Description For over fifty years, Oral Interpretation has successfully prepared students to analyze and perform literature through an accessible, step-by-step process. The authors classic commitment to helping students understand literature then to embody and evoke the work has been refined to offer students a more concise, user-friendly process that will help them succeed in their daunting first performance. Updated with a tightly edited collection of classic and contemporary selections, each chapter provides a wide variety of selections for students at all levels. Chapters devoted to each genre---narrative, poetry, drama, group performance¿explore the unique challenges of each form while newly revised chapters on Using the Body and Using the Voice in performance introduce students to technical exercises to promote performance flexibility. Features Thoughtful discussion questions at the end of each chapter promote student analysis and encourage discussion among the audience. A variety of technical exercises in each chapter help prepare the student when selecting and performing their piece, as well as in evaluating their audience. Collection of selections within the text---tested by students across the country–follows each chapter and provides students with a variety of options and allows all members of the class to engage in post-performance discussion. New to this Edition Revised and updated Chapter 1 introduces students to the concept of performance and the ways in which literature responds to the pressure of performance. Revised and updated Chapter 2 offers a more concise and user-friendly presentation of the step-by-step process that includes 1) analysis of the text to determine what they must perform and 2) rehearsing performance choices (for body and voice) that will convey to the audience what has been leaned about the selected piece. New selections of literature throughout each chapter provide students with modern choices and challenges that accompany performance of these pieces while offering the most current profile of performance opportunities today. Table of Contents Part One ¿ Basic Principles Chapter One ¿ A Beginning and an End Chapter Two ¿ Analyzing the Selection Chapter Three ¿ Voice Development for Oral Interpretation Chapter Four ¿ Use of the Body in Oral Interpretation Part Two ¿ Interpretation of Prose Chapter Five ¿ Style and Types in Fiction and Nonfiction Chapter Six ¿ Narration Part 3 ¿ Interpretation of Drama Chapter Seven ¿ Solo Performance of Drama Chapter Eight ¿ Technique in Drama Part Four ¿ Interpretation of Poetry Chapter Nine ¿ Language of Poetry Chapter Ten ¿ Structure of Poetry Part Five ¿ Group Performance Chapter Eleven ¿ Group Performance of Literature Appendix A ¿ Building and Presenting a Program Appendix B ¿ A Brief History of Theories of Interpretation Author Timothy Gura, Brooklyn College Charlotte Lee