How to Read Literature Like a Professor

Notes from the book by Thomas C. Foster

Every Trip is a Quest

The quest consists of five things: (1) a quester, (2) a place to go, (3) a stated reason to go there, (4) challenges and trials en route, and (5) a real reason to go there. The real reason for the quest is always self knowledge.

Example

Nice to Eat with You

Eating usually involves something more than food.

Breaking bread together is an act of sharing and peace.

A failed meal carries negative connotations

Examples: (1) “Bella Notte,” (2) Tom Jones, (3) Sopranos finale (4) “Hills like White Elephants”

Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires

You don’t need fangs and a cape to be a vampire. The essentials of the vampire story are: (1) an older figure representing corrupt, out-worn values; (2) preferably virginal female; (3) a stripping away of her youth, energy, virtue; (4) a continuance of the life force of the old male; and (5) the death or destruction of the young woman.

Example: “Little Red Riding Hood”

Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires

Sexual implications—a trait of 19th century literature to address sex indirectly

Symbolic Vampirism: selfishness, exploitation, refusal to respect the autonomy of other people, using people to get what we want, placing our desires, particularly ugly ones, above the needs of another.

Example: “The Anatomy of Desire” by L’Heureux

When in Doubt, It’s from the Bible

Ever read a book with these things in them? Guess what? So have your writers, poets, playwrights, and screenwriters. Common Biblical stories with symbolic implications are:

Garden of Eden: women tempting men and causing their fall, the apple symbolic of an object of temptation, a serpent who tempts men to do evil, and a fall from innocence

David and Goliath—overcoming overwhelming odds (see example)

Jonah and the Whale—refusing to face a task and being “eaten” or overwhelmed by it anyway.

Job: facing disasters (not of the character’s fault), suffers as a result, but remains steadfast

When in Doubt, It’s from the Bible

The Flood: rain as a form of destruction; rainbow as a promise of restoration

The Apocalypse—Four Horseman of the Apocalypse usher in the end of the world.

Biblical names often draw a connection between literary character and Biblical character.

Examples: (1) Pulp Fiction, Ezekiel 25:17, (2) “David and Goliath” vs. Beowulf (3) Beloved, (4) Pulp Fiction parody (just for fun)

Fairytales

Hansel and Gretel: lost children trying to find their way home

Peter Pan: refusing to grow up, lost boys, a girl-nurturer

Little Red Riding Hood: See Vampires Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz:

entering a world that doesn’t work rationally or operates under different rules

Cinderella: orphaned girl abused by adopted family saved through supernatural intervention and by marrying a prince

Fairytales

Snow White: Evil woman who brings death to an innocent—again, saved by heroic/princely character

Sleeping Beauty: a girl becoming a woman, the long sleep as an avoidance of growing up and becoming a married woman, saved by, a prince who fights evil on her behalf.

Evil Stepmothers, Queens Prince Charming heroes who rescue women

(20th c. frequently switched—the women save the men)

It’s Greek to Me

Myth is a body of story that matters—the patterns present in mythology run deeply in the human psyche

Odyssey and Iliad Men in an epic struggle over a woman Achilles—a small weakness in a strong man;

the need to maintain one’s dignity Penelope (Odysseus’s wife)—the

determination to remain faithful and to have faith

Hector: The need to protect one’s family

It’s Greek to Me

The Underworld—an ultimate challenge, facing the darkest parts of human nature or dealing with death

Metamorphoses by Ovid—transformation (Kafka) Oedipus: family triangles, being blinded,

dysfunctional family Cassandra: refusing to hear the truth A wronged woman gone violent in her grief and

madness—Aeneas and Dido or Jason and Medea Mother love—Demeter and Persephone

It’s Greek to Me: Mythological Allusions in Macbeth

Nine mythological allusions can be found in Macbeth.

Prophecies and Fate are important factors in the play.

Classical, mythological prophecy: a prophecy is made and nothing can be done to prevent the foretold events from happening. Think Achilles. His mother tried everything to prevent his death, but her son died anyway in the Trojan war, just as was foretold her.

It’s Greek to Me: Mythological Allusions in Macbeth

Self-fulfilling prophecy: because of a foretelling a person will undertake certain action in order to make the prophecy come true or to prevent certain events from happening, but in doing so, that person dooms him or herself.

It could be said the gods themselves trick people in this kind of prophecy, just as the witches will do with Macbeth.

Oedipus anyone? He was destined to kill his father and given away in order to avoid that prophecy. Despite this and his own efforts to stay away from his parents, he unknowingly kills his father and marries his own mother.

Like Oedipus, Macbeth can be seen as a victim of the gods who have made plans for him and nothing can be done about it.

