Slide 1

Slide 2

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines Review Chapters 21-26

Slide 3

Interlude One Story Ive mentioned it before and have employed it throughout, so its no very great secret. Moreover, its not my personal invention or discovery, so Im not looking for credit here, but it needs saying again, so here it is: theres only one story (193).

Slide 4

Yestheres only one story according to Foster. He answers the question, Whats it about? Its not about anything. Its about everything. I suppose the one storyis about ourselves, about what it means to be human. I mean, what else is there? (194).

Slide 5

On one level, everyone who writes anything knows that pure originality is impossible. Everywhere you look, the ground is already camped on. Think of it this way: can you use a word no one else has ever used? Can you put together a combination of words that is absolutely unique? Maybe, occasionally, but you cant be sure. So too with stories (195)

Slide 6

Intertextuality & Archetype Those storiesmyth, archetype, religious narrative, the great body of literatureare always with us. Always in us Weas readers or writers, tellers or listeners understand each other because we have access to the same swirl of story (200).

Slide 7

Marked for Greatness Chapter 21 Quasimodo, Frankenstein, Grendel, Oedipus All characters who are as famous for their shape as for their behavior. Their shapes tell us something, and probably very different somethings, about them or other people in the story (201).

Slide 8

Marked for Greatness Chapter 21 physical markings by their very nature call attention to themselves and signify some psychological or thematic point the writer wants to make. [] So if a writer brings up a physical problem or handicap or deficiency, he probably means something by it (208).

Slide 9

Hes Blind for a Reason, You Know Chapter 22 when a writer introduces a blind character into a story... Every move, every statement by or about that character has to accommodate the lack of sight; every other character has to notice, to behave differently Clearly the author wants to emphasize other levels of sight and blindness beyond the physical (210).

Slide 10

Hes Blind for a Reason, You Know Chapter 22 if you want your audience to know something important about your character (or the work at large), introduce it early, before you need it (213).

Slide 11

Its Never Just Heart Diseaseand Rarely Just Illness Chapter 23 In literature, there is no better, no more lyrical, no more perfectly metaphorical illness than heart disease. the heart isthe symbolic repository of emotion (216).

Slide 12

Its Never Just Heart Diseaseand Rarely Just Illness Chapter 23 As a practical matter, then, we readers can play this two ways. If heart trouble shows up in a novel or play, we start looking for its significance, and we usually dont have to hunt too hard. The other way around: if we see that characters have difficulties of the heart, we wont be too surprised when emotional trouble becomes the physical ailment and the cardiac episode begins (220).

Slide 13

Its Never Just Heart Diseaseand Rarely Just Illness Chapter 23 There are certain principles governing the use of disease in works of literature: 1) Not all diseases are created equal. 2) It should be picturesque. 3) It should be mysterious in origin. 4) It should have strong symbolic or metaphorical possibilities. (222-224)

Slide 14

Its Never Just Heart Diseaseand Rarely Just Illness Chapter 23 Real illnesses come with baggage, which can be useful or at least overcome in a novel. A made-up illness, though, can say whatever its maker wants it to say (225).

Slide 15

Dont Read with Your Eyes Chapter 24 Dont read only from your own fixed position try to find a reading perspective that allows for sympathy with the historical moment of the story (234)

Slide 16

Dont Read with Your Eyes Chapter 24 If we read [a] story [that is set in a different time/culture] through the filter of daytime talk shows and social work classes, we not only miss the focus of the story, we misunderstand it at its most basic level (237)

Slide 17

Its My Symbol and Ill Cry if I Want To Chapter 25 One of the things weve been talking about is how we can build a sort of literary database of imagery and its uses What that database relies upon, naturally, is repetition (242)

Slide 18

Its My Symbol and Ill Cry if I Want To Chapter 25 But what about those figurative elements that are not part of the common share?

Slide 19

Its My Symbol and Ill Cry if I Want To Chapter 25 Use the context (245) Use what you know (248) Remember that every work teaches us to read it as we go along (248) And Remember that you know more than you think you do

Slide 20

Chapter 26 Is He Serious? And Other Ironies Irony. Trumps. Everything.

Slide 21

Chapter 26 Is He Serious? And Other Ironies What irony chiefly involves is a deflection from expectation. (257) the dislocation between our expectations and the reality constitutes a dual awareness, a kind of double-hearing that is the hallmark of irony (259)

Slide 22

Summer Read Assignment Find and describe one ironic scene, symbol, or turn of phrase in your summer reading novel. Briefly describe this element, and then write a paragraph on how the irony functions, and how it serves the authors overall purpose. Due next class.