how to comment a text

8/9/2019 How to Comment a Text

1/7

HOW TO READ AND COMMENT ON A LITERARY TEXT IN ENGLISH

1. Introduction: the i! o" #iterr$ co!!entr$

The aim of a literary commentary is not to reproduce your class notes

about the author, the text or the literary period analysed. Rather, it is to

%re&ent $our %er&on# re"#ection& u%on the te't, using your own words

and formulating, if possible, your own hypothesis and conclusions. Newideas and approaches will be most welcomed!

This does not mean that class notes should be neglected: they will be

extremely useful to contextualise the text or identify and explain the styleof the author, etc. If you have been given any additional bibliographical

references, wor with them and incorporate them within your commentary:this will mae your essay loo academic", and since you are philologists,this is essential.

The co!!entr$ !u&t "ocu& on the text cho&en, which must be fully

exploited". #hen writing academic essays, many students include lots ofinformation about the literary period, the author and the main features of

his$her style, but they completely forget to apply this information to the

text. Remember that your teachers now all that theory: they want to seehow you respond to that particular text!

A co!!entr$ i& not n out#ine( ho)e*er deti#ed it !$ +e. It mustshow that your writing is mature, and that you can express yourselfproperly in %nglish: you have to write full paragraphs, use connectors, and

avoid telegraphic" style. &'( )R% *+I''-IT.

/o not worry about writing too much. The 0uality of a literary commentary

does not have anything to do with its length!

,. The "ir&t &t-e: READING

A +&ic &&u!%tion

1eing a *hilologist entails loving language and literature, so I tae it that

you will not find it difficult to follow these simple pieces of advice:

,.1. Re#'ed/ redin- or redin- "or %#e&ure:

The first time you face a literary text, you must read it for pleasure, in arelaxed why. /o not try to understand every single word and stic to the

dictionary from the very first moment. /o not start looing for literary

figures, biographical data, etc. 2ust try to penetrate into its essence. &ou

should as yourselves 0uestions lie these: #hat is the text about3 #hat isits message3 #hat do I find most attractive3 Is there anything especially

1


2/7

noticeable3 4an it be connected in any way with what I do or what I feel asa human being3

)fter this first reading, try to summarise in three or four lines the message

of the text on a piece of paper. It is very important to use &'(R '#N

#'R/. #e shall use this paragraph as an introduction to our commentary,so mae it personal and attractive.

,.,. Redin- to "ind re#e*nt in"or!tion:

In the second reading, which mars the beginning of our philological wor,

we must start to note down the most relevant information contained in thetext. Normally, your teachers will give you a text with numbered lines or

paragraphs. If they have not done so, I strongly recommend you to do it,

since this will facilitate reading and maring your commentaries.

'bviously, the first 0uestion would be: what is relevant information"3 +ereyou are some examples:

)re there any lines or paragraphs that could be considered ey" or

central"3 There are some occasions in which 5ust three words

epitomise everything and contain the message of the text! %xplainwhy you consider them important.

1iographical data: does the author refer to his$her life at some point,

whether directly or indirectly3 #hy are these biographical dataimportant3

4ontextual information: do we find some references to the historical

period in which the text was written3 4an we find something typicalof the political, cultural, artistic or social sensibility of the period to

which the text belongs3

6ae a list of all the literary resources, figures of thought, etc. that

appear in the text. )t the same time, try to explain why the authoruses them. Imagine that you find alliteration of the phoneme $s$" in a

poem. The corresponding explanations could be 7$he wishes tocreate a poem which appeals to our senses$to imitate the sound of

the wind$to convey a sensation of 0uietude or peace$ etc.8

#henever you note down relevant information, specify between bracets

the line of the text in which it appears, i. e. (l. 7). Now you have a draft. Itis time to exploit" and enrich it.

