How to Read Literature Like a Professor

How to Read Literature Like a Professor • Thomas C. Foster

Introduction • 3 items separate the professorial reader. • memory: Where have I seen this before? (situation, character, theme, etc.) • symbol: What does it mean? • pattern: Look beyond the details to find the patterns, routines, and archetypes behind them.

Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not) • Elements of a quest: • a quester • a place to go • a stated reason to go there • challenges and trials on the way • a real reason to go there (which is usually self knowledge)

Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion • Whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion (not necessarily religious). • Allows those involved to find a common experience • Good meal = sign of good things; builds community and understanding

Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires • 1. Ghosts and vampires are never ONLY about ghosts and vampires. • 2. Vampire stories have an older, corrupt figure destroying a young, virtuous female; may or may not be literal. Really about someone growing in strength by weakening someone else through exploitation and selfishness.

If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet • A sonnet is 14 lines, usually 10 syllables per line in iambic pentameter. • Usually has a shift after the 8th line. • English (aka Shakespearean or Elizabethan) - 3 quatrains (4 lines each) followed by a couplet (2 lines). Rhyme scheme is usually abab cdcd efef gg.

Italian (aka Petrarchan) - an octave (8 lines) followed by a sestet (6 lines). Usual rhyme scheme abbaabba cdcdcd or abbaabba cdecde. • Most have a clear rhyme scheme; some are “blank” (unrhymed) • Sentences are as important as lines and stanzas, so watch punctuation.

In fixed-form poetry, the length and pattern of the poem are prescribed. Types include sonnet, villanelle, and limerick. • A villanelle is a 19 line poem with 5 tercets (3 line stanzas) rhyming aba followed by a quatrain (4 line stanza) rhyming abaa, with lines 1 and 3 of the first tercet serving as a refrain alternating through line 15 and then repeating in lines 18 & 19.

Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before? • “There’s no such thing as a wholly original work of literature;” “there’s only one story.” • All literature grows out of previous literature. • Intertextuality is “the ongoing interaction between poems and stories.” “...newer works are having a dialogue with older ones.”

When in Doubt, It’s from Shakespeare... • Many of Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted for the movies and theater, some faithfully and others creatively. • His lines appear over and over, even today. • Its ubiquity over the centuries gives it authority.

...or the Bible • Titles, situations, quotations, and character names are often taken from the Bible • Every writer prior to mid-20th century was solidly instructed in religion • Uses of religion may be straight or ironic (latter often offensive or humorous)

If something in a story seems to resonate beyond the text, look for allusions. • Most of man’s great tribulations are in the Bible. • Relating to the Bible makes a story timeless or archetypal • Loss of innocence in stories = the Fall of Adam and Eve

Hanseldee and Greteldum • Where can writers borrow from? The “literary canon”? (an unofficial list of master works-usually literature taught at college) • Many writers borrow from children’s literature because of its universal appeal. • Late 20th century, Hansel and Gretel very popular (children lost and far from home).

May just use some-or even one-part of the “prior text” for reference (for example, breadcrumbs) • Often used ironically (the new story does not go where the “prior text” did or where we expect it to) • Reader should ask WHY the writer USED THIS or DID THIS.

It’s Greek to Me • Myth - a body of story that matters. • Artists reach back for stories that matter to them and their community - their myths. • Myths of Greece and Rome ingrained in us and in our communities. • Literature can overtly use classical myths or create parallel situations (for both serious and ironic effect).

It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow • Weather is never just weather. • Rain can be the big destroyer or allow a brand-new start (as in Noah and the Flood) • Weather may also be used as a plot device or to create atmosphere and mood; it’s democratic. • Rain + sun = rainbow, symbol of divine promise. • Authors use fog to signal confusion. • Snow runs the range from purifying to deadly.

...More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence • In the real world, violence is just aggression. In literature, it is usually also something more. • Two types: violence of character on character, and narrative violence that harms characters in general. • We sense the “weight” of violence more when something is happening below the surface. Sex, class warfare, racism, slavery, etc.

Accidents in literature aren’t really accidents. • Usually more than one meaning for violence, such as psychological dilemmas, spiritual crises, historical or social or political concerns.

