Questions to Consider while Reading This set of questions applies to everything well read.

These questions will come up frequently in discussion, but I also encourage you to use them as you read at home. By the end of the course, asking these questions should be second nature to you. Whats the official narrative here? What explicit messages is this writer trying to send? What/who does the official narrative omit, exclude, or ignore? What is the intended purpose of this narrative? Who is the intended audience of this narrative? What relationship does the writer hold to the intended audience? What implicit or unintended messages might this narrative sendespecially to audiences other than its intended audience? What critiques might different groups of people offer to this narrative? How might individual identity formation relate to national identity formation in this text? What contemporary cultural or literary moments connect to this text? At what moments does this narrative seem most sure of itself? Why? At what moments does something in this textcharacter, structure, message seem to break down? Why? What is this text trying to hide or repress? What anxieties or fears might be latent in this narrative? Whats gothic about this text? What does it mean to be American in this narrative? What does it mean to be un-American in this narrative?