How to Read Literature like a Professor FULL

How'd He Do That

Literary work have a particular grammer which is a "set of conventions and patterns, codes and rules" found in literature

It determends the set up and meaning of a literary work.

Three items are particualry evident to professors..

Memory-they can easily recall a similar event/idea/topic brought up in a different literary work

Pattern- they are able to step back from the plot and characters to notice common patterns found in the writing

Symbol-everything is a symbol unless proven otherwise

Every Trip is a Quest (Except When it's Not)

No matter how small or seemingly insignificant, every trip becomes an important quest for the protagonist.

A quest consists of

1) A Quester

2) A place to go

3) A stated reason to go there

4) Challeneges and trials en route

5) A real reason to go there

Ususally the "quester" fails at the stated task but they always gain one thing, self-knowledge.

Nice to Eat with You: Act of Communion

Though communion usually has a religious connotation to it, in literaturer whenever people eat or drink together it is considered communion.

People need food to survive and sharing a meal is a way of bringing people together, but when a meal ends badly it shows tentions and negativity.

Nice to Eat You: Act of Vampires

Vampirism can be about selfishness, exploitation, or even a refusal to respect the autonomy of other people.

Ghosts and vampires never represent ghosts and vampires, instead scary things symboliz various aspects of our more common reality.

Novels depict people's willingness to fight for their desires at any cost no matter how selfish it may actually be.

Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?

Though some people have a natural ability to pin point hidden secrets in literature, most people just need a little practice.

Stories do not just come out of nowhere and though it may be done unintentionally, writers use prior literary workes to create their own.

Foster believes that there is only on story in the world, one that all works are apart.

When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare

Shakespeare's writing has greatly influenced the writing of millions of writers of the world. If one reads anything it probably can be traced back to something written by Shakespeare. Even many of the common phares that one may come across can be traced back to him such as, "Double, double, toil and trouble..."

...Or the Bible

Similar to Shakespeare, writers commonly refrence the bible. The bible, like Shakespeare, is easily identifiable even by people who have not read ether.

Hanseldee and Greteldum

Metonymy is using something to name another thing thats closely related.

Often times writers subtly refrence ideas protrayed in fairy tales and folklores, giving readers some familirity.

It's Greek to Me

Myth provides a work of literature a structure of sorts, but the range of different myths known by different people can give individuals different perspectivies. Since Greek mythology is most commonly known, many times writers refrence the old myths.

It More Than Just Rain or Snow

Rain NEVER means rain

Rain can be used as a plot device, add dramatic affect to a scene, or even "clense" a character.

Fog decribes uncertainty and hazy thinking.

The weather can represent many things and have ranging symbols.

Never Stand Next to the Hero

LIterature is always based on people; it represents some qualitiy found in people. The protagonist canis needed in the story to continue, but when the author needs someone to cross some lines, they are forced to send the middle man, usually the best friend. Additionally, characters are created on a need to know basis, meaning we only learn details about nonessential characters when and where they are necessary.

Does He Mean That

Everything that the author adds into the story is done intentionally and for a specific reason. Authors get inspred by many things and they take ideas, patterns and symbols from other places and usually when they add something it ususally done on purpose.

...More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concering Violence

In literature, violence is usually a metaphor for something deeper. Violence can be caused by other charaacters like a shooting or poisioning, or it can be completely out of the character's hands like an illness, but the writer always writes something intentionally.

Is That a Symbol

Things can symbolize multiple things. Though most people want symbols to mean one specific thing, but it can actually have numerous meanings based on the opinions of the reader.

It's All Political

Many people use current issues occuring in society as a basis for their writings. Some write about the fight against stability and conformity.

Yes, She's a Christ Figure, Too

Christ like figures can represent sacrifie, redemtion, and hope. Though a character may not have the physical characteristics of Jesus, but they may possess many or some qualities of him.

Flights of Fancy

Humans have always searched for a way to fly because flight represent freedom.