Is That a Symbol? • You cannot assume a symbol can only mean one thing. If it does, it’s allegory, as in Pilgrim’s Progress or Animal Farm. • Symbols have a range of possible meanings and interpretations, which are influenced by our own background and experience. • Symbols may be events or actions as well as objects and images. • Pay attention to how a text makes you feel--then think about how and why the author is doing this.

It’s All Political • Political writing often fits a particular situation or setting and does not transfer well. • “Political” writing that addresses realities of its world, such as rights of humans or abuses of power, may be compelling.

Dickens - a social critic whose Scrooge is representative of us and of society that needs to be changed. • D.H. Lawrence - radical individualism in conflict with established institutions. • Poe - critical of European nobility (shows its atmosphere as corrupt and decaying) • Sophocles - Oedipus at Colonus written at end of life - commentary on decline of Athens

Yes, She’s a Christ-Figure, Too • “Culture is so influenced by its dominant religious systems that whether a writer adheres to the beliefs or not, the values and principles of these religions will inevitably inform the literary work.” • Christ figures are where you find them - if the indicators are there, then there is some basis for drawing the conclusion. • Christ figures there for the author to make a point.

Flights of Fancy • Humans can’t fly, but we dream of it. • What does it mean when literary characters fly? Flight is freedom, but irony trumps everything. • Act of falling from vast heights and surviving is as meaningful as the act of flight itself.

What does it mean to survive certain death, and how does such survival alter one’s relation to the world? • Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - the protagonist, Stephen, must free his spirit to become an artist. • Soul or spirit may take flight - or be unable to do so.

It’s All About Sex... • Sex doesn’t have to look like sex: other objects and activities can stand in for sex organs and sex acts. • Sexual symbolism goes way back - found in grail stories • Scenes in which sex is coded rather than explicit can work at multiple levels and be more intense than literal depictions (multiple levels also protect innocents).

...Except Sex • Usually when writers deal with sex, they avoid writing about the act itself. • Sometimes sex in literature is tied to something creepy, depraved (A Clockwork Orange), or evil (Lolita). • Other times, sex is about liberation or power (D.H. Lawrence).

If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism • Heraclitus - “apothegms of change.” One cannot step into the same river twice, because everything is changing at every moment. • Near drowning may equal rebirth. • Rain not enough, must be immersed for baptism, AND must be ready for it. • Baptism - death and rebirth through water. • Drowning may be by accident or by choice.

Geography Matters...So Does Season • Always ask, “Where does the story take place? Why?” • Literary geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces, and vice versa. • Geography can reveal theme, symbol, plot, and especially, character. Geography can even BE character.

When writers send characters south, it’s usually so they can run amok. • Geography may be specific places or types of places. • Seasons are frequently associated with time, emotion, mood, and age.

Season symbolism may be used straight or ironically. • Significance of seasons goes back to ancient Greece (Demeter and Persephone).

Marked for Greatness • A physical mark or imperfection has meaning. • Physical injuries or scars may parallel mental damage, spiritual despair, or the death of hope • Frankenstein’s maker may be the real monster • Includes Faustian deals with the Devil • Physical marks often signify a psychological or thematic point by the author

He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know • A blind character often has levels of “sight” beyond the physical. • “Seeing/not seeing” is often a theme even when actual blindness is not. • If you want the audience to know something important, introduce it early (Indiana Jones and snakes).

It’s Never Just Heart Disease... • Heart ailments may be used as shorthand for character, or as a social metaphor. • Heart trouble usually shows up as heart disease. • Heart is needed for life and also represents emotion.

...And Rarely Just Illness • Paralysis may be both physical and emotional • Not all diseases are equal - prime literary diseases are picturesque, mysterious in origin, and have strong symbolic or metaphoric possibilities. • Illnesses like the plague are communal. • Every age has its special disease (AIDS). • Authors can even make up diseases.

Don’t Read With Your Eyes • Reader’s Perspective Matters: You must allow for historical perspective (look at the writing as if you were reading it when it was written). • The point of the last-chance-for-change story is always, “Can this person be saved?” • Do not have to blindly accept author’s viewpoint if it goes too far (ex. anti-Semitic)

Is He Serious? And Other Ironies • Irony trumps everything (Waiting for Godot) • Irony is a deflection of expectation • Irony here is structural and dramatic rather than verbal. What should happen, doesn’t. • Irony doesn’t work for everyone (some are unable to see its multiplicity).

How to Read Literature Like a Professor