Naive Questions for Fellow Profs

~ Clarissa

If you are a literary critic who has worked on analyzing poetry, what did you read, what sources did you study to teach you how to do it?

If you are a critic who has worked on analyzing film, what did you read, what sources did you study to teach you how to do it?

What do you recommend to your students to acquire these skills?

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Published by Clarissa

5 thoughts on “Naive Questions for Fellow Profs”

  1. Well I didn’t have my students purchase this but the one of the “classic” poetry primers is Perrine’s Sound and Sense. It’s something I have on my shelf and I consult it from time to time. This version is expensive but I think there are cheaper editions: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1428289704/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687602&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0155826093&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1Z0BA17ECC175ZHQ875Y

    A book that I have had student purchase ) is Boland’s The Making of a Poem. Nice introductory materials and very reasonably priced. And it includes some great poems too! It’s from Norton and I tend to like their editions. http://www.amazon.com/Making-Poem-Norton-Anthology-Poetic/dp/0393321789/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425963336&sr=8-1&keywords=making+of+a+poem

    I also recommend a good dictionary of poetic terms. This is a good one. I use this book regularly: http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Poetic-Terms-Jack-Myers/dp/1574411667/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425963586&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Jack+Myers+and+Doc.+C.+Wukasch%2C+Dictionary+of+Poetic+Terms

    I’m not a film scholar but I do teach occasional movies and I have found Lauren Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” to be helpful. It’s a little overblown and I don’t 100% agree with it but it’s good to get some basic concepts out (i.e. the gaze) and it really gives students some tools with which to analyze film.

    Hope this helps! 🙂

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  2. Not a poetry prof but I remember this textbook as very good from student days.

    One of the things the instructor said about it was that it didn’t just talk about great poetry (which can be kind of tiresome) it gave you some real crappy stuff too (explaining just what made it crappy). That also helped the better stuff stand out more.

    I can’t speak for the current edition, but here it is….

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    1. Cool! And in a very shocking development, we even have it at our library. Which is the second time in the past 6 years that our library actually has something I need. Yay! 🙂

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