

period between approximately the 6th to 1st centuries BC saw the

composition and redaction of the two most influential Indian epics, the

Mahabharata and the Ramayana, with subsequent redaction progressing down

to the 4th century AD.

In ancient Greece, the epics of Homer, who wrote the Iliad and

the Odyssey, and Hesiod, who wrote Works and Days and Theogony, are some

of the earliest, and most influential, of Ancient Greek literature.

Classical Greek genres included philosophy, poetry, historiography,

comedies and dramas. Plato and Aristotle authored philosophical texts

that are the foundation of Western philosophy, Sappho and Pindar were

influential lyrical poets, and Herodotus and Thucydides were early Greek

historians. Although drama was popular in Ancient Greece, of the

hundreds of tragedies written and performed during the classical age,

only a limited number of plays by three authors still exist: Aeschylus,

Sophocles, and Euripides. The plays of Aristophanes provide the only

real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, the

earliest form of Greek Comedy, and are in fact used to define the genre.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and author of the

Faust books

Roman histories and biographies anticipated the extensive

mediaeval literature of lives of saints and miraculous chronicles, but

the most characteristic form of the Middle Ages was the romance, an

adventurous and sometimes magical narrative with strong popular appeal.

Controversial, religious, political and instructional literature

proliferated during the Renaissance as a result of the invention of

printing, while the mediaeval romance developed into a more character-

based and psychological form of narrative, the novel, of which early and

important examples are the Chinese Monkey and the German Faust books.

In the Age of Reason philosophical tracts and speculations on

history and human nature integrated literature with social and political

developments. The inevitable reaction was the explosion of Romanticism

in the later 18th century which reclaimed the imaginative and

fantastical bias of old romances and folk-literature and asserted the

primacy of individual experience and emotion. But as the 19th-century

went on, European fiction evolved towards realism and naturalism, the

meticulous documentation of real life and social trends. Much of the

output of naturalism was implicitly polemical, and influenced social and

political change, but 20th century fiction and drama moved back towards

the subjective, emphasising unconscious motivations and social and

environmental pressures on the individual. Writers such as Proust,

Eliot, Joyce, Kafka and Pirandello exemplify the trend of documenting

internal rather than external realities.

Genre fiction also showed it could question reality in its 20th

century forms, in spite of its fixed formulas, through the enquiries of

the skeptical detective and the alternative realities of science

fiction. The separation of "mainstream" and "genre" forms (including

journalism) continued to blur during the period up to our own times.

William Burroughs, in his early works, and Hunter S. Thompson expanded

documentary reporting into strong subjective statements after the second

World War, and post-modern critics have disparaged the idea of objective

realism in general.

Importance of Literature to Society

"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, a British scholar and novelist.

This adage is perhaps the most appropriate description of the

importance of literature not just in our lives but also in the society.

Literature reminds us of stories, epics, sacred scriptures and classical

works of the ancient and modern times. Literature is defined as the body of

written works of a language, period or culture, produced by scholars and

researchers, specialized in a given field. Why is literature important to

society?

Like all other romantic comedies by Shakespeare, the world of A

Midsummer Night's Dream is a fantasy of romance, love, humor, music, dance,

song, and poetry. The influence of literature on society is felt directly

or indirectly. Thus Miss Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin' was directly

responsible for a movement against slavery in literature and life in USA of

those days. The novels of Dickens had an indirect influence in creating in

society a feeling for regulating and re-moving social wrongs, calling for

get better grades and necessary reforms. Sarat Chandra's novels have gone a

long way in breaking disliking of change as regards women in our society.

It is, however, clear that if we are interested in literature, and its

influence is bound to move people. Literature can serve as an

effective non-vio-lent way of addressing issues in a society. These issues,

however, may be troubling to the way things are in the society.

Consequently, some people may feel these issues are best left untouched and

condemn the power of literature to bring them to the surface. The fact that

a large number of people find the issues raised in literature compelling

should mean that the literature in which these issues are raised should not

be ignored. Literature has had a major impact on the development of

society. It has shaped civilizations, changed political systems and exposed

injustice.

Literature gives us a detailed preview of human experiences,

allowing people to connect on basic levels of desire and emotion. Judith

Caesar, English professor at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) said,

"By reading narratives, we can empathize and understand others. Literature

is thought provoking; it allows us to raise questions and gives us a deeper

understanding of issues and situations."

M.K. Gandhi says, "I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-

violence are as old as the hills." In most theories of the relationship of literature

and society reflection, importance, influence, and social control are

implied. Literature is interpreted as reflecting norms and values, as

revealing the ethos of culture, the processes of class struggle, and

certain types of social "facts." "Importance" is not strictly the reverse

of reflection, since social stability and cultural ideals are involved.

Social control, however, articulates closely with one version of

reflection, though to a limited extent in complex, dynamic societies.

