The Norton Introduction to Literature
Metadata
- Author: Kelly J. Mays
Highlights
The difference between pragmatic and literary reading, in other words, resembles the difference between a journey that is only about reaching a destination and one that is just as much about fully experiencing the ride. — location: 458
One quality that may well differentiate stories, poems, and plays from other kinds of writing is that they help us move beyond and probe beneath abstractions by giving us concrete, vivid particulars. — location: 472
“The interpretations of science do not give us this intimate sense of objects as the interpretations of poetry give it; they appeal to a limited faculty, and not to the whole man. It is not Linnaeus […] who gives us the true sense of animals, or water, or plants, who seizes their secret for us, who makes us participate in their life; it is Shakespeare […] Wordsworth […] Keats.” — location: 476
because those who write criticism ask searching, analytical, “critical” questions about the works they read. Literary criticism is both the process of interpreting and commenting on literature and the result of that process. — location: 506
Stories are what we tell when we return from vacation or survive an accident or illness. They help us make sense of growing up or growing old, of a hurricane or a war, of the country and world we live in. — location: 719
But every story, whether a news story, sworn testimony, idle gossip, or a fairy tale, is a version of events told from a particular perspective (or several) and is inevitably incomplete. As we listen to others’ stories, we keep alert to the details, which make the stories rich and entertaining. But we also need to spend considerable time and energy making sure that we accurately interpret what we hear: We ask ourselves who is telling the story, why the story is being told, and whether we have all the information we need to understand it fully. — location: 724
Note that certain points of view are better represented than others, and certain details are highlighted, just as in a work of fiction. — location: 733
In fact, many stories are about this difference or divergence among people’s interpretations of reality. — location: 748
This setting changes the emphasis of the story from the errors of a few blind wise men to the value and the insufficiency of any one person’s perspective. — location: 776