How to Read Like a Literature Professor

1. How to Read Like a Literature Professor ( hope you read your 9th grade literature)

2. 1. The Quest • A quest consists of : • a knight- A quester • a dangerous road – a place to go • A Holy Grail – a stated reason to go there • at least one dragon- challenges and trials en route • one evil knight- challenges and trials • one princess- real reason to go there

3. 1. Every Trip is a quest • the individual doesn’t necessarily know he’s on a quest • he goes somewhere and does something • the real reason for the quest never involves the stated reason • The quest is educational • The real reason for a quest is always self knowledge!!!!!!!!

4. 2. Acts of Communion • Whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion. • nearly every religion has some liturgical or social ritual involving the coming together of the faithful to share sustenance • not all communions are holy, some are just the opposite • In the real world, the breaking of bread is an act of sharing and peace. If you’re breaking bread- you’re not breaking heads.

5. 2. Acts of Communion • generally, eating with another is a way of saying, “I’m with you, I like you, we form a community together” • In literature- writing a meal scene is so difficult that the author needs a really compelling reason to do it. • He does it to show whether the characters get along or NOT. • a failed meal is a bad sign

6. 3. Acts of Vampires • Vampirism isn’t about vampires • It’s about selfishness, exploitation, refusal to respect the autonomy of other people, and sex/sexuality • Victorian’s could not write about sex and sexuality, so they found ways of transforming these taboo subjects and issues into other forms. (The Victorians weremasters of sublimation) • Writers still use ghosts, vampires, werewolves and other scary things to symbolize aspects of our more common reality. • Ghosts and vampires are never only about ghosts and vampires • Ghosts and vampires do not necessarily look like ghosts and vampires.

7. 3. Acts of Vampires • an older figure representing corrupt, outworn values; a young, usually virginal female; a stripping away of her youth, energy, vitality; a continuance of a the life force of the old male; the death or destruction of a young woman. • the cannibal, vampire, succubus, spook etc is seen where someone grows in strength by weakening someone else. • Bottom line: vampires are those who grow in strength by weakening others. • Use adjective form! Vampiristic

8. 4. If it’s square, it’s a sonnet no other poem is so versatile, so ubiquitous, so various, so perfectly short as a sonnet the miracle of the sonnet is that it is 14 lines long and almost always written in iambic pentameter A Shakespearean sonnet tends to divide up this way. first 4 lines (quatrain,) • second 4 lines ( quatrain) • third 4 lines ( quatrain) • last 2 lines (couplet) • The groups have meaning. • Form matters. Pay attention. • sonnets are short poems that take far more time to write, because everything has to be perfect

9. 5. De ja vu • Recognizing a pattern in literature, movies etc • This takes a whole lot of it is practice. • If you read enough and give what you read thought, you begin to see patterns, archetypes, and recurrences. • There is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature • The dialog between old texts and new texts is always going on at one level or another. • Critics speak of this dialog as intertextuality

10. 5. De ja vu • Recognizing the allusions, references, parallels , & analogies, will increase your understanding of the novel • It will becomes more meaningful and complex • all literature grows out of other literature • Beginner readers (YOU) are disadvantaged because you have not read enough/learned enough • I’ll point you in the right direction & give you the skills but will NOT GIVE YOU THE ANSWER  

11. 6. When in doubt…it’s from Shakespeare • You would be amazed at the dominance of the Bard. He is everywhere. • In Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations Shakespeare takes up 47 pages • Why quote the Bard? • you sound smarter • you sound well educated • provides a kind of authority • Shakespeare is sacred- because there is beauty and truth in his words, scenes and lines. • “No, ‘tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but ‘tis enough, ‘twill serve.” 

12. 7…or maybe the Bible • gardens, serpents, plagues, flood, parting of waters, loaves, fish, 40 days, betrayal, denial, slavery and escape, fatted calves, milk and honey, etc • The devil can quote scripture- so can writers. • Even those who aren’t religious or who don’t live within the Judeo-Christian tradition may work something in from Job or Matthew or Psalms. • Every story about the loss of innocence is really about someone’s private reenactment of the fall from grace, since we experience it no collectively but individually and subjectively

13. 7…or maybe the Bible • Loss of innocence stories hit hard because they are so final. There’s no going back. • If there is a biblical title- it’s important • Poetry is full of obvious scripture • Early English literature is frequently about and informed by religion • Other religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam etc are also used in literature.