It's All about Sex

Sex is a very imporant aspect of the human life but in literature sex doesn't always look like sex. Some times different things are depicted to represent the act, sexuality, fertility, or other things that add richness and depth to the work.

...Except Sex

Ironically writers describe other things to describe sex, but when they bring up the actual acts it very rarely means actual sex.

If She Comes Up, It's Baptism

Both drowinging and baptism can be a representation of rebirth in which the character wants to do.

"The characters' death are a form of choosing, of exerting control in a society that has taken control from them".

Geography Matters...

Places can represent safety, like the suburbs, or they can represent craziness and wilderness like a jungle. The setting of the story can affect the actions of the character.

Highs and lows (hills an vallys for example) are commonly used by writers to represent different thing ranging fomr purity and clear views to death and unpleasantness

...So Does Season

Spring: childhood, youth

Summer: adulthood, romance, fullfillment, passion

Fall: decline, middleage,tiredness, harvest

Winter: old age, resnetment, death

One Story

Foster believes that there is only one story which is about everything and encompasses all aspects.

Marked For Greatness

Markings and signs can seperate a character from all the others, a clear marking showing that they are different and, in the eyes some, destined to do something important. Physical markings are usually for some psychological or thematic reason.

He's Blind for a Reason, You Know

Blindness is never soley physical in literature. When a writers incorrporates a blind person into the writing it is usually done for a metaphorical purpose. Usually the blind are the ones that are able to see beyond while the others are blinded by the world and unable to see beyond the present situation.

It's Never Just Heart Disease...And Rarely Just Illness

Heart diease in literature is almost lyrical and metaphorical because the heart is the symbolic repository of emotion. When a character dies of heart disease in literature its rarely about the physical illness, its about things like selfishness, cruelty, and faithlessness.Illnesses can be somewhat picturesque, possessig a sort of bizarre beauty.

Don't Read with Your Eyes

As a reader, one has to put aside their differences and attempt to find a perspective inwhich they can attempt to understand the meaning behind actions and take into account the time period and curcumstances in which it was written in.

It's My Symbol and I'll Cry if I Want To

The tiniest things could symbolize something imporant; it can have a completely different meaning and once we understand that meaning we ca uncover and geapple with individual instances.

Is He Serious? And Other Ironies

Irony always trumps everything and it when irony comes into play all common themes are thrown out of the window.

Faustian

done for immediate gain without regard for future consequences; selling one's soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge, power or something desired

Oedipal

referring to a child's positive sexual feelings toward the parent of the opposite sex and the hostility toward the parent of the same sex

Comedic traits

-tragic downfall is threatened but avoided

-hero wrestles with his/her own demons and comes out victorious

Archetypes examples

-Faustian deal with the devil (i.e. trade soul for something he/she wants)

-Spring (i.e. youth, promise, rebirth, renewal, fertility)

What are the parts of a Quest?

1. a quester (i.e. the person on the quest)

2. a destination

3. a stated purpose

4. challenges that must be faced during on the path to the destination

5. a reason for the quester to go to the destination (cannot be wholly metaphorical)

* The motivation for the quest is implicit- the stated reason for going on the journey is

never the real reason for going

*The real reason for ANY quest: self-knowledge

Acts of Communion

Chapter 2: Acts of Communion

Major rule: whenever characters eat or drink together, it's communion!

Communion: key details

1. sharing and peace

2. not always holy

3. personal activity/shared experience

4. indicates how characters are getting along

5. communion enables characters to overcome some kind of internal obstacle

Communion scenes often force/enable reader to empathize with character(s)

Meal/communion= life, mortality

Vampirism

We are attracted to danger

Vampirism: key details

1. older figure violates younger woman

2. "vampire" leaves his mark on the victim

3. vampire steals innocence

4. sexual allure

5. older figure= corrupt, outdated values

6. victim= stripping away of youth, stripping away of energy, stripping away of virtue

7. a continuance of the old "vampire's" life-force

8. the death/destruction of the young victim

Symbolism in Vampirism

Symbolism involved in vampirism

1. selfishness

2. exploitation

3. a refusal to respect other people's independence

Ghosts

Ghosts: key details

1. ghost grows in strength by weakening someone else (holds true of vampires, as well)

Types of exploitation:

denial of someone else's right to live in order to satisfy our own needs/desires

placing one's own desires above someone else's needs

Sonnets

Key details:

1. 14 lines

2. iambic pentameter

3. lines have 10 syllables

4. ten syllables long is about as high as fourteen lines in length; square!

