any ideas?

YOu can always develop a fairly cogent analysis by looking at how that piece of literature fits within the culture where it was produced -- what the likely influences were and how it may have influenced society then and now. Did it have a lasting effect? Was it politically important? Did it influence other writers?

Another method is to compare one piece to another by the same author, from the same period, or with a similar theme or some other facet. You need to have a firm grasp of the initial analysis (theme, character, etc.) for all pieces compared.

I look for recurring themes. Things that resonate throughout in a variety of ways. Or I look for something that seems unusual. For example, in Faulker's As I Lay Dying, I thought that the most compelling character was the one not present. In Camus's The Stranger, I thought the sun was a another character in the story.

Find something that strikes you as special, different, interesting, and then pursue that.

BTW, plot summaries aren't all that effective for many works in which much of what happens is internalized (Henry James's interior monologues, eg.)

BTW, you didn't mention metaphor in or list. Worth a gander.

Hi Roberta!
Good idea -- I was just watching a film where it seemed like the river was one of the characters. It was that old Robert Mitchum film "The Night of the Hunter."

Do you think the nerd is coming back? Maybe we should hijack this thread and use it for our own?

Nerd may have read, reaped, and left.

Quien sabe?

You wanna start a thread like this elsewhere? Or just post our own ideas here? I'm game for either. Unfortunately, I may have already coughed up all that I remember from my literary analysis days.

I think we might as well play here. I like the title... "any ideas?"
When I see it, I just want to say "No. No, I have no ideas."

We don't HAVE to talk about literary analysis... I was never that great at it when I was in school It's since I've left formal education that I realize how very interesting it is.

We could party, Roberta. Nobody would know!

I'd be up for a thread on literary anal-is-is. Sheesh...my literary analysis and literary criticism days are beyond me now.

However, Roberta, As I Lay Dying and The Stranger are among my favorite reads.

I have vivid memories of that Faulkner novel, as our English teacher read each character in a different voice to his green and unsuspecting students, to emphasize the importance of interior monologue, and how it wasn't necessarily related to the power of speech. Darl was the model there.

Cav, I read As I Lay Dying on my own. I had already graduated from college. Go figure. Stranger things have happened. Speaking of stranger, I read The Stranger in French. Still not sure I know exactly what happened. Also not sure what I said in my essay/analysis (also in French), but I passed. I graduated.

Piffka, You wanna partay. I'm wicha, kid. Who would know? Who cares.

I'm always wishing I were partaying... small parties though. Nothing bigger than a hundred or more of our nearest and dearest (not including children and dogs).

I guess it is the ability to sneak a party in on this otherwise quiet thread that makes it seem more fun.

What happened to this thread? It was going great guns til early Novemeber, then . . .Where's the party, ladies and Cav?