14. 7…or maybe the Bible • In modern literature, many Christ figures do not act very Christ like. • If a character/place has a biblical name – there’s a reason. • Why so many biblical allusions? • Most of the great tribulations to which human beings are subject are detailed in Scripture

15. 8. Hanseldee & Greteldum • Writers like to borrow from other traditional works. • Who does everyone know? Children literature and Fairy tales • there is a lack of ambiguity in them • the one with the most drawing power is “Hansel and Gretel”

16. 8. Hanseldee & Greteldum • elements of H and G • sense of lostness • children ( not always) far from home • crisis not of their making • temptation • having to fend for themselves • some fairytales are turned up side down • whole story isn’t always used, the details and patterns are what trigger your memories/reactions • plan on irony

17. 9. It’s Greek to me • So far...3 myths; Shakespearean, biblical, folk/fairy tale. • Biblical myth covers the greatest range of human situations.  • Myth in general is a story to explain ourselves in ways that physics, philosophy, mathematics, and chemistry can’t. • Myth is a body of story that matters • Greek mythological characters are not stiff and artificial . • They are not saints. They make mistakes. They are petty, envious, lustful, greedy, courageous, elegant, powerful, knowledgeable, profound.

18. 9. It’s Greek to me • Ex. In The Iliad, it’s the story of a man who goes berserk because his stolen war bride is confiscated, acted out against a background of wholesale slaughter, the whole of which is taking place because another man, Menelaus, has had his wife stolen by Paris. • Petty? You bet. Noble? • Yet the story epitomizes heroism, loyalty, sacrifice and loss.

19. 9. It’s all Greek to me • The 4 great struggles of the Homer novels • The need to protect one’s family (Hector) • The need to maintain ones’ dignity ( Achilles) • The determination to remain faithful and have faith (Penelope) • The struggle to return home (Odysseus) There is no form of dysfunctional family or no personal disintegration of character for which there is NOT a Greek or Roman model

20. 10. It’s more than just rain or snow 1. It’s never just rain. It is symbolic of something. • (Drowning is one of our deepest fears, so rain prompts ancestral memories of the most profound sort) 2. It’s a plot devise.

21. 10. It’s more than just rain or snow • if you want a character to be cleansed, symbolically, let him walk through rain to get somewhere. • If he falls down, he’ll be covered in mud and therefore more stained than before • Rain can be restorative • Rain can act as the agent of a new life • Rain is the principal element of Spring. Spring is symbolic • Rain mixes with sun to create rainbows. God promised Noah with the rainbow never again to flood the whole earth

22. 10. It’s more than just rain or snow • fog almost always signals some sort of confusion • authors use fog to suggest that people can’t see clearly ( philosophically or emotionally) 

23. 11. It’s more than just violence • Real violence is one of the most personal and intimate acts between human beings, but it can be cultural and societal in its implications. • In literature it can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romanic, allegorical, transcendent

24. 11. It’s more than just violence • Violence in literature is usually also something else. A punch in the nose may be a metaphor. • Violence is everywhere in literature. • It’s impossible to generalize about the meaning violence

25. 11. It’s more than just violence • Ask the following questions • What does this represent thematically? • What famous or mythic death does this resemble? • Why this particular violence and not another?

26. 12. Is that a symbol? Yes it is!!! • The problem with symbols? • Symbols generally cannot be reduced to standing for just one thing. • if a symbol can stand for one thing is not a symbol- it’s an metaphor • Symbols are not reducible to a single meaning

27. 12. Is that a symbol? • Symbols are not reducible to a single statement, but involve a range of possible meanings and interpretations. • Why? • we each bring our individual history to our reading ( like education, gender, race, class, faith, social involvement) • symbols are not necessarily objects or images, they can be actions • the more you exercise symbolic imagination, the better and quicker it works

28. 13. It’s all political • Political writing does not age well • but it engages in the reality of its world. • nearly all writing is political on some level • the political reality of the time deals with issues like • power structures • relations between classes • issues of justice and social rights • interactions between sexes • interactions between various racial , social , and ethnic groups • knowing something about the social and political milieu can help you understand the work

29. 14. Yes, She’s a Christ figure too • Culture is so influenced by its dominant religious systems that they naturally inform the literary work. • religion can show up in the form of allusions • Knowing other religions will help you appreciate other religious allusions/ references of other authors.

