SESSION 16All Domains · Lit & HumanitiesHandout

Literature & Humanities

Fiction, poetry, speeches, and philosophical prose ask a different question than science does: not "what does the data show?" but "what is the author doing, and how do they feel about it?" This session trains the ear for tone, perspective, and implication.

Objectives

By the end of this session

  • Identify narrative perspective, tone, and implied emotion in literary passages.
  • Read historical and philosophical sources for their rhetorical strategy.
  • Apply word-in-context and inference skills to figurative, ambiguous language.
  • Separate what a narrator says from what the passage implies.
Perspective

Who is telling it?

First person

"I", "we"

A narrator inside the story. Their view is limited and may be biased — watch for what they can't see.

Third limited

"he/she", one mind

Outside the story but anchored to one character's thoughts. We know what that one person knows.

Omniscient

"he/she", all minds

An all-seeing narrator who can enter any character's thoughts and judge the whole scene.

The says-vs-implies trapA first-person narrator can be wrong. When a question asks what the passage suggests, the answer may be something the narrator doesn't realize about themselves.
Tone vocabulary

Name the feeling precisely

Wrong answers are often the right direction but the wrong degree. Build a precise vocabulary so "critical" can be told from "scathing," and "fond" from "reverent."

wistfulnostalgicreverentambivalentwryironicresignedindignantscathingdetachedearnestskepticaldefiantmelancholyguardedtendercontemptuousbemusedsolemnbuoyantcautiousurgentmeasuredcandidsardonichopefulsomberadmiringuneasymatter-of-fact
Rhetorical documents

Speeches & arguments: read for strategy

Find the claim and the audience

What is the speaker trying to get this specific audience to believe or do? Everything else serves that.

Track the moves, not just the meaning

Note the rhetorical work: conceding a point, anticipating an objection, appealing to shared values, shifting from problem to solution.

Match function questions to the move

"The author does X in order to…" is asking which move a sentence performs — set up a contrast, qualify a claim, build to the appeal.

Worked examples

See it run

Fiction · tone & implication
"It's a fine inheritance," Marcus said, surveying the sagging roof, the garden gone to nettles, the gate hanging by one hinge. He had not stopped smiling since the lawyer read the will.
What does the passage most strongly suggest about Marcus's attitude?
  1. He is genuinely delighted by the value of the property.
  2. He is amused by the gap between the word "fine" and the ruin before him.
  3. He is grieving the relative who died.
  4. He plans to repair the house immediately.
WhyThe decay piled up against "a fine inheritance," plus the persistent smile, signals irony — he's wryly amused, not sincere. A takes him literally; C and D are Outside Passage.
Historical speech · rhetorical function
"I will not pretend the road is short. It is long, and some among us will not reach its end. I tell you this not to dishearten you, but because a promise of ease would be a promise I could not keep — and you have had enough of those."
What is the main rhetorical function of the final clause ("and you have had enough of those")?
  1. To build trust by contrasting the speaker's honesty with past false promises.
  2. To list the hardships the audience will face.
  3. To apologize for the length of the speech.
  4. To describe the geography of the road.
WhyThe clause justifies the speaker's bluntness as integrity, setting it against the "promises of ease" the audience has been given before — a trust-building move. The others mistake the literal words for the function.
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