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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.