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?