How To Read Literature Like A Professor

Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?

--beginner reader, it can be hard to identify the connections between different texts, authors, characters, genres, and tropes -this ability mostly comes as a result of practice -"there is no such thing as a wholly original work literature." -the reason this network of intertextuality exists is because "there is only one story." This universal story has always been happening all over the world, and thus connects works of literature from ancient epics to fairy tales to 20th century memoir to contemporary TV. All stories grow out of one another, crossing boundaries of genre as well as time and place. -Connections between stories can be explicit, but more often they are subtle and will only be detectable by the reader who is well-practiced in pattern recognition -Understanding intertextual gestures, parallels, and archetypes enriches our reading of a text, adding layers of meaning that make the narrative more vibrant and complex. -recognizing intertextual features is not necessary to understanding and enjoying a book; rather, it is a "bonus" technique that will deepen and complicate the reader's understanding of the book

If She Comes Up, It's Baptism

-A lot of literary characters meet their end by drowning -And in fact, so have a lot of authors. However, if a character falls (or otherwise gets drenched) in water before reemerging, this constitutes a kind of rebirth -Not only has the character emerged alive, they are "alive all over again." A symbolic baptism has taken place -Foster is not claiming that every time a character gets wet it is a form of baptism—remember, "always" and "never" are ideas to avoid in literary study—but that readers should look for clues that a symbolic rebirth has taken place -Drowning, meanwhile, has its own set of symbolic implications. In African American literature, drowning is often linked to the Middle Passage—the mysterious, treacherous, and hellish journey across the Atlantic during which many African slaves were thrown overboard either dead or alive. The Middle Passage has itself taken on mythic associations within literature, representing the unknown and the world of the dead.

... So Does Season

-Although Shakespeare didn't invent the use of seasons as symbolism, he was particularly skilled at it -Unlike other symbolic systems, the seasons have tended to signify more or less the same thing over time, creating parallels even between works of literature written many centuries apart -seasonal events such as blizzards, blossoming, and harvest can also be metaphors for events happening in the lives of characters. For example, just as farmers harvest crops at the end of the summer, so do people "reap whatever it is that we sow." -riters experiment with representation of the seasons in order to avoid cliché, and some choose to depict the relationship between season and plot in an ironic fashion

Every Trip is a Quest (Except When it's Not)

-Although a story might be set in a time and place different from ours, the symbols and figures it employs (such as quests, crushes, and enemies) are often universal. -quest narrative doesn't need to be set in any particular time or place, but it does need to contain five structural elements: 1) a quester 2) a place to go 3) a reason to go there 4) obstacles along the way and 5) the real reason for the quest -real reason for any quest is to gain self-knowledge -Words like "always" and "never" do not have concrete meaning within the language of reading. Rules such as those governing the quest narrative are routinely twisted and broken by authors reacting against previous literary conventions

He's Blind For A Reason, You Know

-As this narrative shows, when an author includes a blind character, this blindness is never simply a fact—it always has symbolic significance -Foster claims that although only some narratives contain literal blindness, all texts feature metaphoric representations of sight and blindness -in general authors will draw particular attention to blind characters if they wish blindness to have major symbolic importance within the text -The symbolic trope of blindness plays on the same subversion of expectations as the journey to an exotic place that leads to self-discovery

Yes, She's A Christ Figure Too

-Despite religious diversity and the separation of church and state, America is a Christian culture; most cultural artifacts have been influenced by Christianity on some level, and thus it is useful to have some basic knowledge of Christianity if you are studying Western European and American literature. -these include personal qualities such as being forgiving and self-sacrificing, historical details such as the fact that he was a carpenter, and the miracles he is thought to have performed, such as walking on water -Foster reminds the reader to step back from their personal beliefs (or lack thereof) in order to see the broader ways in which Christ figures operate in literature, which is often as signifiers of sacrifice, redemption, and hope

It's My Symbol And I'll Cry If I Want To

-English professors and advanced students can get so wrapped up in searching for the secondary meanings of a given text—that which is not conveyed directly on the page—that they will almost forget about the surface-level facts -Foster cautions the reader to never become too dismissive of the primary function of a text, no matter how skilled a reader they become -Foster returns to the problem of texts that use figures and imagery from outside the common pool of symbols. How does one approach a text that uses "private symbols"? The only answer Foster gives is simply to try. -Use the sources available to you, including your knowledge of preexisting literature -With practice and perseverance, patterns—and with them meaning—will begin to appear. -His point, however, can be interpreted in an encouraging light; books teach us how to interpret them as we read them -Even the most complex and unusual works of literature are connected in some way to other texts (as well as to the wider world). For this reason, every text—when given "a little time and imagination"—can be analyzed and decoded

It's All About Sex...

