The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, and Writing

Citation

Meyer, M. (2015). The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, and Writing (11th ed.). Bedford/St. Martin's.

Chapter Summary

The eleventh edition is a very large book (xlviii + 1,771 pages in library records; about 1,820 by the publisher's count) with 53 chapters in four sections: Fiction (Chapters 1–19), Poetry (20–41), Drama (42–50) and Critical Thinking and Writing (51–53), after a short introduction on reading imaginative literature, the value of literature and the changing canon. Each genre follows the same plan: chapters on reading and writing about the genre, a run of chapters on its elements, then "approaches": in-depth studies of single authors, critical and cultural case studies, thematic case studies, and selections for further reading. Throughout, "Perspectives" (short critical or authorial texts), sample close readings and student papers sit beside the literature. New to this edition are, among other selections, a thematic case study on war fiction and a critical case study on John Patrick Shanley's Doubt.

Introduction: Reading Imaginative Literature

The book opens with the nature of literature (illustrated by Dickinson's "A narrow Fellow in the Grass"), its value, and the way the literary canon changes over time.

Chapters 1–2: Reading Fiction; Writing about Fiction

Chapter 1 models responsive reading with Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour", an annotated close reading and a sample paper, then compares a formula romance excerpt with Gail Godwin's "A Sorrowful Woman", with perspectives on romance novels and on the supposed dangers of fiction. Chapter 2 follows one student paper on that comparison from first response and brainstorming through two drafts to the final version.

Chapters 3–9: Plot; Character; Setting; Point of View; Symbolism; Theme; Style, Tone, and Irony

One chapter per element, each with several stories, at least one perspective and usually a student response. Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily", Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener", Hemingway's "Soldier's Home", Updike's "A&P", Ellison's "Battle Royal", Mansfield's "Miss Brill" and Carver's "Popular Mechanics" are among the anchor texts, and short sections titled "Encountering Fiction" bring in comics and graphic stories (Gorey, Lynda Barry, Satrapi's Persepolis, Matt Groening).

Chapter 10: Combining the Elements of Fiction: A Writing Process

Using David Updike's "Summer", the chapter maps a story and develops a topic into a revised thesis and a response that combines several elements.

Chapters 11–19: Approaches to Fiction

Author studies of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Flannery O'Connor (three stories each, with chronologies and critical perspectives); a critical case study of Faulkner's "Barn Burning" with four critical essays and a student paper that incorporates them; a cultural case study of Joyce's "Eveline" with period documents; a study of Dagoberto Gilb, who comments on three of his own stories; thematic case studies on war, humor and satire, and very short stories; and seven stories for further reading.

Chapters 20–21: Reading Poetry; Writing about Poetry

Chapter 20 introduces responsive reading of poems, poetry in popular forms (posters, cartoons, web pages, a poem in a newspaper) and suggestions for approaching poetry. Chapter 21 moves from inquiry to a final paper on Elizabeth Bishop's "Manners".

Chapters 22–29: Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone; Images; Figures of Speech; Symbol, Allegory, and Irony; Sounds; Patterns of Rhythm; Poetic Forms; Open Form

The elements of poetry, from diction, connotation and tone (with three translations of a poem by Sappho and a note on reading translations) through imagery, simile and metaphor, symbol and irony, rhyme and sound, meter and scansion, to fixed forms (sonnet, villanelle, sestina, epigram, limerick, haiku, elegy, ode, parody, picture poem) and open form, including found poems. Most chapters include a student response and a perspective by a poet or critic.

Chapter 30: Combining the Elements of Poetry: A Writing Process

A complete worked example on Donne's "Death Be Not Proud": annotation, first response, informal outline and a sample explication.

Chapters 31–41: Approaches to Poetry

In-depth studies of Emily Dickinson (with a sample in-depth student paper on religious faith in four poems) and Robert Frost; studies of Billy Collins and Julia Alvarez, each commenting on five of their poems with draft manuscript pages; a critical case study of Eliot's "Prufrock"; a cultural case study of the Harlem Renaissance poets Claude McKay, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen; thematic case studies on love and longing, humor and satire, the natural world and the world of work; a colour insert pairing paintings and other visual art with poems; and a large collection of poems.

Chapters 42–43: Reading Drama; Writing about Drama

Glaspell's Trifles (with the story version) introduces reading drama and its elements; television comedy and a short play illustrate drama in popular forms; Chapter 43 ends with a student paper on Trifles.

