How to Read Literature Like a Professor 1-11 Already Graded A

How to Read Literature Like a Professor 1-11 Already Graded A Five characteristics of the quest A quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trails en route, and a real reason to go there. Breaking bread together is an act... Of sharing and peace, since if you're breaking bread you're not breaking heads. Why does Foster assert that a meal scene in literature is almost symbolic? Writing this type of scene is so difficult, and so inherently uninteresting. For this reason we, as the audience don't understand there's more meaning behind it. Literature can represent Religion, desire/sexuality, unity, commonality, loyalty, friendship, and a bad sign. What does Foster mean "if it's a square, it's a sonnet"? A sonnet has 14 lines and most lines are going to have 10 syllables and the others will be very close to 10. Also, 10 syllables in English are about as long as 10 lines are high: square (14 lines of an iambic pentameter have almost the same height and width). What are some ways in which a poet works his magic on you? Choice of images, music of the language, idea content, cleverness of wordplay, and sometimes form. Petrarchan sonnet Italian sonnet that starts with 8 lines (octet) that rhyme and have a unifying theme. The next 6 lines (sestet) have another unifying theme that also rhymes. (14 lines, shaped like a square) Shakespearean sonnet English sonnet that has 3 groups of 4 (quatrain), which establish the theme. Ends with a couplet which resolves it. An iambic pentameter. Has 10 syllables per line. (14 lines, shaped like a square) Why is it more difficult to write a short poem than a long one? Everything has to be perfect. What is the "big secret" Foster reveals in this chapter? There's no such thing as a wholly original work of literature. There's only one story. How does recognition of these allusions in literature change the reading experience for a reader? They begin to reveal themselves to readers after much practice of reading we begin drawing comparisons and parallels that may be straight or ironic or comic or tragic or fantastic. Our reading is no longer governed by the words on the page alone but is added to by our knowledge of other works. Intertextuality The ongoing interaction between poems or stories. It deepens and enriches the reading experience bringing multiple layers of meaning to the text, some which readers may not even consciously notice. How does Foster say a literature professor can help a beginning reader? A professor can provide a broader context and aid in finding and recognizing patterns and allusions in novels, poems, and other works of art. They can help you have a more focused search on those patterns within literature. "He tells you when you get near mushrooms." Your search will become less vague. Why do so many writers use and quote Shakespeare? His works are universally known. He provides a figure whom writers can struggle, a source of texts against which other texts can bounce ideas. It makes them sound smarter. (Engages with other writers). ...features prominently in the use not only of Shakespeare but of any prior writer. Irony What do Biblical allusions do for a piece of literature? Make a story timeless and universal. Used for taking an idea, and then making it mystical and credible. Names in the Bible usually are meant to show a connection (archetypical) between the literary character and Biblical character. Provides/helps a writer with a title. They make literature seem bigger and beyond the scope of the story or poem (impact). Literary cannon A master list of works significant to certain areas that experts pretend doesn't exist. Why do so many writers choose to allude to fairy tales in their works? Universal appeal Known by most people Readily available Easy to understand For what purpose do writers often use "readerly knowledge of source texts?" Writers can use and mess around with the stories and turn them upside down, since you already internalized the story completely. They use it to shake up our understanding of the texts, make sure of patterns of the story, add depth, emphasize the theme, or add irony. Myth The ability of story to explain ourselves in ways that physics, philosophy, mathematics, chemistry— all very highly useful and informative in their own right —can't. Four great struggles of the human being Nature, the divine, other humans, and ourselves. Rain Cleansing, restoration, rebirth, plot device, misery, replenishment, awakening, new growth, hope, and fear of drowning. (Paradox) Rainbow Symbolizes divine promise between heaven and earth. Fog Confusion and murkiness. It is mental, ethical, and physical. Snow Cleansing, warmth, inhospitable, playful, suffocating, filthy, unification, and purification. Implications of violence in literature Symbolic, thematic, Biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, or transcendent. Cultural and societal. Two categories of violence in literature The specific injury that authors cause characters to visits on one another or on themselves (shootings, stabbings, garroting, drownings, poisoning, bludgeoning, bombings, hit-and-run accidents, starvations). Authorial violence, death and suffering authors introduce into their work in the interest of plot advancement or thematic development. Four reasons that authors kill off characters in literature To make action happen Cause plot complications End plot complications Put other characters under stress Questions readers should ask themselves when they encounter an act of violence or a death in a piece of literature What does this type of misfortune represent thematically? What famous or mythic death does this one resemble? Why this sort of violence and not some other? Romanticism A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual. (Nature) Allegorical Stressing a hidden spiritual meaning transcending literal sense of the text of sacred books. Transcendent Beyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experience.