Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Questions to ask while analysing literature

I've been cleaning out my room lately, and found a few cards containing lists of questions that might help when analysing literature (as in prose and poetry, not scientific literature). I'm going to type up the questions here so that I can throw out the cards and get rid of yet another piece of junk from my room :)

Plot / Structure

  • What part of the story is this?
  • What happens?
  • If an exposition, who/what is introduced?
  • What conflicts? How developed?
  • What is foreshadowed?
  • How is the narrative organised?
  • Are there shifts in perspective, time or character? What effect?
  • Can we read the plot/structure as a representation?
  • What are the conflicts developed/presented/introduced/foreshadowed?
  • How does it start? How does it move between ideas/time periods/foci?
Characters
  • How constructed? Description, action, dialogue, point of view
  • What social groups/ideas might these characters be representing? (Ideas, values, positions etc.)
  • What ideologies underpin these representations?
  • How are we positioned to respond?
  • Who and what do we feel sympathy for?
  • Minor characters- how do they push against or reinforce other ideas?
  • What are the characters' names? Are they left unnamed?
  • How are characters developed?
Language / Style
  • How formal is the narration? How does this position/distance the reader?
  • How are people, places etc. described?
  • Figurative language and devices?
  • Are there elements that function symbolically?
  • Describe the structure of sentences- is there variety/changes? What effect?
  • Imagery
  • What tense? Does this shift?
  • How are sentences constructed? For what effect?
  • What is the tone? Does it change? How does this contribute/construct meaning?
  • What symbols? Can we read the story on a symbolic level?
Setting
  • Where and when?
  • How does the setting establish a context?
  • Does the setting contribute to an underlying atmosphere or mood?
  • How does the setting function as a representation? (e.g. of city, suburbia, countryside, night, summer, etc.)
  • What ideologies underpin these representations?
  • Is the setting important to the story?
  • Are characters comfortable in or alienated by the setting?
  • Is the setting familiar/obscure/strange/fantastic etc.? How does this position you?
Narrative POV
  • What point of view? 1st, 2nd or 3rd person (limited or omniscient)?
  • Who is the narrator?
  • How distant is the reader from the narration?
  • Whose perspective is privileged? Whose is marginalised/silenced?
  • Who do we feel sympathy/empathy for?
  • Are there deliberate gaps and silences?
  • How does the narration position you with relation to the characters/events/settings/ideas?

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