READING WITH TAGS FOR LITERARY ANALYSIS

Due Date: Month 10, 2017

Lacuna Features Needed:

❖Annotations (including tags and categories)

Objective

To show students how they can navigate and conceptualize literary readings using tags that correspond with major keywords in literary studies.

Overview

Tags are a great way to organize your thoughts, track patterns, and trace themes and concepts while reading. After reading, you can then search your annotations on the text by using tags on the annotation filter. Alternatively, you can go to the Sewing Kit and limit annotations by tags, which allows you to see what tags have been used across different texts and media.

In this assignment, you will focus on tagging literary devices and using major literary concepts

Estimated Time:Variable depending on the length of the assigned reading.

Instructions

Below are some key words and concepts from literary studies that can help orient your reading of literary works (fiction, novels, poetry, etc). Look up the definitions for any words or terms you may not be familiar with. As a reminder, you can tag annotations by clicking “add tags” at the bottom of the annotation. Tags that have been used by you or others previously can be selected from the “custom tags” pop-up. (Note: unlike Twitter, there is no reason to use a “#” hash before your tags.)

Steps

  1. Create basic annotations on the assigned text, using at least three of the following concepts or key terms of literary theory and literary studies. Try to define the term and explain why it relates to the word or passage that you annotated. These annotations can be brief—2-3 sentences each are fine. Make these annotations public so your peers can agree with or supplement your own. The end product will be a collaborative reading of the text!
  2. Respond to at least 3 annotations made by other students. You can agree with their application of the tag, add commentary, discuss why you think it is interesting, or add a different tag to the same section with your own annotation.
  3. After you have finished the assignment, go back and explore the text with the filter showing all annotations (if you are the first student to do this assignment, you may want to return after a few hours or the next day when more annotations have appeared). As you explore the variety of literary concepts applied to the text, think about which concepts drew your attention the most. In our next class, I’ll ask you which concepts you found most interesting, difficult, or appealing.

Basic Concepts and Key Terms from Literary Theory

This list is by no means complete. Students should also feel free to add their own concepts and key terms of interest!

Author / Reader/Audience / Authorial Intent / Narrator
Metaphor / Mood / Conflict / Archetype
Tone / Theme / Syntax / Imagery
Foreshadowing / Bildungsroman / Hyperbole / Point of View
Personification / Rhyme / Meter / Simile
Setting / Plot / Character / Genre
Alliteration / Assonance / Consonance / Paradox

Created by the Stanford Poetic Media Lab