5. two sections, two units of meaning

6. there is always a shift between the two units

7. arranged in lines, written in sentences

Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet details

• First stanza has eight lines and another stanza of six lines

• Rhyme scheme unifies first eight lines and another rhyme scheme unifies the last six

lines

• First eight lines have relate to one idea, last six lines relate to another idea

Shakespearean/English Sonnet details:

• First stanza has four lines, second stanza has four lines, third stanza has four lines,

last two lines are a couplet

• First three stanzas have their own rhyme schemes and the last couplet has its own

Patterns

There's no such thing as a truly original work of literature- everything contains elements

from somewhere else (not that the writer consciously copied the ideas, but the ideas

themselves have become embedded in society's cultural dialogue)

Literally EVERYTHING comes from one particular story. ONE story

Archetype

Archetype= pattern

archetypes gain power with repetition

Intertexuality

ongoing interaction between poems/stories/literary works

Frequently used biblical archetypes

garden

serpent

plague

flood

parting of waters (metaphorical or literal)

loaves

fishes

forty days

betrayal

denial

slavery and escape

fatted calves

milk and honey

tongues of flames

voices from whirlwinds

Apocalypse

four horsemen

fall from grace/loss of innocence

circle of life

the Prodigal Son

tension(s) between brothers

Literary cannon

a master list of important works

metonymy

a word or phrase that is used to stand in for another word. Sometimes a metonymy is chosen because it is a well-known characteristic of the word.

-Crown - in place of a royal person

-The White House - in place of the President or others who work there

-Hand - for help

Common situational archetypes (as found in fairy tales)

1. Lost, young couple

2. Crisis not of their own making

3. Temptation

4. Youngsters must fend for themselves

Why do authors use situational archetypes?

1. To add texture to a tale

2. To emphasize a theme

3. To highlight ironic element

4. To toy with a reader's knowledge of tales

Common types of myths

1. Shakespearean

2. Biblical

3. Folk/Fairy Tales

Fall of Icarus

the youngster who failed to listen to his parent and died as a result

Types of archetypal situations demonstrated by the Icarus myth

1. Parental attempt to save the child

2. Failure of the attempt and the resulting grief

3. Cure that proves as deadly as the disease

4. Youthful exuberance leads to self-destruction

5. The clash between sober, adult wisdom and childhood's recklessness

6. Terror

4 Human struggles (i.e. situational archetypes)

1. The need to protect one's family

2. The need to maintain one's dignity

3. The determination to remain faithful

4. The struggle to return home

Types of conflict

1. man vs. nature

2. man vs. supernatural/divine/fate

3. man vs. man

4. man vs. self

5. man vs. society

Setting & Weather

Setting establishes mood and foreshadows events to come

Weather is always a signal

Rain Functionality

1. plot device- traps characters together or forces them apart

2. atmosphere- mysterious, murky, isolating

3. equalizer- falls on the just and unjust

4. cleansing

5. transforming

6. restorative

7. fertility

Rain symbolism

1. agent of new life and restoration

2. source of illness and death (think pneumonia)

3. replenishment

4. rain connects directly to Spring

Spring symbolism

1. season of renewal

2. season of hope

3. season of new awakening(s)

Rainbow symbolism

1. divine promise

2. peace between heaven and earth

3. stasis between God, humanity and nature

Fog symbolism

1. confusion

2. ethical, mental, physical hurdle to clarity

Symbolism of snow

1. clean

2. stark

3. severe

4. warm (insulation)... paradox

5. inhospitable

6. inviting

7. playful

8. suffocating

9. filthy

10. unifier

Modernism

the era around WWI and WWII in the 20th century

Narrative method

tells the story from a personal p.o.v. (not necessarily first person)

