Advice Needed: English teachers, how can we make Literature class make sense to students like me?

I am a rising senior in high school and straight A student who very much enjoys writing, but I dread literary analysis. When we get to write papers about politics and history and issues that feel real I thrive and actually love English class, but that's not the heart of English class. The heart is literary analysis, which feels like I am just trying to make up meaning in books that were meant to just be enjoyed. I know a lot of other people feel this way, that literary analysis is BS, but it obviously can't be if some people devote their lives to it. I don't understand at all how I'm supposed to read literature analytically. I don't have an eye for the patterns and subtleties I'm supposed to analyze. In nonfiction, writers tend to be pretty clear about what their purpose is and so it's easier to spot patterns because I actually know what to look for. Reading fiction analytically is stumbling in the dark for me. To be able to get good grades in literature anyways, I often make up a purpose and then cherry-pick evidence to suit it instead of really understanding the text. I am taking AP Literature next year and I know this isn't going to cut it anymore.

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Teachers, what strategies do you use to make students see literature class isn't BS? How do you train a literary eye into a student? I just don't want next year to be a horrible slog.

Submitted June 02, 2019 at 10:24AM by ScanVisor http://bit.ly/2WfYRua