0. The co!!entr$:

0.1. A+out the %re&enttion o" in"or!tion:

Information must be presented in a very clear and ordered way: for

example, you cannot start to spea about a metaphor which conveys afeeling of melancholy without having mentioned first that the topic

addressed by the poem or the fragment is melancholy. #hich order shouldbe followed, thus3

2


3/7

0.,. A %ro%o "or orderin- in"or!tion:

0.,.1. An ttrcti*e introduction:

1egin by specifying what the message or the topic addressed by the text is.-o to the lines you wrote after your first reading, polish them and

incorporate them as an introduction. 6ae it as attractive as you can.Remember that the first impression that teachers get when reading a

commentary is really important.

0.,.,. Chrcteri&tion nd %#ce!ent o" the te't )ithin the )or&+$ the uthor n#$&ed nd the hi&toric# %eriod in )hich it )&

)ritten:

a9 4haracterisation of the text:

If you are analysing a poem, and you have identified the type ofstana used by the poet, comment on it ;i.e., 7this is a sonnet, which

was a favourite stana in the %liabethan period89. If you are dealingwith prose, specify its genre and explain whether we are facing a

description, a ey narrative moment within a novel, etc.b9 *lacement of the text within the wors by the author analysed:

To which wor does the fragment selected belong3 #hy is this wor

important or significant3 4haracterise it briefly. If you thin that anybiographical data of the author discussed could be useful to

understand the text, this is the moment to incorporate them, but donot insert a summary of the author"s life, because we can find this in

the anthologies and encyclopaedias. &ou have to be original andcritical.


4/7

et us clarify this point: imagine that we are analysing a poem which dealswith love seen as a painful experience. #hich literary resources or figures

convey that feeling3 If there is a metaphor in which, for example, love isidentified with a dar cloud", incorporate it into your commentary, and

explain that it helps convey the author"s view on love as a painful feeling.

Try to do the same with every literary figure. If you consider that there isone literary figure which is especially important or noticeable, comment on

it.


5/7

an irreplaceable addition to the already existing one8 ;>??>: @A9.@

+as the text created something new in you3

/o you thin that the formal features of the text contribute to

intensifying its meaning3

These are only some simple ideas. &ou can write brilliant conclusions if youtae into account your feelings and impressions and present them in an

attractive way. &ou can also finish with a memorable sentence, for example:7In sum, Oroonoko, written in a century of imperialist con0uests,

dramatises the unfairness of slavery and encourages us to fight against

oppression and social in5ustice. #e cannot feel indifferent8.

2. A+out the #n-u-e nd the &t$#e o" the co!!entr$:

) literary commentary must, above all, be academic. #hich aspects mae

the style of a commentary academic3

4ollo0uial expressions must be avoided.


6/7

In=text citations must appear between inverted commas ;789. If you

are copying textually ;0uotations9 but need to suppress some of the

original words, use the following convention EBF. )fter the 0uotationinclude the following information between bracets: ;)uthor"s

surname &ear of publication: page number in which the words 0uotedappear9.

haespeare"s wors are 7EBF open to reality in its

widest sense: to all five senses and all facultiescomprised by man EBF. +ere the homo sapiensdwells

deeply in the homo somnians, man of dreams. /reams;fiction, myths9 overlap with the real, but still transcendthe real we now, to open new horions. ;Talvet >??G:@GA9

#ors 4ited list:

+ave you wored with a boo3 (se, for example, the following format:

1arth, 2. @HA>. The Literature of Exhaustion and the Literature of

Replenishment. Northridge: ord 2ohn *ress.

#ith a chapter within a boo3

1eer, -. @HH. 7Representing #omen: Re=presenting the *ast8. The

eminist Reader! Essa"s in #ender and the Politics of Literar"

$riticism, edited by 4. 1elsey and 2. 6oore. +oundmills: 6acmillan.=H?.

#ith an article3

1enedict, 1. 6. @HHJ. 7Reading


7/7

7

how to comment a text

Documents