54 pages • 1 hour read
Francine ProseReading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Index of Terms
Classic Works of Literature and the Canon
A classic literary work is one that has made a significant contribution to the development of literature. It is a work that has remained popular and valued through time, and it is generally one recognized—whether at its time of publication or retrospectively—as innovative or pathbreaking. The canon refers to the overall collection of these classic works. Recent criticism of the canon points out its lack of diversity on several levels. The majority of featured works were written by white men, for example, and the canon has historically excluded works of genre and popular fiction. Recent efforts to revise the canon have been successful at including more diverse voices.
Close Reading
Close reading refers to slow, attentive reading of literature to examine the deeper meaning of words, phrases, and sentences. In Teaching Literature (2002), literary critic Elaine Showalter describes close reading as “a form of defamiliarization we use in order to break through our habitual and casual reading practices” (Showalter, Elaine. Teaching Literature, Wiley-Blackwell, 2002, p. 98). As Showalter suggests, slowing down to read a passage for syntax, imagery, and other elements of language helps the reader avoid skimming over a text. In Reading Like a Writer, close reading is essential in understanding how writing works.
Gesture
A gesture in literature refers to any small, reflexive physical action by a character. Ideally, gestures add meaning to the story. In linguistics, or the study of language, gesture may also refer to sign language. Prose examines how writers can use this little-discussed element of literature to convey a wide range of meaning.
New Criticism
New criticism is an approach to analyzing literature that first gained prominence in the first half of the 20th century. New criticism, which views close reading as an important practice, suggests a text be studied closely for its language, rather than for its historical and biographical context. New criticism is also sometimes known as practical criticism. Modernist literary critics I.A. Richards and William Empson were its early proponents. Though new criticism has given way to literary analysis, which also examines the politics of a work, Prose suggests it is still a useful approach for the student of writing.
Point of View
In literature and film, point of view refers to the perspective from which a story is told. The main points of view in fiction are first person, or the “I” voice; close third person, in which a story uses third person while maintaining a high level of intimacy with the protagonist; and limited third person, or an omniscient narrator, in which a seemingly all-knowing narrator tells the story while traversing multiple points of view. A less common point of view is second person, or the “you” voice. Prose suggests that a good way to decide which point of view to adopt while writing is to consider the audience of the story and the story’s setting.
Writing Workshop
A writing workshop is a physical or online space in which a group of students get together under an instructor’s guidance to offer constructive feedback on each other’s ongoing work. Considered a mainstay of contemporary writing instruction, a writing workshop can help a student hone their craft and learn from the writing of their peers. In Reading like a Writer, Prose argues that courses in close reading should supplement writing workshops, so students of writing also learn through imbibing the lessons of great literature.