Chapters 44–50: Sophocles; Shakespeare; Modern Drama; Case Studies; Plays for Further Reading

Oedipus the King with Greek conventions and tragedy; A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet with Shakespeare's theatre, a visual portfolio of Hamlet in performance and perspectives; realism, naturalism and later conventions in modern drama; critical case studies of Ibsen's A Doll House (including a Marxist reading and a student paper) and Shanley's Doubt; a thematic album of short contemporary comic plays; and plays for further reading, among them Hwang's Trying to Find Chinatown, Miller's Death of a Salesman and Wilson's Fences.

Chapters 51–53: Critical Strategies for Reading; Reading and the Writing Process; The Literary Research Paper

Chapter 51 surveys critical strategies (formalist, biographical, psychological, historical including Marxist and New Historicist, cultural, gender including feminist and gay and lesbian, mythological, reader-response and deconstructionist) and the canon debate. Chapter 52 covers the whole writing process and the main assignment types, explication, analysis and comparison, each with a student sample. Chapter 53 covers finding and evaluating sources, documentation and plagiarism, ending with a student research paper on "A Rose for Emily".

Key Concepts

Fiction

• Elements of fiction: plot, character, setting, point of view, symbolism, theme, and style, tone and irony, each given its own chapter.
• Case study: a work read with critical essays (critical case study) or historical documents (cultural case study).

Poetry

• Diction, connotation and tone: how word choice and order shape a poem's attitude.
• Figures of speech and symbol: simile, metaphor, symbol, allegory and irony.
• Meter and scansion: identifying patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables.
• Fixed and open forms: the sonnet, villanelle and other forms versus free verse.

Drama and criticism

• Theatrical conventions: the conventions of Greek, Elizabethan and modern stages.
• Realism and naturalism: the modes of modern drama that the book contrasts with later departures.
• Critical strategies: formalist, biographical, psychological, historical, cultural, gender, mythological, reader-response and deconstructionist approaches.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Systematic instruction on every element. The table of contents gives each element of fiction and poetry its own chapter, each with examples and, in most cases, a student response, and both genres end their element chapters with a worked "combining the elements" writing process.
• Literature placed in conversation. Perspectives by authors and critics accompany many works, and the critical case studies (Faulkner, Eliot, Ibsen, Shanley) show students how to incorporate published criticism into their own papers.
• Writers on their own work. The studies of Gilb, Collins and Alvarez pair texts with the authors' essays on writing them, interviews and draft manuscript pages.
• Breadth and options. In the publisher's words, classic works from many periods and cultures sit beside contemporary writers, and the book offers a dozen chapters of reading and writing support, author studies and case studies so that courses can be organised in many ways.

Limitations

• Size. At roughly 1,800 pages the book holds far more than any one course can use, so it is a book to select from rather than read through.
• An English-language emphasis. Most author studies and case studies centre on American, British and Irish writers (Hawthorne, O'Connor, Faulkner, Joyce, Dickinson, Frost, Eliot, the Harlem Renaissance), with Sophocles and Ibsen the main exceptions; other literatures appear mainly as individual selections in translation.
• Criticism in summary. Chapter 51 covers many strategies within a single chapter; the case studies show criticism in use, but students wanting a full account of any one approach need a theory guide.
• An older edition. This edition dates from 2015–2016; the publisher has since continued the series (the Compact version, for example, has reached a thirteenth edition), so selections and page references in newer course materials may differ.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the most comprehensive of the introductory anthologies in the course. Compared with Literature: A Portable Anthology, which gives one chapter to each genre's elements and a shorter reading list, it offers extended element-by-element instruction, author studies and case studies, and suits courses that want to teach the vocabulary of analysis in depth. The Norton Introduction to Literature is the closest counterpart, a genre-organised anthology with explanatory chapters on elements and substantial writing guidance; either can serve as the main book.

After Chapter 51, Bennett and Royle's An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory develops theoretical questions through reading; Lentricchia and McLaughlin's Critical Terms for Literary Study and Rivkin and Ryan's Literary Theory: An Anthology take students on to critics' and theorists' own writing.

How to Use This Book

The anthology is written for introductory college literature courses and for literature-based composition courses; no prior study is assumed. Its own architecture suggests how to use it:

• Read Chapters 1–2 (or 20–21, 42–43) first for the genre being studied: they model responsive reading and show a paper developing from notes to final draft.
• Take the element chapters in order within a genre, using the student responses as models for short papers, and use Chapter 10 or 30 as the template for a longer one.
• Choose one or two approach chapters per genre: an author study for depth, a critical case study before any assignment that asks for secondary sources, a thematic case study for comparison papers.
• Use Chapters 52–53 as a handbook throughout the term, returning to them for each type of assignment and for the research paper.
• Read Chapter 51 before applying a critical lens, then try one strategy on a work already discussed in class.