Literature is said to be the mirror of the society. Literature

is the representation of the feeling of people so it is rightly called that

literature is the mirror of society. It is a society that is drastically

different from any society in history, both in the past or present. It is

fact that society operated in the past, it is due to the literature of the

Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Romantics, and even today. When people

relate through a piece of literature, it really makes one think that you're

not alone and that someone else has been through what you are going

through. The way authors are able to grab you with how the characters are

feeling or what they are looking at brings the reader into that story. If

one reads a piece of literature that contains information on other cultures

he then sees how they live, what works for them and what doesn't. As a

reader, people learn how other cultures live, which in turn makes readers

as a society think about the way that we live our own lives. Literature

describes social fact that is observed to happen in politics. Literature

may create an ideal world for people to follow. Short fiction, poetry,

drama and nonfiction selections written by a diverse group of writers

represent different social classes, races, genders, cultures, and sexual

orientation

Organizes selections around five socially relevant themes,

Growing Up and Growing Older; Women and Men; Money and Work; Peace and War;

and Varieties of Protest. Shows how literary technique serves larger

purposes, the recreation of experience, the exploration of ideas, the

analysis of social issues, and how these larger purposes themselves shape

literary form and its effects are seen on the society. Misery is a story

for all society. Novels are known to have changed the direction of the

human mind and set in motion movements that have altered our ways of life.

The great writers emphasize the important place literature holds

in the society and the ability it has to initiate change. Literature must

be radical, rebellious, and extreme to be considered great, and that only

those who share in this spirit can truly enjoy literature. It is a story of

the inexplicable nature of our society and its overwhelming sense of self

importance and lack of selflessness. Literature, is definitely, much more

than its literary meaning, which defines it as 'an acquaintance to

letters'. It, in fact, lays the foundation of an enriched life; it adds

'life' to 'living', it adds ‘life’ to the society, and literature itself is

life.

Kinds of Literature

A.Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic

qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of,

prosaic ostensible meaning.Poetry has traditionally been distinguished

from prose by its being set in verse;[a] prose is cast in sentences,

poetry in lines; the syntax of prose is dictated by meaning, whereas

that of poetry is held across metre or the visual aspects of the

poem.Prior to the nineteenth century, poetry was commonly understood to

be something set in metrical lines; accordingly, in 1658 a definition of

poetry is "any kind of subject consisting of Rythm or Verses".Possibly

as a result of Aristotle's influence (his Poetics), "poetry" before the

nineteenth century was usually less a technical designation for verse

than a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art. As a form it may

pre-date literacy, with the earliest works being composed within and

sustained by an oral tradition; hence it constitutes the earliest

example of literature.

a. Lyric Poetry

A type of poetry intended to be sung. It also consists of a

poem, such as a sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts and

feelings of the poet. The term lyric is now commonly referred to as

the words to a song. Lyric poetry does not tell a story which

portrays characters and actions. The lyric poet addresses the

reader directly, portraying his or her own feeling, state of mind,

and perceptions.

Sonnet Number 18

by William Shakespeare:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed.

Author’s Background

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

OCCUPATION: Poet, Playwright

BIRTH DATE: April 23, 1564

DEATH DATE: April 23, 1616

EDUCATION: King's New School

PLACE OF BIRTH: Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

PLACE OF DEATH: Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

AKA: Shakspere, Will Shakespeare

NICKNAME: "Bard of Avon", "Swan of Avon", "The Bard"

William Shakespeare is considered by many to be the greatest

playwright of all time, although many facts about his life remain

shrouded in mystery. He lived during the reigns of Elizabeth I

and James I and coined hundreds of new words and phrases that we

still use today. His father, John Shakespeare, was a glove maker

and wool merchant and his mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of

a well-to-do landowner from Wilmcote, South Warwickshire. It is

likely Shakespeare was educated at the local King Edward VI

Grammar School in Stratford. Shakespeare, at the age of 18,

married to Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a local farmer, on

November 28, 1582. She was eight years older than him and their

first child, Susanna, was born six months after their wedding.

Two years later, the couple had twins, Hamnet and Judith, but

their son died when he was 11 years old. Very little is known

about his life, but by 1592 he was in London working as an actor

and a dramatist. Between about 1590 and 1613, Shakespeare wrote

at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more. Many of these

plays were very successful both at court and in the public

playhouses. In his continuing success he wrote some of his

greatest tragedies such as 'Hamlet', 'Othello', 'King Lear' and

'Macbeth'. The first collected edition of his works was published

in 1623 and is known as 'the First Folio'. In 1613, Shakespeare

retired from the theatre and returned to Stratford-upon-Avon. He

died and was buried there in 1616.

B. Essay

Essay is a short literary composition on a single subject,

usually presenting the personal view of the author.The term essay comes

from the French for "trial, attempt." Michel de Montaigne coined the

term when he assigned the title Essais to his first publication in 1580.

In Montaigne: A Biography (1984), Donald Frame notes that Montaigne

"often used the verb essayer (in modern French, normally to try) in ways

close to his project, related to experience, with the sense of trying

out or testing."

