"Making the case about what literary works mean, how they came to be, and how they matter (or don't, or should) requires you to read carefully, analyze texts and evaluate sources, and create well-supported arguments... 'Arguing about Literature' will help you learn these skills. It features many real-world arguments (about free speech, for example, and about social media) with instruction on how to analyze those arguments and develop your own arguments in response. Above all it immerses you in great literature, including fiction by Flannery O'Connor and Jamaica Kincaid, poetry by Langston Hughes and Louise Erdrich, drama by William Shakespeare and Lynn Nottage, and essays by Henry David Thoreau and Richard Rodriguez. This is literature worth arguing about, and 'Arguing about Literature' shows you how to do so. It will change how you read, think, and write about literature--and about everything else worth arguing about."--Back cover.