Why must we learn to analyze literature

There r works that can require close analysis in order to glean the meaning of them, & even to help understand the milieu in which they were writ. Notably works that come down to us from past centuries, where the author is writing to point up the issues of his time, or demonstrate a philosophy, Such works yield their valuable insights only to the patient digger these days, because we do not recognize the vernacular, the ''street Talk'' references anymore, or a million other reasons. Surprisingly, the list includes such titles as Alice in Wonderland - Through the Looking Glass, Gulliver is Travels, & some really quite fun to read fantasy writ by Nietzsche, not just the usual school offerings. Many authors had to write in allegory or abstractly, due to the strictures of the times & places in which they had to live. Since they r gone forever save in their works, close analysis is the only way we can recover this knowledge. Of course, the techniques r horrendously misused. Give a child a toy hammer & he will beat anything in sight with it. I have found that a great deal of analytical work on literature to be absurd, a waste of time at best, insulting to the author, the times, the intent of the text, & my intelligence at worst. But It is a tool none the less, & one that can give someone a real edge in say, historical research, their own writing, & generally their ability to read between the lines in things that confront us in media we encounter every day. As the saying goes better to have the tool & not need it, than need it & not have it. If u r going to use a tool at all, it is best to be as practiced with it as u can. Therefore the exercises. Classes that require deeper use of this tech, r generally elective, so u r getting what u paid for.

Well, we don't--they do (ie, perfessers and suchlike folk). As you say, the stuff was meant to be read and enjoyed--and analysis usually detracts from it. So why do they do that?--because (near as I can tell) pomposity is an inborn human trait. Just hang out in a college literature department for any length of time at all and I am pretty sure you will see what I am talking about.

As Joseph Conrad said, ''to expand the mind!''

It gives literature teachers a job.

I fully understand.
I do think literature she be analyzed but more in a discussion type context. I have never seen the point in analyzing & nitpicking everything apart.
I mean, if an author makes a reference to something, then it should be discovered & discussed, because it deepens our appriciation for the author is writing style, & helps us understand his point more fully.

But honestly, picking apart every little bit to see something like how a sentence is constructed & assuming that the author had a deeper meaning for every word is ridiculous. English teachers have driven more students away from wonderful books by not letting them enjoy it is the whole masterpiece it is.

Oh my - this brings me back to my years in school. I remember professors who would used to go through the text & stop at each word asking the deeper meaning - it drove me absolutely mad!

I was never convinced that the author set out a specific meaning in their text unless I read a direct quote from that author saying so. I gave my professors a rough time about it.

At any rate - that belief still sits with me today, to an extent. I will not analyse authors such as James Patterson or Mary Higgins Clark, because the likelihood that they r writing with a deeper meaning is slim.

However, an excellent book to analyse that changed my mind about analysing important texts is Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. No reader could possibly sit down & just read through that novella without analysing the prose - but once u do there is so much there & is abosultely fascinating.

But often - the novels & plays presented to u in school will have a deeper meaning, something that dips below the surface. So we analyse it to see what the author was saying about society (maybe there is a subtle theme about inequality & slavery, but u would never catch it on the surface).

If u read just the surface for books like these, u will miss a lot & most likely be scratching ur head at the end wondering what the point was. So we analyse & take apart literature, in my opinion, to get at the deeper meaning of the text.

I know it can be annoying, but literature is literature because it is not actually literal. Someone can say something or do something in a certain context that can give what they said/did a completely other meaning. As was said before, we analyze literature to find the deeper meaning. It is very interesting finding the reason a writer writes something the way that they did and why.

We analyze in order to see beyond the surface, to understand the complexities literature points to in different aspects of humanity.
Many works of literature were meant to be scrutinized. Works of Toni Morrison, Samuel Beckett, Charles Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe, Kazuo Ishiguro, James Baldwin, and countless more have been carefully written to encompass such levels of symbols, motifs, and metaphorical sense.

because there r also deeper meanings within most of those plays that r intentionally put there. For example, the ancient greek plays emphasizes the values of their society. Today, a lot of literature plays off of the post modern period which emphasizes existentialism & how man should live their lives, either with or without religion, with or without government, end of the world crisis, etc. To be able to take apart literature also gives it more meaning than to just watch it. There is much more involved in saying: I enjoyed this movie because of how the director shot this, & that, than to say: I thought the movie was cool. It is the job of the author to engage the viewers with subtleties that no one will notice until they read between the lines. besides, simplistic books like see spot run is just bland & tasteless, it is time for an upgrade.

So you can have a better understanding of it and hopefully take away more from it.

to prove there is a deeper meaning than what you see at first glance.

it is healthy for your brain, too. good exercises.

just get through the class, get the grade.

and keep reading for your enjoyment : D