Thomas C. Foster: How To Read Literature Like A Professor
In all versions of the Faust legend, the hero is offered something he desperately wants - power or knowledge or a fast-ball that will beat the Yankees - and all he has to do is give up his soul.
Versions end up either tragic or comic depending on whether the devil successfully collects the soul at the end of the work.
(P. xxiv)
When an english professor reads, a lot of his attention will be engaged in atypical elements of the novel.
Where did that effect come from?
Whom does this character resemble?
Where have I seen this situation before?
Didn't Dante (or Chaucer) say that?
If you learn to ask these questions, you will read literature in a new light.
Another type of story is a quest.
Quests consist of:
- A quester
- A place go go
- A stated reason to go there
- Challenges and trials en route
- A real reason to go there
The real reason for a quest NEVER involves the stated reason.
The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge.
Simple ex. A knight, a dangerous road, a Holy Grail, at least one dragon, one evil knight, one princes.
(P. 3-6) Ch 1
"Whenever people eat or drink together, it is communion" p. 8
Communions are and act of sharing an peace.
Remember, in literature writing a meal scene is so difficult, and so inherently uninteresting, that there really needs to be a compelling reason to include one in a story.
And that reason centers around how characters are getting along. Or not getting along.
Ch. 2
Essentials of A vampire story:
An older figure representing corrupt, outworn values
A young female
A stripping away of her youth, energy, or virtue
A continuance of the life force of the old male
The death or destruction of the young female
Often times, a character of consuming spirit or vampiric personality makes a useful narrative vehicle and this structure is used.
"Vampires" place their desires above the needs of others.
P. 22 Ch 3
There's no such thing as a wholly original work of literature.
The dialogue between new text and old texts is always going on at one level or another.
This dialogue is known as intertextuality
P. 24 ch. 4
4 types of myth:
Ch 5: Shakespearean
Ch 6: Biblical
Ch 7: Folk/Fairy Tale
Ch 8: Greek
Weather is never just weather.
Weather influences mood, tone, and atmosphere.
If you want a character to be cleansed, symbolically, let him walk through the rain somewhere.
Fog almost always signals some sort of confusion.
Ch. 9
There are both round and flat characters, which exist on a continuum.
Characters are not entirely human, but based on humans.
Flat characters are sacrificed to perpetuate round characters and the plot.
Round characters have the potential to improve and learn.
Ch. 10
Violence in real life just is.
If someone punches you in the nose in a supermarket parking lot, it's simply aggression.
Violence in literature is usually also symbolic, and, sometimes metaphorical.
Ch. 11
Caves might signify the connection to the most basic and primitive elements of human nature.
Symbols mean something different to anyone.
Ch. 12
You might be a Christ figure if:
- You are 33 years old
- Unmarried, preferably celibate
- Wounded or marked in the hands, feet, or sides
- Sacrificing yourself in some way for others
Ch 14
Human beings cannot fly.
Meaning, if we see a person suspended in the air in literature, it most likely means he is one of the following:
- a superhero
- Heavily symbolic
Flight symbolizes freedom.
Ch 15
If a character falls into water, they either
(a) drown
(b) don't
If they are rescued, it might suggest passivity, good fortune, indebtedness.
If one of two brothers dies, the survivor can be reborn with new traits or attitudes.
Drowning by their own desire can represent a type of suicide; a form of choosing, of exerting control in a society that has taken control from them.
Submersion 3 times most likely = baptism.
Ch 18
Geography matters...
When writers send their characters south, it's so they can run amok.
Ch 19
Summer = passion and love and conviviality
Winter = anger and hatred
Autumn = harvest (both agricultural and personal) and forewarning against a winter to come
Ch 20
There's only one story
Whenever anyone puts pen to paper or hands to keyboard or fingers to lute string or quill to papyrus.
They all take from and in return give to the same story.
Writing requires intertextuality.
"Archetype" is a five-dollar word for "pattern" or for the mythic original on which that pattern is based.
Ch 20-21 interlude
Physical deformity usually = character or moral deformity
Physical imperfection in symbolic terms sometimes just signifies that they are different, or that the hero is marked in some way.
Ch 21
Heart disease is metaphoric for broken heart, unfaithfulness.. etc.
Diseases are usually picturesque, like Tuberculosis, should be mysterious in origin (at the time it was written), and should have metaphoric possibilities.
Ex. Tuberculosis is a wasting disease, where the individual wastes away, growing thinner and thinner
Ch 23
Don't read with your eyes, contextualize to the time and place the work was written.
Ch 24
Irony trumps everything.
The "ironic mode" is when we watch characters who posses a lower degree of autonomy, self-determination, or free will than ourselves.
Ch 26
When a younger character takes on an older character's talisman, they also assume some of the elder's power.
This is true whether it is a father's coat, a mentor's sword, a teacher's pen, or a mother's hat.
Ch 27