Mythic method

uses established mythology as an outline for stories

Functions of Violence

1. symbolic

2. thematic

3. biblical

4. Shakespearean

5. Romantic

6. allegorical

7. transcendent

Symbolism of violence

1. Violence is always metaphorical

2. Violence may signal that death lurks in every day tasks

3. Violence illustrates the hostile relationship we have with the universe

4. We ultimately face our mortality alone

Types of violence

1. specific injury that authors cause characters to do to themselves or one another

2. narrative violence (i.e. authorial violence) causes general harm to characters

Generally, authorial violence is the death and/or general suffering that authors inject into

their work in order to advance the plot or develop a theme. The characters do nothing

to cause/spur the violence

Why do authors kill characters?

1. spur action

2. cause plot complications

3. end plot complications

4. trigger stress in other characters

allegory

An allegory uses different elements to represent different things. In other words, whereas symbolism usually has one thing representing some idea, an allegory is comprised of a series of symbols that individually represent various ideas

Caves as symbols

1. connection to humanity's most primitive elements

2. security and shelter

3. getting in touch with deepest levels of consciousness

4. the idea that ALL experiences are individualized rather than generalized (everyone

experiences caves somewhat differently)

5. force us into contact with our deepest fears

6. death

7. the great Void

Rivers as symbols

1. death

2. escape

3. danger

4. safety

5. path to maturity

6. division

7. connection

8. corruption of modern life

9. collapse of Western civilization

Mowing (an action) as a symbol

1. cleansing

2. labor

3. solitary nature of life

parable

A parable intends to change the reader and through the reader, to change society

Political issues:

1. power

2. classes (socioeconomic)

3. justice

4. rights

5. gender

6. relationship between gender and race

7. relationship between gender and ethnicity

Generally, political works engage the reality of the world and examine the humanity's problems in the sociopolitical environment

Possible religious principles

1. individual's role in society

2. humanity's relationship with nature

3. involvement of women in public life

Christ archetypal qualities

1. crucifixion (hand, foot, side, head wounds)

2. agony

3. good with children

4. self-sacrificing

5. loaves, fishes, water, wine

6. 33 years old

7. carpentry

8. very basic modes of transportation

9. walking on water

10.outstretched arms

11.time alone in the wilderness

12. tempted by the devil

13. in the company of thieves

14. creator of parables/aphorisms

17. forgiving

Themes associated with Christ figures:

1. triumph over adversity

2. value of hope and faith

3. attainment of grace

Why do writers use Christ-figures?

• to make a point

• to deepen our sense of sacrifice

• relates to hope

• relates to redemption

• relates to miracles

• to make a character look smaller (to be used in an ironic way)

Major flight archetypes in literature:

• Daedalus & Icarus- Daedalus flew too close to the sun and plummeted into the ocean

• flying Africans- Africans flew out of Africa and when they were dropped, they were

dropped into slavery

• Aztecs- Quetzalcoatl was a god with the body of a snake and feathered wings

• Christians- Christ was tempted by flight

What does flight symbolize?

1. Freedom

2. Escape

3. Return home

4. A thriving spirit

5. Love

Sexual symbols

1. lance, keys, swords, gun= penis

2. chalice/holy grail, lock, bowl= vagina

3. waves= sexual intercourse

4. trains entering tunnels= intercourse

5. wrestling= sex act

When writers write about sex, they're really writing about something else

freedom

• individuality

• espionage

• personal sacrifice

• psychological neediness

• desire for power

• fulfillment

• liberation

• failure of liberation

• religious subversion

• artistic subversion

• political subversion

• self-expression

• exertion of control

• birth

• pleasure

• sacrifice

• submission

• resignation

• supplication

• domination

• enlightenment

Possible reasons for drowning:

