Experiencing a Story, a Poem, a Play - Book Report/Review Example

Connecting what is being read to what is being experienced can be challenging and this is what the text explains to us.
It is more interesting because it gives the understanding and knowledge of the different forms of literature that most of the readers do not understand while going through the literature. It is evident that fewer people have interests in poems and plays as they are the ones who understand the framework, for others, this text is very interesting as it tells about the forms to help them understand the literary work that they read. The introduction about the genre, imagination, experience, and humor gives an interesting aspect to the reader of this text.

As outlined in this chapter, the approach of the reader should be present in order to experience the literary work. There are several ways to approach literary criticism. Literary criticism means analyzing, understanding, and interpreting what is being expressed. A reader is a critic and he can analyze the literary work only when he understands and experiences the work. In order to interpret and examine a story, poem or play the approach that the reader will use is the reader-response approach. In order to get into the journey of literature which means the reader has to connect to what is being said, analyze it by considerations, and draw conclusions with the help of his response. The reader has to find a personal link to the literature especially the poetry or play. The reader-response approach is the most popularly used approach in literature (Trace, 2002).

The story, poem, or play is often fictional and uses themes that relate to the author’s viewpoint and so readers often find it difficult to understand or experience. The journey to literature is connecting the imagination of the author to one’s own imagination. Since the reading of a story, poem, or play drags the reader to an imaginary world, leaving behind the situations of the world in which the reader is breathing and living to an imaginary world created by the author. In order to apply the reader-response approach for such literary works, it is important for the reader to connect and relate the literature to their real lives and their own imaginations so that they can find a specific aspect of the work. In order to create an analytical essay about the story, poem, or play, the reader must make sure he is vigilant towards the questions that what captured his interest, what feelings did he get, did it connect to his life, how does it relate to other works, what is the motivation to connect to this literary work and did this connection enhance understanding of new things.

This approach may be challenging as the story, poems, and plays are written from the author’s viewpoint. The reader must give away his surrounding world while experiencing the literature in order to analyze and connect to it. Moreover, to experience these forms of literature, the reader must have the intention to turn himself to the imaginary world which is described. A critical response to the stories, poems, and plays of fiction needs full concentration. Connecting and experiencing the literature also needs a mood as at times readers wish to read the work that matches up with their mood of that time. Thus, the authors often use humor, farce, or ambiguity in their writing to involve the reader in their imaginary activities. These elements are merely a delight in the work which is put in by the author (Trace, 2002).

However, connecting to the literature work such as story, poem or play may be challenging but once it is formed, it is much easier for the reader to relate through the reader-response approach of literary criticism.
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