30. 14. Yes, She’s a Christ figure too • You might be a Christ figure if: • crucified; agony; self sacrificing; good with children; good with loaves, fish, water wine; 33 yrs of age when last seen; employed as carpenter; portrayed with arms outstretched; spends time alone in wilderness; had confrontation with Satan; creator of aphorisms and parables; buried, but came back on 3rd day; had 12 disciples; very forgiving; came to redeem an unworthy world

31. 14. Yes, She’s a Christ figure too • Religious knowledge is helpful to read analytically, but if held to tightly can be a problem. • no literary figure is as perfect as Christ • the author is making a point

32. 15. Flying • in general, flying is freedom; freedom not only from specific circumstances but from those more general burdens that tie us down • flight is freedom • falling from vast heights and surviving is miraculous and symbolically meaningful as the act of flight itself • the notion that the disembodied soul is capable of flight is deeply imbedded in Christian tradition

33. The next one is the one you have all been waiting for…

34. 16. It’s all about sex…….except… • sex doesn’t have to look like sex. • other objects and activities can be symbolic of sex • why? • it’s encoded for younger audiences ( in Victorian novels) • Sometimes it’s encoded rather than explicit because it can work at multiple levels and be more intense than the literal depictions. • these levels protect the innocent

35. 17.Except sex ( huh??) • Usually when writers are writing about sex, they are really writing about something else. • When writers are writing about other things, they really mean sex, • and when they are writing about sex they really mean other things. Huh?

36. 17. Except sex ( huh??) • if you write about sex for sex, its called pornography • ( we DO NOT READ this)

37. 17. Except sex ( huh??) • What would they be writing about? • pleasure • sacrifice • submission • rebellion • resignation • supplication • domination • enlightenment • etc

38. 18. Baptism • Ever notice how many literary characters get wet? • It is symbolic. • Did the character: get pushed, pulled, dragged, tripped etc.? • Did the character: get rescued, grab some driftwood, rise up and walk. Each would mean something different on a symbolic level • Is he reborn? • See it in symbolic terms • Remember in baptism, you have to be ready to receive it.

39. 18. Baptism • rebirths/baptisms have a lot of common themes, but drowning is serving its own purpose ( character revelation, thematic development of violence or failure or guilt, plot complication or denouement ( final outcome of the main dramatic complication in literary work) • when your character goes underwater look for the symbolism

40. 19. Geography matters • It means something when the landscape in the novel is high, low, steep, shallow, flat ,sunken. • Why did this character die on a mountain , and this one on the savanna? • What’s geography? rivers, hills, buttes, steppes, glaciers, swamps, mountains, prairies, chasms, seas, islands, people

41. 19. Geography matters • geography is setting – but it can also be psychological, attitude, finance, industry • geography can define or even develop character • there is rebirth when there is a renaming • when writers send characters south- it’s so they can run amok ( wild) • this running south is because they are having direct, raw encounters with the subconscious

42. 19. Geography matters • geography also becomes a way which the writer can express theme • Hills and valleys have their own logic • low: swamps, crowds, fog, darkness, fields, heat, unpleasantness, people, life, death • high; snow, ice, purity, thin air, clear view, isolation, life, death

43. 20. Season matters • summer is passion and love • winter is anger and hatred • seasons stand for a set of meanings • spring- childhood and youth • summer- adulthood, romance, fulfillment & passion • fall- decline, middle age, tiredness, harvest • winter- old age, resentment death

44. 20. Season matters • use these as guidelines • see patterns that can be straightforward, ironic or subversive • Christian season biggies are Easter and Christmas- which coincide with seasonal anxiety • Christmas( winter) is dismal and we wait for spring • Easter ( spring) rebirth( resurrection) planting • Pay attention to the season

45. 21. Marked for Greatness • characters can be as famous for their shape as for their behavior • their shapes/marks tell us something, about themselves or other people in the story • understand physical imperfection in symbolic terms

46. 21. Marked for Greatness • physical imperfections can be symbolic of moral, spiritual and/or psychological dysfunctions • character markings stand as indicators of the damage life inflicts • physical markings by their very nature call attention to themselves and signify some psychological or thematic point the writer wants to make

47. 22. He’s blind for a reason you know • There are a lot of things that have to happen when a writer introduces a blind character into a story, and even more so for a play • Something important must be at stake when blindness comes up. • The author wants to emphasize other levels of sight and blindness beyond the physical

48. 22. He’s blind for a reason you know • as soon as we notice blindness and sight as thematic components of a work, more and more related images and phrases emerge in the text • when literal blindness, sight, darkness and light are introduced into a story, it is nearly always the case that figurative seeing and blindness are at work 

49. 23. It’s never just heart disease • In literature there is no better, no more lyrical, nor more perfectly metaphorical illness than heart disease. • the heart is the symbolic repository ( place) of emotion • the writer can use heart ailments as a kind of shorthand for the character, or it can be used as metaphor. • Metaphor for what? • bad love, loneliness, cruelty, pederasty, disloyalty, cowardice, lack of determination 

50. 24. ..and rarely just illness • Not all diseases are create equal • it should be picturesque • it should be mysterious in origin • it should have strong symbolic or metaphorical possibilities • Example: Tuberculosis is a wasting disease. So many characters contract tuberculosis either because the writer themselves had it, or many of their friends, etc