“Literary analyses are essays in which we examine literary texts closely to understand their messages, and interpret their meanings, and appreciate their writers’ techniques” (Bullock, Brody, and Weinberg 62). In a traditional literary analysis, you respond to a poem, novel, play, or short story. That response can be analytical, looking at them, plot, structure, characters, genre, style, and so on. Or it can be critical, theoretical, or evaluative—locating works within their social, political, historic, and even philosophic neighborhoods. Or you might approach a literary work expressively, describing how you connect with it intellectually and emotionally. Or you can combine these approaches or imagine alternative ones—perhaps reflecting new attitudes and assumptions about media. Other potential genres for analysis include films, TV offerings, popular music, comic books and games.
For this assignment, you are expected to read the article: “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff on P. 264 from They Say I Say. Read the following prompts and pick one. Or you may consider using both prompts in your essay.
- Graff argues that schools should encourage students to think critically, read, and write about areas of personal interest such as cars, fashion, or music—as long as they do so in an intellectually serious way. What else does he write about this point? How does he prove this point? What evidences does he provide? What is your interpretation of this idea?
- Gerald Graff begins his essay with the view that we generally associate “book smarts” with intellectualism and “street smarts” with anti-intellectualism. Graff then provides an extended example from his early life to counter this viewpoint. What support does he provide and how persuasive is it?