1. wish fulfillment

2. exorcism of primal fear

3. exploration of the possible

4. handy solution to messy plot trouble

5. control

Meaning of water rescues

1. passivity

2. good fortune

3. indebtedness

4. luck

5. serendipity

6. rebirth

Baptism (i.e. someone goes into the water and comes out alive) Symbolism

1. rebirth

2. pain

3. charge

4. religious association

5. death (not literal)

Purpose of baptism

revelation

• thematic development of violence

• thematic development of failure

• thematic development of guilt

• plot complication

• plot denouement

What should be considered while analyzing the geography of a story?

1. rivers

2. hills

3. valleys

4. buttes

5. steppes

6. glaciers

7. swamps

8. mountains

9. prairies

10.chasms

11. seas

12.islands

13.people

14. economics

15.politics

16.history

17.attitude

18.psychology

19. finance

20.industry

-Geography also takes theme, symbolism, and plot into account

-Geography/setting can foreshadow, set the mood and tone of the piece, developcharacters

-Environment and a character's response to the environment serve as characterization geography must impact behavior in some way

-Generally, when authors send their characters south, it's so they can "run amok".

-Often, they engage in these behaviors because they are having raw, directencounters with the subconscious.

scansion

how the stressed and unstressed syllables function in lines of poetry

Ages and Seasons symbolism

Spring= Childhood and youth

Summer= Adulthood, romance, fulfillment, passion

Fall= Middle age, decline, tiredness, harvest

Winter= Old age, resentment, death

Emotional component to seasons

summer= passion and love

winter= anger and hatred, cynicism, worldly, emotionally reserved, totally dependent on

the opinion of others

spring= youth, freshness, directness, openness, naiveté, flirtation,

fall= exhaustion, reflective, benefitting only from our efforts

Deformity

different, a projection of the perils of man seeking to play God which will ultimately consume the power seeker

Injury

symbolic of the destruction of possibilities, spiritual and physical.

Markings

-Physical qualities, shapes, always tell us something about characters

-In literature, physical deformities mean something thematically, metaphorically, psychologically or spiritually

-Scarred characters may reflect the imperfections of the reader

Blindness

-Blindness is a physical representation of a metaphorical blindness to circumstance

-When literal blindness, sight, darkness and light are introduced into a story, it is usually an indication that metaphorical sight and blindness are at work.

General meanings of heart disease

• bad love

• loneliness

• cruelty

• pederasty

• disloyalty

• cowardice

• lack of determination

• pain

• suffering

• regret

• something amiss at the center of things

Symbolism of the heart

1. loyalty

2. trust

3. courage

4. fidelity

5. honesty

General rules about illnesses

1. Not all diseases are equal. Authors tend to choose diseases that aren't ugly unless that ugliness is part of the message

2. Diseases should be picturesque. Authors often make use of diseases that give their sufferers an ethereal quality

3. Diseases must have strong symbolic or metaphorical possibilities. The type of disease has to speak to the theme or character of the work

Illnesses and their meanings

Tuberculosis: chosen because many authors suffered from the disease themselves or watched friends deteriorate, wasting disease

The Plague: widespread societal devastation

Malaria: bad air signifying malicious gossip, hostile opinion, feverish decisions, overheated state that leads to poor decision making

Smallpox: sign of divine judgement against vanity and/or marital lapse (in certain plots)

AIDS: lies dormant and turns every victim into an unknowing carrier, high mortality rate, disproportionately appears in younger people, devastated people in developing countries, gay community was initially hardest hit, became a symbol of tragedy, despair,courage, resilience, compassion, political angle, religious angle

Fever: represents the randomness of fate, the harshness of life, the unknowability of God

Venereal disease was hidden in other illnesses: signified bad behavior, intergenerational tensions, irresponsibility, misdeeds

eiron

in Greek comedy, the character who seems weak, subservient, ignorant

alazon

in Greek comedy, the character who seems pompous, arrogant, clueless