“Of Revenge”

by Francis Bacon

Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man's

nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. For as for

the first wrong, it doth but offend the law; but the revenge of

that wrong putteth the law out of office. Certainly, in taking

revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it

over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon. And

Solomon, I am sure, saith, "It is the glory of a man to pass by

an offence." That which is past is gone, and irrevocable; and

wise men have enough to do with things present and to come;

therefore they do but trifle with themselves, that labor in

past matters. There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong's

sake; but thereby to purchase himself profit, or pleasure, or

honor, or the like. Therefore why should I be angry with a man

for loving himself better than me? And if any man should do

wrong merely out of ill-nature, why, yet it is but like the

thorn or briar, which prick and scratch, because they can do no

other. The most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs

which there is no law to remedy; but then let a man take heed

the revenge be such as there is no law to punish; else a man's

enemy is still before hand, and it is two for one. Some, when

they take revenge, are desirous the party should know whence it

cometh. This is the more generous. For the delight seemeth to

be not so much in doing the hurt as in making the party repent.

But base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in

the dark. Cosmus, duke of Florence, had a desperate saying

against perfidious or neglecting friends, as if those wrongs

were unpardonable; "You shall read (saith he) that we are

commanded to forgive our enemies; but you never read that we

are commanded to forgive our friends." But yet the spirit of

Job was in a better tune: "Shall we (saith he) take good at

God's hands, and not be content to take evil also?" And so of

friends in a proportion. This is certain, that a man that

studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise

would heal and do well. Public revenges are for the most part

fortunate; as that for the death of Caesar; for the death of

Pertinax; for the death of Henry the Third of France; and many

more. But in private revenges it is not so. Nay rather,

vindictive persons live the life of witches; who, as they are

mischievous, so end they unfortunate.

Author’s Background

FRANCIS BACON

OCCUPATION: Lawyer, Scientist

BIRTH DATE: January 22, 1561

DEATH DATE: April 9, 1626

EDUCATION: Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, Trinity College

PLACE OF BIRTH: London, England

PLACE OF DEATH: London, England

AKA: 1st Viscount Saint Alban, Sir Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was an English Renaissance statesman,

philosopher and essayist, best known for his promotion of the

scientific method Bacon served as attorney general and Lord

Chancellor of England, resigning amid charges of corruption.

His more valuable work was philosophical. Bacon took up

Aristotelian ideas, arguing for an empirical, inductive

approach, known as the scientific method, which is the

foundation of modern scientific inquiry.His father, Sir Nicolas

Bacon, was Lord Keeper of the Seal. His mother, Lady Anne Cooke

Bacon, was his father's second wife and daughter to Sir Anthony

Cooke, a humanist who was Edward VI's tutor. Francis Bacon’s

mother was also the sister-in-law of Lord Burghley.

The younger of Sir Nicholas and Lady Anne's two sons,

Francis Bacon began attending Trinity College, Cambridge, in

April 1573, when he was 11 years old. He completed his course

of study at Trinity in December 1575. The following year, Bacon

enrolled in a law program at Honourable Society of Gray's Inn,

the school his brother Anthony attended. Finding the curriculum

at Gray's Inn stale and old fashioned, Bacon later called his

tutors "men of sharp wits, shut up in their cells if a few

authors, chiefly Aristotle, their dictator." Bacon favored the

new Renaissance humanism over Aristotelianism and

scholasticism, the more traditional schools of thought in

England at the time.

A year after he enrolled at Gray's Inn, Bacon left school

to work under Sir Amyas Paulet, British ambassador to France,

during his mission in Paris. Two and a half years later, he was

forced to abandon the mission prematurely and return to England

when his father died unexpectedly. His meager inheritance left

him broke. Bacon turned to his uncle, Lord Burghley, for help

in finding a well-paid post as a government official, but

Bacon’s uncle shot him down. Still just a teen, Francis Bacon

was scrambling to find a means of earning a decent living.

C.Drama

A major of literature in which actors impersonate the actions and

speech of the character for entertainment of an audience, either on

stage, or by means of a broadcast is what we called drama. The term comes

from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greek: δρᾶμα, drama), which

is derived from the verb meaning "to do" or "to act" (Classical Greek:

δράω, draō). The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a

stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production

and a collective form of reception. The structure of dramatic texts,

unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this

collaborative production and collective reception.

“Romeo and Juliet”

(Summary)

By: William Shakespeare

The play begins with a large fight between the Capulets and

the Montagues, two prestigious families in Verona, Italy. These

families have been fighting for quite some time, and the Prince

declares that their next public brawl will be punished by death.

When the fight is over, Romeo’s cousin Benvolio tries to cheer him

of his melancholy. Romeo reveals that he is in love with a woman

named Rosaline, but she has chosen to live a life of chastity. Romeo

and Benvolio are accidentally invited to their enemy’s party;

Benvolio convinces Romeo to go.