It’s Greek to Me: Mythological Allusions in Macbeth

The concept of foretelling is mostly conveyed by the repeated appearance of the Three Weird Sisters (Witches) and with Hecate, the most important mythological allusion in the tragedy.

Who do the witches remind you of? Gorgons anyone?

It’s Greek to Me: Mythological Allusions in Macbeth

Croesus and the misinterpretation of messages

In mythology, prophecies were often ambiguous of wording and could be interpreted incorrectly.

Croesus was told by the Delphi Oracle that “a great kingdom would be destroyed,” should he fight Cyrus the Great. Croesus does not realize it is his own empire that will be destroyed.

It’s More than Just Rain or Snow

Weather is never just weather. It is used as a plot device.

Rain can be mysterious, murky, isolating, miserable, or restorative (can bring a dying earth back to life). Can also mean fertility and life. Rain is clean—a form of purification, baptism, removing sin or a stain.

It’s More than Just Rain or Snow

Snow negative—cold, stark, inhospitable, inhuman,

nothingness, death positive - clean, pure, playful

Fog—almost always signals some sort of confusion; mental, ethical, physical “fog”; people can’t see clearly

Example: “Ain’t No Sunshine when She’s Gone” (lyrics and mp3)

Concerning Violence

Violence can be cultural and societal in its implications. It can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, transcendent.

There are two categories of violence in literature:

Character caused—shootings, stabbings, drownings, poisonings, bombings, hit and run, etc

Death and suffering for which the characters are not responsible. Accidents are not really accidents.

Concerning Violence

Questions to ask: 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?

Is That a Symbol?

Sure it is. A symbol can’t be reduced to standing for only one thing. If it can, it’s not symbolism. The symbol should involve a range of possible meanings and interpretations. Actions can also be symbolic.

Examples: “The Sick Rose,” “The Mystery,” “The Villain,” and “The Landlady”

It’s All PoliticalLiterature tends to be written by people interested in the

problems of the world, so most works have a political aspect to them. Consider the following in Orwell’s 1984. In your notes, jot down an example for each of these elements:

Individualism and self-determination against the needs of society for conformity and stability

Power structures

Relations among classes

issues of justice and rights

interactions between the sexes and among various racial and ethnic constituencies

It’s All PoliticalEach of the following parallels a historical

figure, group, or event. Can you guess what they stand for or were based on? Write down your ideas in your notes.

Big Brother Society of 1984 Youth League and Spies Terminology of the Party Division of the geographical world in 1984 Emmanuel Goldstein

It’s All Political Big Brother – Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union;

political victims numbered between 8 million and 13 million

Society of 1984 – based on policies and practices of Hitler’s Nazi regime (Nazism) in Germany and Stalin’s iron rule (Stalinism) of the former Soviet Union:

extreme nationalism emphasis on public displays of patriotism through

parades and large gatherings food shortages and rationing censorship of the media forced-labor camps spying secret police constant war or threat of war

It’s All Political

Consider these parallels (cont.): Youth League and Spies – Hitler

Youth, a Nazi organization that encouraged young boys to spy on their parents, neighbors, and strangers

Terminology of the Party (comrade, brotherhood, proletarian) – came from the rhetoric of communism

Division of the world in 1984 – resembles the power blocs of the Cold War: The US (Oceania), the former Soviet Union (Eurasia), and the People’s Republic of China (Eastasia)

It’s All Political

Consider these parallels (cont.):

Emmanuel Goldstein - Karl Marx, the father of modern communism. Marx’s Communist Manifesto denounces capitalism, just as Goldstein’s book exposes the reasoning behind the ruling ideology (“oligarchical collectivism") of 1984.

Yes, She’s a Christ Figure, TooWhatever our religious affiliation, we generally

recognize some of the features that make Christ who he is:

crucified, wounds in the hands, feet, side, and head in agony self-sacrificing good with children good with loaves, fishes, water, wine thirty-three years of age when last seen employed as a carpenter known to use humble modes of transportation, feet

or donkeys preferred believed to have walked on water

Yes, She’s a Christ Figure, Too often portrayed with arms outstretched known to have spent time alone in the wilderness believed to have had a confrontation with the devil,

possibly tempted last seen in the company of thieves creator of many aphorisms and parables buried, but arose on the third day had disciples, twelve at first, although not all equally

devoted very forgiving came to redeem an unworthy world Must all Christ figures be as unambiguous as this? No,

they don’t have to hit all the marks. Don’t have to be male. Don’t have to be a Christian. Don’t even have to be good.

