Literary Analysis and the Socratic Discussion

The esteemed cognitive scientist John Vervaeke says that modern people know where to search for knowledge, but they have no idea where to look for wisdom. Unlike knowledge, wisdom can’t be found on page one of a Google search. Instead, it comes through the careful examination of human experience. Luckily for us, we all have access to a great library of human experience: classic literature.
 
Classic books stay with us because they illuminate some aspect of human life in a powerful and immediate way, imprinting themselves on readers. In our online literature classes, students often speak of the fear, joy, and sadness that great books evoke. That human experience is the gateway to wisdom.
 
But to walk through the gate, students have to do more than experience great literature. They have to analyze it.
 
The Socratic Method and Literary Analysis
 
Literary analysis can sound intimidating, but it does not have to be. At its core, literary analysis is about active engagement with a story. Rather than passively receiving the book, the literary analyst reaches a deeper understanding by asking questions.
 
For example, we often open our online literature classes by asking students a set of related questions:

1. How did this part of the book make you feel?
2. Why did it make you feel that way?
3. What literary devices did the author use to evoke that experience?
4. How does this part of the book relate to the rest of the story?
5. Can we learn anything about the big ideas of the book by focusing on this section?

 
The first question asks students to recall the experience of reading the book. Yet experience alone is not enough. To understand the text, students have to interrogate their experience. This is what the great philosopher Socrates was getting at when he said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates’ method of teaching challenged students to contemplate their experience in order to grow in wisdom.
 
Learning Through the Socratic Discussion
 
For Socrates, the ultimate goal of education was not knowledge, but wisdom. And although he features prominently in many books, Socrates never wrote anything himself. Instead of writing, Socrates’ method was focused on discussion.
 
By inviting his students to search for the truth in an open dialog, Socrates created a new intellectual tradition, which we now call the Socratic Method. In the Socratic Method, people learn because they share a love of friendship and wisdom. This shared foundation, which the Greeks called philia-sophia, makes it possible for students to question and challenge one another without fear of causing offense. As they struggle to respond to their discussion partners, students learn more than they ever could on their own.
 
This is why the Socratic discussion is a natural complement to literary analysis. Everyone is capable of analyzing a book on their own, but no one can replicate the experience of a live discussion.