At the party, Romeo locks eyes with a young woman named

Juliet. They instantly fall in love, but they do not realize that

their families are mortal enemies. When they realize each other’s

identities, they are devastated, but they cannot help the way that

they feel. Romeo sneaks into Juliet’s yard after the party and

proclaims his love for her. She returns his sentiments and the two

decide to marry. The next day, Romeo and Juliet are married by Friar

Lawrence; an event witnessed by Juliet’s Nurse and Romeo’s loyal

servant, Balthasar. They plan to meet in Juliet’s chambers that

night. Romeo visits his best friend Mercutio and

his cousin Benvolio but his good mood is curtailed. Juliet’s cousin,

Tybalt, starts a verbal quarrel with Romeo, which soon turns into a

duel with Mercutio. Romeo tries to stop the fight but it is too

late: Tybalt kills Mercutio. Romeo, enraged, retaliates by killing

Tybalt. Once Romeo realizes the consequences of his actions, he

hides at Friar Lawrence’s cell.

Friar Lawrence informs Romeo that he has been banished from

Verona and will be killed if he stays. The Friar suggests Romeo

spend the night with Juliet, then leave for Mantua in the morning.

He tells Romeo that he will attempt to settle the Capulet and

Montague dispute so Romeo can later return to a united family. Romeo

takes his advice, spending one night with Juliet before fleeing

Verona.

Juliet’s mother, completely unaware of her daughter's

secret marriage to Romeo, informs Juliet that she will marry a man

named Paris in a few days. Juliet, outraged, refuses to comply. Her

parents tell her that she must marry Paris and the Nurse agrees with

them. Juliet asks Friar Lawrence for advice, insisting she would

rather die than marry Paris. Fr. Lawrence gives Juliet a potion

which will make her appear dead and tells her to take it the night

before the wedding. He promises to send word to Romeo - intending

the two lovers be reunited in the Capulet vault.

Juliet drinks the potion and everybody assumes that she is

dead — including Balthasar, who immediately tells Romeo. Friar

Lawrence’s letter fails to reach Romeo, so he assumes that his wife

is dead. He rushes to Juliet’s tomb and, in deep grief, drinks a

vial of poison. Moments later, Juliet wakes to find Romeo dead and

kills herself due to grief. Once the families discover what

happened, they finally end their bitter feud. Thus the youngsters'

deaths bring the families together. Romeo And Juliet is a true

tragedy in the literary sense because the families gather sufficient

self-knowledge to correct their behaviour but not until it is too

late to save the situation.

Author’s Background

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

OCCUPATION: Poet, Playwright

BIRTH DATE: April 23, 1564

DEATH DATE: April 23, 1616

EDUCATION: King's New School

PLACE OF BIRTH: Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

PLACE OF DEATH: Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

AKA: Shakspere, Will Shakespeare

NICKNAME: "Bard of Avon", "Swan of Avon", "The Bard"

William Shakespeare is considered by many to be the greatest

playwright of all time, although many facts about his life remain

shrouded in mystery. He lived during the reigns of Elizabeth I and

James I and coined hundreds of new words and phrases that we still

use today. His father, John Shakespeare, was a glove maker and wool

merchant and his mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a well-to-

do landowner from Wilmcote, South Warwickshire. It is likely

Shakespeare was educated at the local King Edward VI Grammar School

in Stratford. Shakespeare, at the age of 18, married to Anne

Hathaway, the daughter of a local farmer, on November 28, 1582. She

was eight years older than him and their first child, Susanna, was

born six months after their wedding. Two years later, the couple had

twins, Hamnet and Judith, but their son died when he was 11 years

old. Very little is known about his life, but by 1592 he was in

London working as an actor and a dramatist. Between about 1590 and

1613, Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on

several more. Many of these plays were very successful both at court

and in the public playhouses. In his continuing success he wrote

some of his greatest tragedies such as 'Hamlet', 'Othello', 'King

Lear' and 'Macbeth'. The first collected edition of his works was

published in 1623 and is known as 'the First Folio'. In 1613,

Shakespeare retired from the theatre and returned to Stratford-upon-

Avon. He died and was buried there in 1616.

D.Novel and Short Story

Novel is a fictional prose that is typically written in a narrative

style and presented as a bound book. It is a long narrative normally

in prose, which describes fictional characters and events, usually in

the form of a sequential story. The present English (and Spanish) word

for a long work of prose fiction derives from the Italian novella for

"new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the Latin

novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus,

diminutive of novus, meaning "new".

“The old Man and the Sea”

(Summary)

By Ernest Hemingway

For 84 days, the old fisherman Santiago has caught nothing. Alone,

impoverished, and facing his own mortality, Santiago is now considered

unlucky. So Manolin (Santiago's fishing partner until recently and the

young man Santiago has taught since the age of five) has been

constrained by his parents to fish in another, more productive boat.

Every evening, though, when Santiago again returns empty-handed,

Manolin helps carry home the old man's equipment, keeps him company,

and brings him food.

On the morning of the 85th day, Santiago sets out before dawn on a

three-day odyssey that takes him far out to sea. In search of an epic

catch, he eventually does snag a marlin of epic proportions, enduring

tremendous hardship to land the great fish. He straps the marlin along

the length of his skiff and heads for home, hardly believing his own

victory. Within an hour, a mako shark attacks the marlin, tearing away

a great hunk of its flesh and mutilating Santiago's prize. Santiago

fights the mako, enduring great suffering, and eventually kills it

with his harpoon, which he loses in the struggle.