-English professors' tendency to find sexual subtext everywhere can be traced back to Sigmund Freud. Although Freud's obsession with subconscious sexual meaning is now somewhat discredited within the field he founded—psychoanalysis—it remains a hugely important part of literary scholarship -Foster considers a range of images used to symbolize sexual acts—bedrooms and sleeping compartments, a train entering a tunnel, a key being placed in a lock or a bowl. Indeed, it is possible to sort these symbols into two categories: those representing male genitalia (keys, guns, swords) and those representing female genitalia (chalices, bowls) -Sex scenes are "coded" (represented in indirect, symbolic terms) not only because historically literature featuring explicit sex has been censored, but also because these coded scenes can be even more intense than direct depiction -Rather than shocking the reader with explicit descriptions of sex, authors are able to present the subject matter more subtly, thereby revealing more numerous and complicated layers of meaning

Don't Read With Your Eyes

-Like all subjective views—the American perspective is inherently limited -As readers, we all have our "blind spots," which is fine; however, in order to understand a piece of literature well, we need to be able to inhabit it world—at least to some extent -The point is not to read with "your eyes," or, in other words, not to read only from your own particular historical, cultural, and individual perspective -Foster uses the example of James Baldwin's story "Sonny's Blues" (1957), about an uptight math teacher whose brother is a heroin addict, to demonstrate how influential the reader's point of view can be. The central question of the text is whether or not Sonny can be saved from the perils of addiction. Foster advises that, in order to do the text justice, readers must avoid approaching the story from the lens of contemporary scientific or sociological understandings of addictions. Instead, we must take the story on its own terms. -The problem of adjusting perspective based on a given text is exacerbated when the text is very old

...More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence

-Violence may be interpersonal, but it is almost always related to larger cultural forces. Furthermore, while in real life violence can be meaningless, in literature it often has multiple layers of meaning, whether symbolic, allegorical, religious, political, etc. -Foster identifies two categories of violence in literature: violence that characters enact upon one another, and harmful events that happen to characters in order to advance the plot. -Foster argues that the only major literary genre in which violence is "meaningless" are mysteries. In these books, the fact that a character has died (sometimes a terribly gruesome death!) is not important in itself, but only as a device that triggers the process of discovering how and why it happened - character-on-character acts constitute only one kind of violence—what about Foster's second category, violence chosen by the author as a plot device? -illustrates the fact that violent acts never mean the same thing in literature, even while they always mean something

Nice to Eat with You: Act of Communion

-anytime characters eat together, this is communion -roader definition of the term is anytime people come together to share food and, in doing so, create a temporary community with one another -connections between sharing a meal and sex: both are ritualistic ways of becoming closer to other people through a shared bodily experience -Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" (1981): two key turning points in his change of opinion are when he watches the blind man eat, and when the two of them smoke marijuana together. Although it might not be obvious, Foster argues that both these events are acts of communion. -a single meal can contain many complex and even contradictory layers of meaning -

Introduction

-his trope stretches back throughout Western literary culture, for example in the many versions of the Faust legend (A Raisin in the Sun) -one example of analysis includes symbol, archetype, myth, intertextuality, and religious imagery -when a professor suggests an interpretation of a work of literature that students feel is unreasonable, this is a "communication problem." -using the "language of reading." This language is a method of talking about literature in an analytic manner, "a set of conventions and patterns, codes and rules." -best way to understand this language of reading is simply through practice -three key elements of reading that separate professors of literature from the lay reader: memory, symbol, and pattern -requires stepping back from the "foreground" of the text in order to analyze its structure and identify repetition, pace, archetype, and other devices at work.

Flights Of Fancy

-humans have fantasized about flying for thousands of years -It would be hard to argue against the idea that flight symbolizes freedom, even if that symbolic meaning is then ironically manipulated and subverted -Another symbolic way in which characters take flight is through the flight of the soul from the body at the point of death. -mostly Christian image, relying as it does on the journey up to a heaven in the sky (as opposed to the Greek belief in the Underworld below). Once again, flight is associated with freedom—in this instance freedom from the trials of a physical, mortal existence

Postlude

-"How do I know I'm right?" Foster calls this "the great question of literary analysis." He responds by arguing that if something in a work of literature has captured your attention, it's likely there for a reason, meaning it has some substantial significance. -Foster adds that it's usually impossible to know whether writers included signals, clues, and symbols "on purpose," and so we shouldn't worry about whether or not this was a conscious decision. Ultimately, it does not matter much what the writer planned to do, as "a reader's only obligation... is to the text." The text holds the authority, not the author. -Foster urges the reader to consider the fact that most authors are already dead; even when they're not, they are not necessarily available for consultation. Meanwhile, writers who choose to publish anonymously seem themselves to want "the death of the author." They want their texts to be read in their own right, without readers being influenced by their impression of the author. -He urges students to "take ownership of your reading." The fact that each reader's analysis is unique is a positive thing, and allows people to learn from one another. It's good to have your interpretations change, but make sure to "trust your instincts" and believe in the value of your own opinion.

