Why We Read

Northrop Frye 's the Educated Imagination, published in 1963, attempts to bring out the meaning and effect of possessing an educated imagination in contrast to its opposite. Dr. Frye analyses how his theory advances society’s interests and overcomes its limits through the three levels of the human mind. In his essay, the three levels are broken down in a detailed manner, which links it directly its thesis. Frye presents definitive answers to his questions in the beginning of his essay, “What good is the study of literature? Does it help us to think more clearly, or feel more sensitively, or live a better life than we could without it?” Conclusively, the education of an individual’s mind is critical to understand the world we live in and to the advancement of our society. Educating the mind consists of absorbing and modifying literature, understanding and evolving art, and placing science within context without having data as the boundaries of our imagination.

Rhetorical Analysis Essay: Past president of the Modern Language Association, Gerald Graff, in his essay “Hidden Intellectualism”, adapted from his 2003 book, Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind, puts in perspective the idea that schools in general all focus too much on the respected literacy stereotype. Graff’s purpose is to convince his audience that you, as a student, will get more out of writing about something you are interested in rather than writing about a boring topic your teacher/professor has assigned to you such as: the French Revolution or a Shakespeare play. Gerald Graff begins his essay by placing the stereotypical theme in place that one who knows so much about outside of the footsteps of his/her

Literatures work has always played an important role in our society throughout the history. Each works serves with different purposes and provide the readers with great benefits. It does not only give the audience enjoyments from the works, but it is also another way to teach the others in many different ways. Most work from the Native Americans that we learned from the lecture are to teach and persuade other people of strong values of life, such as “Iktomi and the Dancing Duck” and “Origin of the Sun Shower.” Literature is one of the most important ways to preserve wide range of knowledge and to pass down to each generation, which can also help the audience understand different things from the past. There are many literature works that were

Literature is such a beautiful thing because it does not give us an answer to it's questions. There are so many iffy spots that leave us to develop our own thoughts and feelings toward the piece of work. This is an interesting factor because at many times it affects us in a different way and can develop us as an individual. When reading a piece of literature, one person can interpret it in different ways than another person reading the same piece of work. I remember analyzing poems with my English class in the previous years and when we were asked to interpret it, we all had different answers. Sometimes what I got out of the poem didn’t even go close to the direction that my classmate

After reading Contemporary Literary Theory: Its Necessity and Impossibility, I find that I agree with most of what Robert Young says in regards to literary theory. The main point that really struck home with me was when he talked about theorists lacking the ability to connect with a wide audience. He states, “Literary theorists seem to speak and argue with each other in a private language, making little effort to address a wider audience” (Young 165). I could not agree more with this assessment. When we first read about Jacques Derrida and his theory of deconstruction I questioned my intelligence. It may as well have been written in Greek. It has been a very long time since I have encountered something that left me with absolutely nothing after reading it. I tend to agree

English in its entirety can be simply described as author, biologist and physician, Lewis Thomas had once said, “We pass the word around; we ponder how the case is put by different people, we read the poetry; we meditate over the literature; we play the music; we change our minds; we reach an understanding. Society evolves this way, not by shouting each other down, but by the unique capacity of unique, individual human beings to comprehend each other” (Thomas 120). The impact literature can bring onto others is simply amazing and is a gift that should be shared with everyone. This spring semester has quickly broadened my perspective. Being that this is my freshman year in college I prodded around ideas of what majors I had interests in. I

In the “Dark Night of the Soul” Miller claims that, “the reading and writing that teachers and their students do about literature and culture more generally might not be all that important.” Though how can Miller claim that literature is not useful, when his writings are presented to students particularly, in my english class. Therefore it is also irrelevant that he is writing to initiate question upon this matter, in result of this topic my brain has been activity working. Indeed literature, reading, and