The great tear in the marlin's flesh releases the fish's blood and

scent into the water, attracting packs of shovel-nosed sharks. With

whatever equipment remains on board, Santiago repeatedly fights off

the packs of these scavengers, enduring exhaustion and great physical

pain, even tearing something in his chest. Eventually, the sharks pick

the marlin clean. Defeated, Santiago reaches shore and beaches the

skiff. Alone in the dark, he looks back at the marlin's skeleton in

the reflection from a street light and then stumbles home to his

shack, falling face down onto his cot in exhaustion.

The next morning, Manolin finds Santiago in his hut and cries over

the old man's injuries. Manolin fetches coffee and hears from the

other fisherman what he had already seen — that the marlin's skeleton

lashed to the skiff is eighteen feet long, the greatest fish the

village has known. Manolin sits with Santiago until he awakes and then

gives the old man some coffee. The old man tells Manolin that he was

beaten. But Manolin reassures him that the great fish didn't beat him

and that they will fish together again, that luck doesn't matter, and

that the old man still has much to teach him.

That afternoon, some tourists see the marlin's skeleton waiting to

go out with the tide and ask a waiter what it is. Trying to explain

what happened to the marlin, the waiter replies, "Eshark." But the

tourists misunderstand and assume that's what the skeleton is.

Back in his shack, with Manolin sitting beside him,relieved that

Santiago is safe again, makes plans with him to go fishing together.

Santiago sleeps again and dreams of the young lions he had seen along

the coast of Africa when he was a young man.

Author’s Background

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Born: July 21, 1899, Oak Park, Illinois, United States

Died: July 2, 1961 (aged 61), Ketchum, Idaho, U.S.

Notable awards: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1953), Nobel Prize in

Literature (1954)

Spouse: Elizabeth Hadley Richardson (1921–1927), Pauline Pfeiffer

(1927–1940) Martha Gellhorn

(1940–1945), Mary Welsh Hemingway (1946–1961)

Children: Jack, Patrick, Gregory

Ernest Hemingway was a popular minimalist writer. He was born

at the turn of the century, in 1899, and wrote up until he

committed suicide in 1961. His father, Clarence Edmonds Hemingway,

was a physician, and his mother, Grace Hall-Hemingway, was a

musician. Unlike many writers, Hemingway went on a lot of

adventures in his life, including working as an ambulance driver

during World War I in Italy, a war correspondent during the

Spanish Civil War and World War II, and going on an African

safari. Hemingway was a minimalist writer. Minimalism is defined

as writing that is whittled down to the basics with the greatest

weight of the work put on context rather than the use of extensive

descriptive language. During his life, he published several novels

and short story collections, but several of his works were

published posthumously, too.

Short Story

A brief work of literature, usually written in narrative prose which

includes descriptions dialogue and commentaries. The short story

features a small cast of named characters, and focuses on a self-

contained incident with the intent of evoking a "single effect" or

mood. A short story is a fictional work of prose that is shorter in

length than a novel. Because of the shorter length, a short story

usually focuses on one plot, one main character (with a few additional

minor characters), and one central theme, whereas a novel can tackle

multiple plots and themes, with a variety of prominent characters.

Short stories also lend themselves more to experimentation — that is,

using uncommon prose styles or literary devices to tell the story.

Such uncommon styles or devices might get tedious and downright

annoying, in a novel, but they may work well in a short story.

“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY

It was very late and everyone had left the cafe except an old man

who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the

electric light. In the day time the street was dusty, but at night

the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because

he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the

difference. The two waiters inside the cafe knew that the old man

was a little drunk, and while he was a good client they knew that if

he became too drunk he would leave without paying, so they kept

watch on him.

"Last week he tried to commit suicide," one waiter said.

"Why?"

"He was in despair."

"What about?"

"Nothing."

"How do you know it was nothing?"

"He has plenty of money."

They sat together at a table that was close against the wall near

the door of the cafe and looked at the terrace where the tableswere

all empty except where the old man sat in the shadow of the leaves

of the tree that moved slightly in the wind. A girl and a soldier

went by in the street. The street light shone on the brass number on

his collar. The girl wore no head covering and hurried beside him.

"The guard will pick him up," one waiter said.

"What does it matter if he gets what he's after?"

"He had better get off the street now. The guard will get him. They

went by five minutes ago."

The old man sitting in the shadow rapped on his saucer with his

glass. The younger waiter went over to him.

"What do you want?"

The old man looked at him. "Another brandy," he said.

"You'll be drunk," the waiter said. The old man looked at him. The

waiter went away.

"He'll stay all night," he said to his colleague. "I'm sleepy now.I

never get into bed before three o'clock. He should have killed

himself last week."

The waiter took the brandy bottle and another saucer from

thecounter inside the cafe and marched out to the old man's table.

