TABLE OF CONTENTS: Reading a story -- Point of view -- Character -- Setting -- Tone and style -- Theme -- Symbol -- Critical casebook : Flannery O’Connor -- Critical casebook : 2 stories in depth -- Stories for further reading -- Reading a poem -- Listening to a voice -- Words -- Saying and suggesting -- Imagery -- Figures of speech -- Song -- Sound -- Rhythm -- Closed form -- Open form -- Symbol -- Myth -- Poetry and personal identity -- Poetry in Spanish : literature of Latin America -- Recognizing excellence -- What is poetry? -- Two critical casebooks : Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes -- Critical casebook : T. S. Eliot’s “the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock” -- Poems for further reading -- Reading a play -- Modes of drama : tragedy & comedy -- Critical casebook : Sophocles -- Critical casebook : Shakespeare -- The modern theater -- Plays for further reading -- Writing about literature -- Writing about a story -- Writing about a poem -- Writing about a play -- Writing a research paper -- Writing an essay exam -- Critical approaches to literature.