Miller asked a question in his text, The Dark Night of the Soul, which is asked on numerous occasions. ‘What might the Literate Arts be good for?’ Miller gives situations and reasons why we could say the Literate Arts are useless in today’s world. What might the Literate Arts be good for? I ask this question a lot nowadays too. When I go for an English class or see literary books, the question creeps into my mind unconsciously. In this modern world ‘reading and writing’ have gone downhill and yet people do not seem bothered or affected by it which makes the doubt in literary power even stronger. But after a lot of thinking and research, I have come to realize that literate arts are still needed in

We all long to write like someone else, maybe it is like authors such as Mark Twain , J.R.R Tolkien, Ernest Hemingway or Shakespeare- although I think the last one is much more like a dream than an actual aspiration-but I desire to write like Stephen King and Stephen Krashen , and even attain to imitate the manner in which they seem to analyze information, and translate such material in a form of a well-developed argument. As a consequence, it seems that the purpose of this summer assignment was accomplished , as according to Ms. Olaerts the purpose was to “give you an introduction to the kinds of reading you will see throughout the course and types of analysis that will be required of that reading.”

Over the past month, we have been studying the concept of reading and writing in different communities. To assess this, we have read two different texts. Richard Rodriguez’s the achievement of desire”, from his autobiography “Hunger of Memory”; and Lucille McCarthy’s “A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing across the Curriculum” from “Research in the Teaching of English”. Both answer key questions regarding what it takes to become a great reader and writer, however, from the reading that I have done, each one only answers one part of the question. Rodriguez’s main focus is in the aspect of reading, whereas McCarthy mainly focuses on the writing portion. Both do a decent job of analyzing and putting forth a view of how they believe a person can best perform in these environments. This then allows us to use their concepts and create our own version, based on their points of view. But why should we care? Most people at this level of academia will have developed a system of writing that works for them, and will have a difficult time breaking from it if they’re process doesn’t meet the criteria that Rodriguez, and McCarthy put forth. The reason it’s so important is because of implications these ideas have. Both authors put forth concepts that are indirectly related to one another and that are highly beneficial to all who will apply them. They will force you to conform to new environments in order to succeed, this in turn will make you more

reading the works of other authors is vital to the growth of a writer. This allows the writer to

In his piece entitled “ Disliking books” Gerald Graff, a professor of English and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, tells his story of how with some helpful insights he shifted from disliking literature to enjoying reading and analyzing the texts. The author shares that during his early school years he developed an aversion to literature as well as most liberal arts disciplines for not being able to find their application in his daily life. Coming from a middle class family, it was expected that young Graff would go to college. Since no particular discipline really interested him and his family did not own a business to set him up on a successful business path, he decided to major

I believe that Culler means that we should not take everything that we read in literature to heart. These are stories and events that are made up but may have similarities to the life of the author or someone he may know. These are imaginary figures and are not historical people but these people are not limited to events. This allows us to experience several different perspectives of a story and doesn’t give us just one view point. This also allows us to know if they say “We are having dinner at eight would you like to join us?” we know we are not invited it is just part of the story, it’s fictional. Fictionality makes literature matter because this can help us understand symbolism and understand people. A piece of literature can show us

Literature comes in all forms; its basically everything around us. Movies, books, newspaper, songs, posters, magazines, these are examples of literature. Like the many forms of literature, it also has many purposes; literature is used as a source of entertainment, it in forms people, and it also enlightens them with knowledge. Ever since we entered school, we have constantly been questioned, asked to reflect upon what we read and to analysis what we read, watch and see. All we have been doing since day one had been analysing literature. Don’t you think there must be a reason for all these years of analysing everything? I’ve finally come to the conclusion that all those years of analysing was to prove to us the power of literature. To some extent literature has the power to refute and/or reinforce our prejudice and bias. Literature is able to do this because it is able to open us to the different social and cultural standing around the world, we can always connect with literature, it comes in many forms and it’s composed of facts.

J.O. Urmson’s article “Literature” attempts to develops the notion surrounding the ontological stance of literature. He states that literature is analogous to music, theatre and ballet. This paper will examine Urmson’s theories concerning literature and discuss the absence of clarity in the article. Urmson’s diagnosis of literature as an art form, is too immediate to form a strong stance on the ontological and analogous aspects of literature.