Heput down the saucer and poured the glass full of brandy.

"You should have killed yourself last week," he said to the

deafman. The old man motioned with his finger. "A little more,"

hesaid. The waiter poured on into the glass so that the brandy

slopped over and ran down the stem into the top saucer of the

pile."Thank you," the old man said. The waiter took the bottle back

inside the cafe. He sat down at the table with his colleague again.

"He's drunk now," he said.

"He's drunk every night."

"What did he want to kill himself for?"

"How should I know."

"How did he do it?"

"He hung himself with a rope."

"Who cut him down?"

"His niece."

"Why did they do it?"

"Fear for his soul."

"How much money has he got?" "He's got plenty."

"He must be eighty years old."

"Anyway I should say he was eighty."

"I wish he would go home. I never get to bed before three

o'clock.What kind of hour is that to go to bed?"

"He stays up because he likes it."

"He's lonely. I'm not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed for me."

"He had a wife once too."

"A wife would be no good to him now."

"You can't tell. He might be better with a wife."

"His niece looks after him. You said she cut him down."

"I know." "I wouldn't want to be that old. An old man is a nasty

thing."

"Not always. This old man is clean. He drinks without spilling.Even

now, drunk. Look at him."

"I don't want to look at him. I wish he would go home. He has no

regard for those who must work."

The old man looked from his glass across the square, then over at

the waiters.

"Another brandy," he said, pointing to his glass. The waiter who

was in a hurry came over.

"Finished," he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid

people employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners. "Nomore

tonight. Close now."

"Another," said the old man.

"No. Finished." The waiter wiped the edge of the table with a towel

and shook his head.

The old man stood up, slowly counted the saucers, took a

leathercoin purse from his pocket and paid for the drinks, leaving

half a peseta tip. The waiter watched him go down the street, a very

oldman walking unsteadily but with dignity.

"Why didn't you let him stay and drink?" the unhurried waiter asked.

They were putting up the shutters. "It is not half-past two."

"I want to go home to bed."

"What is an hour?"

"More to me than to him."

"An hour is the same."

"You talk like an old man yourself. He can buy a bottle and drinkat

home."

"It's not the same."

"No, it is not," agreed the waiter with a wife. He did not wish to

be unjust. He was only in a hurry.

"And you? You have no fear of going home before your usual hour?"

"Are you trying to insult me?"

"No, hombre, only to make a joke."

"No," the waiter who was in a hurry said, rising from pulling down

the metal shutters. "I have confidence. I am all confidence."

"You have youth, confidence, and a job," the older waiter said."You

have everything."

"And what do you lack?"

"Everything but work."

"You have everything I have."

"No. I have never had confidence and I am not young."

"Come on. Stop talking nonsense and lock up."

"I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe," the older

waitersaid.

"With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who

need a light for the night."

"I want to go home and into bed."

"We are of two different kinds," the older waiter said. He was now

dressed to go home. "It is not only a question of youth and

confidence although those things are very beautiful. Each night I am

reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the

cafe."

"Hombre, there are bodegas open all night long."

"You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is

well lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are

shadows of the leaves."

"Good night," said the younger waiter.

"Good night," the other said. Turning off the electric light he

continued the conversation with himself, It was the light of course

but it is necessary that the place be clean and pleasant. You do not

want music. Certainly you do not want music. Nor can you stand

before a bar with dignity although that is all that isprovided for

these hours. What did he fear? It was not a fear ordread, It was a

nothing that he knew too well. It was all anothing and a man was a

nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a

certain cleanness and order. Some lived init and never felt it but

he knew it all was nada y pues nada y naday pues nada. Our nada who

art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in

nada as it is in nada. Give usthis nada our daily nada and nada us

our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver

us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is

with thee. He smiled and stood before a bar with a shining steam

pressure coffee machine.

"What's yours?" asked the barman.

"Nada."

"Otro loco mas," said the barman and turned away.

"A little cup," said the waiter.

The barman poured it for him.

"The light is very bright and pleasant but the bar is

unpolished,"the waiter said.

The barman looked at him but did not answer. It was too late at

night for conversation.

"You want another copita?" the barman asked.

"No, thank you," said the waiter and went out. He disliked bars and

bodegas. A clean, well-lighted cafe was a very different thing. Now,

without thinking further, he would go home to his room. Hewould lie

in the bed and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep. After

all, he said to himself, it's probably only insomnia. Many must have

it.

Author’s Background

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Born: July 21, 1899, Oak Park, Illinois, United States

Died: July 2, 1961 (aged 61), Ketchum, Idaho, U.S.

