In this connection, students are required to pay attention to the kind of question asked by teachers or examiners. For instance, a literary analysis of a play may be to show how a dramatist develops plot through the use of suspense. Analysing a novel or short story could include discussing the major themes of the work. Moreover, an analysis of a piece of poetry might require one to show the relationship between the content and the form of a poem or to show how meaning is enhanced through the use of imagery. In addition, a question may require you to justify or counter an …show more content…
The analyst or student is saddled with the task of convincing readers, teachers and or examiners that an idea deduced from a text or his/her interpretation of a text is reasonable and true. In fact, a student of literature who carries out literary analysis is like a lawyer attempting to convince a judge that something is true. So, the literary analyst must do so with ample and strong textual evidence. This point shall be further illustrated and discussed.
Sometimes students are not confident enough to maintain and write their convictions about literary arguments or questions. Having heard the views of their teachers and classmates, they assume that their own opinion, which may be contrary to what has been said, is wrong. Every answer, claim or argument is correct, depending on your ability to justify your point with convincing textual evidence. Literary analysis is not “scientific” or fixed; unlike other formulaic subjects, it is a very fluid activity that permits you to produce as many shades of meanings of a particular text as possible, depending on your interpretative strategies, insight, and perspective. Here is an example of two submissions which are based on the same