Literature & English
lit·er·a·ture · littera: letter · litteratura: writing, learning
The study of literature analyzes a published body of writing critically — through close reading, classification, and comparison of texts, in conversation with prior criticism and theoretical articles.
- Anchor every claim to specific lines you quote and analyze.
- Read two or three critics and position your reading against theirs.
- A comparison needs a reason — what does putting these two texts together reveal?
- MLA, with page numbers in every in-text citation.
Related areas & concentrations
Literature is in conversation with the other arts and humanities. Those neighbors give you context, theory, and new ways to read a text.
Related research areas
- Art history: how images, movements, and visual style connect to writing
- Media & film studies: adaptation, storytelling, and how narratives move across forms
- Culture studies: how texts reflect and shape identity and society
- Philosophy: the ideas about knowledge, ethics, and selfhood that texts explore
Sample concentrations
- Descartes' Meditations: reading a philosophical text as literature
- The hero in literature and culture: how heroes are made, changed, and challenged
- The power of Shakespeare: language, politics, and the plays' lasting influence
Four ways into a question
Most literature papers work through one of these lenses. All of them start with the text itself — read closely, and more than once.
Form & Style
How language, imagery, structure, and sound create meaning on the page.
How does Shakespeare use shifts between verse and prose to signal power in one play?
Character & Theme
Heroes, villains, and the ideas a text keeps returning to.
How does the idea of heroism change between an ancient epic and a modern novel?
History & Context
How a work responds to the politics, beliefs, and events of its time.
How does The Tempest reflect European ideas about the “New World”?
Theory & Comparison
Reading texts through a critical lens, or side by side across languages and cultures.
What is gained and lost when a poem is translated into English?
Turning an interest into a question
A favorite book isn't a research question. Narrow to a specific text or two, one element, and a claim someone could disagree with.
Start from something that puzzles you
A strange ending, a repeated image, a character whose choices don't quite make sense.
Narrow to a text and an element
Not “Shakespeare” but one play and one image, character, or kind of speech.
Make it a “how / why” question
Ask how a feature of the text creates meaning, or why it matters to the whole work.
Check it's arguable and answerable
Could another reader disagree, and can you support your answer with specific passages?
Methods & where to look
Pair close reading with the texts, criticism, and references literary scholars actually use.
Common methods
- Close reading: analyzing specific passages line by line.
- Comparative analysis: setting two texts, authors, or translations side by side.
- Historical criticism: reading a work in the context of its time.
- Theoretical reading: applying a lens such as feminist or postcolonial criticism.
- Literature review: summarizing and comparing what critics have argued.
Annotate as you read — your notes become the evidence in your paper.
Where to find sources
- Free texts: Project Gutenberg and the Folger Shakespeare Library's digital editions.
- Criticism: JSTOR and the MLA International Bibliography, through a library.
- Poetry: the Poetry Foundation's archive and essays.
- Journals: PMLA and Shakespeare Quarterly, via Google Scholar or JSTOR.
Use a scholarly edition of your text so your page and line citations are reliable.
Building an interpretation
A strong literature paper makes an argument about a text, not a summary of it. Three habits keep your reading convincing.
Quote
Choose short, specific passages and analyze their words closely. Every claim should rest on the text.
Interpret
Explain what the passage does and why it matters — don't let a quotation speak for itself.
Engage
Place your reading alongside critics who agree or disagree, and show what your argument adds.
Cite every text and critic in MLA style, with page or line numbers for quotations.