A work of dramatic literature to read carefully and respond with a literary analysis essay with research:
Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles”
[Page 772 in our textbook:
Mays, Kelly J., editor. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Portable ed., 12th ed., W.
W. Norton, 2017. ISBN: 978-0393938937]
Dramatic works draw on all kinds of earlier texts, experiences, or events. But they also produce new
contexts of discussion and interpretation, ongoing conversations about the plays themselves. Different
viewers of plays see different things in them, so naturally a variety of interpretations and evaluations
develop around any play that is produced. Many of those interpretations are published in specialized
journals and books. Professional interpreters of texts (including plays and poems) are called literary
critics, and the textual analysis they provide is called literary criticism. Their writing may be a review, so it
is necessarily negative or corrective, or positive. However, there are other literary critics who do not
provide just a thumbs up or thumbs down critique, they ask hard analytical questions and interpret plays
through a wide variety of social and cultural perspectives. You must use the work of others to help clarify
the meaning of the play you choose. It is usually best to do your own analysis of the play before consulting
what other critics have said.
Sample Solution
