What's the point of analyzing literature?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
23

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  1. Traditional literary analysis focused on identifying symbolist or allegorical characteristics of a literary work is aimed at revealing a message concealed beneath the author’s obfuscated text. In the real-world examples you cite, the presence of deliberate fraud means that the authors are intentionally avoiding giving accurate information for analysis. Reading between the lines on corporate or government propaganda is not at all the same as attempting to discover symbolic literary meaning.</p>

<p>Look at this material presented at the UN supposedly proving the existence of WMDs:
<a href=“http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB80/wmd28.pdf[/url]”>Home | National Security Archive;

<p>The intended meaning is not hidden or obfuscated; it is a manufactured lie.</p>

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<li><p>You cut out the first part of my argument. I’m saying that it reinforces bad behavior to teach that obfuscated literature is well-written and that there is the potential for students to take such lessons to heart and lower their own communication standards.</p></li>
<li><p>Turn: If it is important to learn to critically analyze press releases or other real world written works - and I think that it is - that is exactly what English courses should do instead of teaching traditional literature. Wouldn’t it be more useful to examine propaganda such as the linked presentation above and determine how the authors are able to create a false message? Wouldn’t that better prepare students to examine the real world through a critical lens?</p></li>
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