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handful of notes, the clear vowels rise-OK, so clear vowels. And now you tryĪhh, window, window square whitens and swallows. (Italicized words indicate the professor reading directly from the poem). Notice how this reader thinks aloud while noting a pattern of “mouth” imagery in “Morning Song. Notice her inclination to look for repeated images and ideas as a way to try to make sense of the poem, even if her perception of a possible repetition doesn’t always turn out to be helpful to her. The following excerpts from the transcript of a literature professor thinking aloud while reading twentieth-century American poet Sylvia Plath’s “Morning Song” (reprinted below) illustrate how one experienced reader uses this strategy as she reads. In other words, they move from noticing a pattern to making a surface/depth argument. Then, they brainstorm to generate some idea about what these patterns might mean. Though blue is not explicitly named in the title and the final image, it seems plausible to connect the sky to this color. Experienced literary scholars almost always mark the repetitions they start to see in the margins of texts. For instance, you may begin to notice the color blue appear repeatedly throughout a text and then notice that both the title and the final image of the text refer to the sky.
Use plausible inferences and see if anything develops. And bear in mind that for an image or a device to be recurrent, it need not reappear exactly the same way each time. On second and even third readings, you should aim to locate instances that are especially surprising to others who have not read as closely or with the pattern in mind. On a second reading of a text, further instances and repetitions will likely become apparent to you that you have missed the first time. On a first reading, especially of a longer text, such as a novel, play, or essay, you may begin to notice multiple instances of an image, an unusual word, a concept, or even a sound. Using the patterns strategy before having clear surface/depth arguments in mindĪ critic uses the patterns strategy to discover surface/depth arguments by noting repetitions and recurrences throughout a text and then working to make sense of possible deeper layers of meaning of these aspects of the text by considering the reasons they recur. Using it beforehand helps you come up with cogent and complex arguments using it afterward helps you improve these arguments and locate textual evidence to support them. The patterns strategy can be used both before and after you have developed a surface/depth claim in your textual analysis. Patterns and surface/depth go hand in hand: by showing that evidence of an interpretation is present even in small, easily overlooked details in the text, the critic persuades the reader than an interpretation is plausible.
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The patterns strategy illustrates a text’s complexity by showing that evidence for a surface/depth argument can be found throughout a text-even in small details where it is unexpected. It both provides the textual evidence for a surface/depth argument and is a strategy for discovering new surface/depth interpretations.
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The patterns strategy involves pointing out multiple examples (both obvious and nonobvious) of an image, idea, linguistic feature, or other recurrent element in the text in order to support a surface/depth argument. This is a technique, in other words, for uncovering evidence that can be used to argue for the “depth” insights in your surface/depth central claim. Martin’s, 2016), describe a technique for supporting a surface/depth claim (of the sort described in the “Literary Analysis: Surface/Depth” tab). The following materials, adapted from Joanna Wolfe and Laura Wilder’s Digging into Literature: Strategies for Reading, Writing, and Analysis (Boston: Beford/St.