Notable awards: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1953), Nobel Prize in

Literature (1954)

Spouse: Elizabeth Hadley Richardson (1921–1927), Pauline Pfeiffer

(1927–1940) Martha Gellhorn

(1940–1945), Mary Welsh Hemingway (1946–1961)

Children: Jack, Patrick, Gregory

Ernest Hemingway was a popular minimalist writer. He was

born at the turn of the century, in 1899, and wrote up until he

committed suicide in 1961. His father, Clarence Edmonds Hemingway,

was a physician, and his mother, Grace Hall-Hemingway, was a

musician. Unlike many writers, Hemingway went on a lot of adventures

in his life, including working as an ambulance driver during World

War I in Italy, a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War and

World War II, and going on an African safari. Hemingway was a

minimalist writer. Minimalism is defined as writing that is whittled

down to the basics with the greatest weight of the work put on

context rather than the use of extensive descriptive language.

During his life, he published several novels and short story

collections, but several of his works were published posthumously,

too.

E.Epic

An epic (from the Ancient Greek adjective ἐπικός (epikos), from ἔπος

(epos) "word, story, poem" is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily

concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and

events significant to a culture or nation .

“Beowulf”

(Summary)

Anonymous

The main protagonist, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid

of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is

plagued by the monster Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare

hands and Grendel's mother with a sword of a giant that he found in

her lair. Later in his life, Beowulf is himself king of the Geats, and

finds his realm terrorised by a dragon whose treasure had been stolen

from his hoard in a burial mound. He attacks the dragon with the help

of his thegns or servants, but they do not succeed. Beowulf decides to

follow the dragon into its lair, at Earnanæs, but only his young

Swedish relative Wiglaf dares join him. Beowulf finally slays the

dragon, but is mortally wounded. He is buried in a tumulus or burial

mound, by the sea.

Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a

hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible

odds against supernatural demons and beasts. The poem also begins in

medias res ("into the middle of affairs") or simply, "in the middle",

which is a characteristic of the epics of antiquity. Although the poem

begins with Beowulf's arrival, Grendel's attacks have been an ongoing

event. An elaborate history of characters and their lineages is spoken

of, as well as their interactions with each other, debts owed and

repaid, and deeds of valour. The warriors follow a manifest of rules

on heroism called comitatus, which is the basis for all of the words,

deeds, and actions.

While earlier scholars (such as J. R. R. Tolkien in "Beowulf: The

Monsters and the Critics") divided the poem in two parts, the first

part relating the hero's adventures in his youth and the second his

kingship and death, a view of the poem as structured in three parts is

more frequently accepted by modern scholars. According to the latter

view, as argued in 1980 by Jane Chance of Rice University, the fight

with Grendel's mother acquires a separate quality, as a turning point

in the narrative.[b] (The Four Funerals in Beowulf and the Structure

of the Poem, Manchester UP, 2000) proposed a different division and

structure: she sees the poem as punctuated and organized by four

funerals. Three are well-known: the ship funeral of Scyld, the funeral

pyre on which Hildeburh places her brother and her son, and the

funeral mound for Beowulf; in addition, Owen-Crocker argues that the

so-called "Lay of the Last Survivor", ll. 2247–66, is also a funeral.

First battle: Grendel

Beowulf begins with the story of King Hrothgar, who constructed the

great hall Heorot for his people. In it he, his wife Wealhtheow, and

his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating, until Grendel,

a troll-like monster who is pained by the noise, attacks the hall and

kills and devours many of Hrothgar's warriors while they sleep. But

Grendel does not touch the throne for it is described as being

protected by the power of God. Hrothgar and his people, helpless

against Grendel's attacks, abandon Heorot. Beowulf, a young warrior

from Geatland, hears of Hrothgar's troubles and with his king's

permission leaves his homeland to help Hroðgar.

Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. Beowulf bears no weapon

because this would be an "unfair advantage" to the beast. After they

fall asleep, Grendel enters the hall and attacks, devouring one of

Beowulf's men. Beowulf has been feigning sleep and leaps up to clench

Grendel's hand. The two battle until it seems as though the hall might

collapse. Beowulf's retainers draw their swords and rush to his aid,

but their blades cannot pierce Grendel's skin. Finally, Beowulf tears

Grendel's arm from his body at the shoulder and Grendel runs to his

home in the marshes and slowly dies.

Second battle: Grendel's Mother

The next night, after celebrating Grendel's defeat, Hrothgar and his

men sleep in Heorot. Grendel's mother, angered by the punishment of

her son, appears and attacks the hall. She kills Hrothgar's most

trusted warrior, Æschere, in revenge for Grendel's defeat.

Hrothgar, Beowulf and their men track Grendel's mother to her lair

under a lake. Beowulf prepares himself for battle. He is presented

with a sword, Hrunting, by Unferth, a warrior who had doubted him and

wishes to make amends. After stipulating a number of conditions to

Hrothgar in case of his death (including the taking in of his kinsmen

and the inheritance by Unferth of Beowulf's estate), Beowulf dives

into the lake. He is swiftly detected and attacked by Grendel's

mother. However, she is unable to harm Beowulf through his armour and

drags him to the bottom of the lake. In a cavern containing Grendel's

body and the remains of men that the two have killed, Grendel's mother

and Beowulf engage in fierce combat.

