Explication

 

According to dictionary to explicate is to “explain something: to explain something, especially a literary text, in a detailed and formal way.”^[1] An explication is the noun form of that word and is therefore the document or speech that communicates the explanation.

 

Ryken gives a good outline for an explication in chapter nine of his book Words of Delight.  He also gives examples of the explication of several Psalms namely numbers 1, 97, 90 and 32. What follows is a more formal outline of what he presents in that chapter. When you write an explication, you can use this outline.

 

I.       Genre and Implied Situation

A.     What type of writing is this? Be as specific as possible.

B.     Under what conditions was it written? How might this have affected the author feeling and expression?

II.     The Intellectual Core

A.     What is the topic of the passage? You should be able to reduce it to a single noun phrase.

B.     What does the writer assert about the topic? That is to say, what is theme?

III.  Structure and Unity

A.     A passage of good writing has a unity. This unity is often found in its structure.

B.     Here are some possible structures.

1.            Descriptive – details about a person or scene.

2.            Expository e – a sequence of emotions or ideas.

3.            Narrative – a sequence of events.

4.            Dramatic – an address by a speaker to a listener.

5.            Repetitive –same principle said different ways

6.            Logical – series of statements with explicit logical connections.

7.            Catalog –a list of various aspects.

8.            Psychological – what happening in the mind of the speaker

9.            Contrast – a series of contrasts. These may be nested.

10.       Unifying image – developed around a metaphor or simile,

IV. Poetic Texture

A.     Talks about the actual words used to facilitate the transfer of meaning and emotion.

B.     Generally done by going sequentially through the passage.

C.    Some possible areas for comment

1.            How does the choice of words enhance the passage?

2.            Which figures of speech were most effectively used?

3.            What shades of meaning were used to good effect?

V.   Artistry

A.     End with comments about the feeling produced by the whole passage.

B.     The material here is not technical.

C.    One’s personal response to the passage is appropriate here.

 

Other Resources

http://www.transy.edu/homepages/english/explic.htm is an excellent explanation of explication.

 

http://www.geocities.com/lrampey/2131/explicate.htm has an example of a very poor and a very good explication. Both of these are tiny, but so was the subject passage. The big point here is that an explication is not a summary of the passage nor general comments about the author and the work. It is an extremely carefully written piece about what the author, of the passage being explicated, did to achieve the desired effect.