How to Read Literature Like a Professor Review

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 older figure= corrupt, outdated values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

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