The Tao of Reading: Two Lectures on Reading and Writing about What You Read
Lecture 1: How to Read as a Writer
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Lecture
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Handouts
- Elizabeth Tallent – “No One’s A Mystery” w comments
- Glover handout bad readings of Tallent (BTW, these were found by scouring the Internet; they are not from VCFA student work)
- Glover Reading Rubric for Fiction
- Nabokov – “Good Readers and Good Writers”
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Lecture 2: Reading Texts and Writing Critical Papers
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Lecture Description
Critical Papers: Approaches to writing critical papers including the critical thesis and the fourth semester lecture. Topics covered: the difference between a critical paper and literary appreciation, book report and criticism; the textual basis of a good critical paper; focus on craft and technique; outlines; and what you should expect to get out of writing a good critical paper.
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Lecture
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Handouts
- Glover Reading Rubric for Fiction Click to download pdf.
- Glover Reading Rubric for Nonfiction
- A cheat sheet for structural analysis
- Glover Outline for Critical Thesis or 4th Semester Lecture
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Advice and Examples Culled from Letters to Students
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Sample critical work
Fiction critical theses:
- Techniques of Emotional Representation and the Construct of the Self in Three Short Stories by Rebecca Martin
- The Consecution of Gordon Lish: An Essay on Form and Influence by Jason Lucarelli
- The Art of the Long Sentence by Frank Richardson
- The Use of Moralized Cityscape in Los Angeles Literature by Jill Glass
- Shades and Mirrors: Character Gradation in the Novel by Vanessa Blakeslee
- Deforming Form: Outlier Short Stories and How They Work by Richard Farrell
Fiction lecture:
- There’s a Theme for You (on thematic passage technique in Chekhov short stories) by Julie Marden
- Plot Structure in Short Stories by Gwen Mullins
- The Mind’s Eye – Character Thought in Fiction by Erin Stagg
- Using Everything: Pattern Making in Gertrude Stein’s “Melanctha,” Robert Walser’s “Nothing at All,” and Sam Lipsyte’s “The Wrong Arm” by Jason Lucarelli
- Emotion of Multitudes: Subplots in Novels by Shambhavi Roy
Nonfiction lecture:
- Now and Then: The Binary Dimension of the Authorial Voice in Memoir by Susan Hall
- There’s a Reason They Call it Show AND Tell: How to Reveal Thoughts, Emotions, and Motivations Without Sentimentality by Laura-Rose Russell
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Other Resources
- Please visit the Numéro Cinq Holy Book of Literary Craft.
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