Flights of Fancy

When we see a person suspended in the air, even briefly, he is one or more of the following:

a superhero a ski jumper crazy (redundant if also number

2) fictional a circus act, departing a canon suspended on wires an angel heavily symbolic. Flight can mean

freedom, escape, the flight of the imagination, spirituality, return home, largeness of spirit, love

It’s All About Sex…Except Sex Sex doesn’t have to

look like sex. Other objects and activities (landscapes, fires, seashores) can stand in for sex objects and acts. Female symbols: chalice,

Holy Grail, bowls, rolling landscape, empty vessels waiting to be filled, tunnels, images of fertility

Male symbols: blade, tall buildings

It’s All About Sex…Except Sex

When authors write directly about sex, they’re writing about something else, such as sacrifice, submission, rebellion, supplication, domination, enlightenment, etc.

If they write about sex and strictly mean sex, we have a word for that. Pornography. That’s not something we want to discuss in this class.

Why? Before mid 20th c., coded sex avoided

censorship Can function on multiple levels Can be more intense than literal descriptions

If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism

Drowning or not has profound implications, as do the means by which a character does or doesn’t drown.

On some level tossing characters into the river is (a) wish fulfillment, (b) exorcism of primal fear, (c) exploration of the possible, and not just (d) a handy solution to messy plot difficulties.

Rescue might suggest passivity, good fortune, indebtedness.

When a character is baptized, it means death, rebirth, and new identity.

When a character drowns, they die. Every drowning, however, serves its own purpose: character revelation, thematic development of violence or failure or guilt, plot complication or denouement.

Geography Matters…

Rivers, hills, valleys, buttes, steppes, glaciers, swamps, mountains, prairies, chasms, seas, islands, people.

Literary geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time the spaces that inhabit humans.

Geography is setting, but it’s also (or can be) psychology, attitude, finance, industry – anything that can forge in the people who live there.

Low: swamps, crowds, fog, darkness, fields, heat, unpleasantness, people, life, death.

High: snow, ice, purity, thin air, clear views, isolation, life, death.

…So Does Season

Spring has to do with childhood and youth Summer with adulthood, romance,

fulfillment and passion Autumn with decline and middle age and

tiredness but also harvest Winter with old age and resentment and

death

Example: The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot (first 9 lines example of irony)

Irony Trumps Everything

Everything mentioned in these notes goes out the window when irony comes in the door.

Irony doesn’t work for everyone. Difficult to warm to, and hard for some to recognize which causes all sorts of problems.

One Story

There is only one story. On one level, everyone who writes anything knows that pure originality is impossible. Consider two concepts:

One is intertextuality. The premise of intertextuality is that everything’s connected. In other words, anything you write is connected to other written things.

The second concept is archetype. “Archetype” is a five-dollar word for “pattern.” It develops from a story component – a quest, a form of sacrifice, flight, a plunge into water.

Marked for Greatness

The hero of a story may be marked in some way. He may be scarred or lamed or wounded or painted or born with a short leg, but he bears some mark that sets him apart.

There are also doubles and self-contained others, meaning that within each of us, no matter how civilized, lurk elements that we’d really prefer not to acknowledge.

Also, a hideous outer form may hide the beauty of the inner person.

Marked for Greatness

Monsters Frankenstein—monsters created through no

fault of their own; the real monster is the maker

Faust—bargains with the devil in exchange for one’s soul

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—the dual nature of humanity, that in each of us, no matter how well-made or socially groomed, a monstrous Other exists.

Quasimodo, Beauty and the Beast—ugly on the outside, beautiful on the inside. The physical deformity reflects the opposite of the truth.

He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know

Physical blindness mirrors psychological, moral, intellectual (etc.) blindness

Sometimes ironic; the blind see and sighted are blind

Many times blindness is metaphorical, a failure to see—reality, love, truth, etc.

darkness=blindness; light=sight

It’s Never Just Heart Disease…

The afflicted character can have any number of problems for which the heart disease provides a suitable emblem: bad love, loneliness, cruelty, pederasty, disloyalty, cowardice, lack of determination.

Socially, it may stand for these matters on a larger scale, or for something seriously amiss at the heart of things.

…And Rarely Just Illness

A prime literary disease should: be picturesque, be mysterious in origin, have strong symbolic or metaphorical possibilities.

Real illnesses come with baggage, which can be useful or at least overcome in a novel.

Tuberculosis—a wasting disease Physical paralysis - can mirror moral, social, spiritual,

intellectual, political paralysis Plague - divine wrath; the communal aspect of suffering

on a large scale; the isolation and despair created by wholesale destruction; the puniness of humanity in the face of an indifferent natural world

Malaria: means literally “bad air” Venereal disease: reflects immorality OR innocence,

when the innocent suffer because of another’s immorality; passed on to a spouse or baby, men’s exploitation of women

Don’t Read with Your Eyes

Try to find a reading perspective that allows for sympathy with the historical moment of the story, that understands the text as having been written against its own social, historical, cultural, and personal background.