At first, Grendel's mother appears to prevail. Beowulf, finding that

Hrunting cannot harm his foe, discards it in fury. Beowulf is again

saved from his opponent's attack by his armour. Beowulf grabs a

magical sword from Grendel's mother's treasure, and with it beheads

her. Traveling further into the lair, Beowulf discovers Grendel's

dying body and severs its head. The blade of the magic sword melts

like ice when it touches Grendel's toxic blood, until only the hilt is

left. This hilt is the only treasure that Beowulf carries out of the

cavern, which he presents to Hrothgar upon his return to Heorot.

Beowulf then returns to the surface and to his men at the "ninth hour"

(l. 1600, "nōn", about 3pm).He returns to Heorot, where Hrothgar gives

Beowulf many gifts, including (possibly) the sword Nægling, his

family's heirloom. The hilt prompts a long reflection by the king,

sometimes referred to as "Hrothgar's sermon", in which he urges

Beowulf to be wary of pride and to reward his thanes.

Third battle: The Dragon

Main article: The Dragon (Beowulf)

Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his own people.

One day, fifty years after Beowulf's battle with Grendel's mother, a

slave steals a golden cup from the lair of an unnamed dragon at

Earnaness. When the dragon sees that the cup has been stolen, it

leaves its cave in a rage, burning everything in sight. Beowulf and

his warriors come to fight the dragon, but Beowulf tells his men that

he will fight the dragon alone and that they should wait on the

barrow. Beowulf descends to do battle with the dragon but finds

himself outmatched. His men, upon seeing this display and fearing for

their lives, creep back into the woods. One of his men, however,

Wiglaf, who finds great distress in seeing Beowulf's plight, comes to

Beowulf's aid. The two slay the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally

wounded. After Beowulf's death, he is ritually burned on a great pyre

in Geatland while his people wail and mourn him. After, a barrow is

built on his remains, which is able to be seen from the sea. (Beowulf

lines 2712–3182).

Author(s) :Unknown

Language; West Saxon

Date: c. 975–1025 (date of manuscript)

State of existence: Manuscript suffered damage from fire in 1731

Manuscript(s): Cotton Vitellius A. xv

First printed edition: by Thorkelin (1815)

Genre :Narrative heroic poetry

Verse form: Alliterative verse

Length: c. 3182 lines

Subject: The battles of Beowulf, the Geatish hero, in youth and

old age

Personages: Beowulf, Hygelac, Hrothgar, Wealhtheow, Hrothulf, Æschere,

Unferth, Grendel, Grendel's mother, Wiglaf, Hildeburh.

Beowulf’s short information

Beowulf (/ˈbeɪ.ɵwʊlf/; in Old English [ˈbeːo̯wʊlf] or [ˈbeːəwʊlf])

is the conventional title of an Old English epic poem consisting of

3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, the oldest surviving

epic poem of Old English and thus commonly cited as one of the most

important works of Anglo-Saxon literature, and also arguably the

earliest vernacular English literature.

The full poem survives in the manuscript known as the Nowell

Codex, located in the British Library. Written in England, its

composition by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet[a] is dated between the

8th and the early 11th century.In 1731, the manuscript was badly

damaged by a fire that swept through Ashburnham House in London that

had a collection of medieval manuscripts assembled by Sir Robert Bruce

Cotton. The poem's existence for its first seven centuries or so made

no impression on writers and scholars, and besides a brief mention in

a 1705 catalogue by Humfrey Wanley it was not studied until the end of

the 18th century, and not published in its entirety until Johan Bülow

funded the 1815 Latin translation, prepared by the Icelandic-Danish

scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin. After a heated debate with

Thorkelin, Bülow offered to support a new translation by N.F.S.

Grundtvig — this time into Danish. The result, Bjovulfs Drape (1820),

was the first modern language translation of Beowulf.

In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats in Scandinavia, comes to

the aid of Hroðgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall (in Heorot)

has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. After Beowulf

slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then also

defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland in Sweden and

later becomes king of the Geats. After a period of fifty years has

passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is fatally wounded in the

battle. After his death, his attendants bury him in a tumulus, a

burial mound, in Geatland.

Reflection

References:

http://classiclit.about.com/od/literaryterms/g/aa_whatisliter.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_literature

http://www.ssmrae.com/wisdom/admin/images/

32ac0b7f944ee6b52f722b1153e39c9a.pdf

http://www.biography.com/people/francis-bacon-9194632#synopsis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_story

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_poetry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf

http://www.enotes.com/topics/

Reflection:

When it comes to the study of literature, reading and writing are

closely inter-related—even mutually dependent—activities. On the one

hand, the quality of whatever we write about a literary text depends

entirely upon the quality of our work as readers. On the other hand, our

reading isn’t truly complete until we’ve tried to capture our sense of a

text in writing. Indeed, we often read a literary work much more

actively and attentively when we integrate informal writing into the

reading process—pausing periodically to mark especially important or

confusing passages, to jot down significant facts, to describe the

impressions and responses the text provokes—or when we imagine our

reading (and our informal writing) as preparation for writing about the

work in a more sustained and formal way.