Is He Serious? And Other Ironies

-"Irony trumps everything," including all that has been described in the book so far -Irony greatly expands the range of interpretations that can be applied to any symbol. For example, rain—which ordinarily has a fairly predictable set of associated meanings—can take on an entirely different type of significance when employed ironically. -One way to understand irony is to think of cases in which a signifier or sign (such as a billboard encouraging people to wear seatbelts) ends up taking on an unexpected significance (like accidentally crushing a driver and killing him) while still retaining its original, fixed meaning -Irony mainly consists of "a deflection from expectation." Irony can also work when the reader or audience knows something that a character doesn't, thereby creating multiple layers of (contradictory) meaning around events that take place within the narrative -As these points indicate, irony can be verbal, structural, and/or dramatic, depending on what level of the text (plot arc, speech, event) the ironic point is being made -Irony can also be used to undermine the moral value or authority of belief systems, institutions, and individuals, from physicians to Christianity. Irony makes interpretation complicated, as it can lead scholars to argue in a counterintuitive (and sometimes illogical!) way -When it does work, however, irony adds richness to a text, creating new, more complicated and more compelling layers of meaning

It's Never Just Heart Disease...And Rarely Just Illness

-"no better, no more lyrical, no more perfectly metaphorical illness than heart disease." -why heart disease is considered lyrically and symbolically powerful is because, since at least the Ancient Greek era, the heart has been considered the emotional centre of the human body -Endless writers invoke the heart in this context, and the heart is associated with romantic love everywhere from poetry to popular culture -As a result, heart disease symbolizes all kinds of suffering: loneliness, cruelty, cowardice, and so on -different illnesses tend to have their own particular group of associations. Strange as it may sound, some writers return to the same illnesses throughout different works of literature -prior to the 20th century, disease was very mysterious. people did not have a clear understanding of what caused illness, how it would progress, or how it could be cured. -condition should both be "picturesque" and emerge in a mysterious way. finally, the disease must have strong symbolic potential -the potential of illness to carry symbolic meaning is arguably the most important reason for how and why illness will appear in a text -Although symbolic meaning is never fixed, illnesses do have particular associations that will be better suited to some narratives than others -The bubonic plague, for example, invokes themes such as all-encompassing tragedy and apocalyptic devastation. Meanwhile, hereditary conditions point to intergenerational tensions, unhappy families, and "parental misdeeds." -Illnesses play different roles in different eras -Frequently, writers simply invent illnesses without clearly defining them, and use this as a way to kill off characters with little explanation. Of course, this has been more difficult to do in the era of modern medicine, when mysterious illnesses (mostly) no longer appear out of nowhere

Interlude: One Story

-"there is only one story." -admits that it's not about anything, at least in the way individual works of literature can be reduced to a subject matter or theme. Rather, it is about everything. -impossible to write a completely original work of literature -writers need to employ a level of willful "amnesia" in order to not simply regurgitate all the literature they have already read when they write -Foster explicitly introduces the concept of intertextuality. This was an idea invented by the Russian formalist scholar Mikhail Bakhtin, which highlights the way that all works of literature are inherently connected, like a giant network or web. -An archetype is an image, gesture, figure, or idea that is repeated and modified and can be identified through pattern recognition -there is no one story upon which all other stories are based; rather, it is better to think of the one big story as all around us, all the time.

...Or the Bible

--Before the mid 20th century, writers could count on people being very familiar with Biblical stories, a common touchstone a writer can tap -the Bible played a fundamental role in the Western literary canon -Writers don't just borrow figures, symbols, and plots from the Bible, but also passages and phrases that might show up as titles -these titles illuminate subtle Biblical themes found within the text, such as the cycle of life, death, and renewal -Many characters in works of literature are also named after Biblical figures. This can provide information about a character's personality; on a more complex level, it can also highlight how naming works within the world of the novel -recognizing Biblical references does not always drastically alter the interpretation of a given text, it does serve as a useful reminder that the plots and themes of recent literature are usually as old as the Bible

Geography Matters...

-Like the destination of a vacation, the destination or setting of a work of literature is hugely significant -Some writers, such as William Faulkner and Thomas Hardy, are tied to a very particular location—in both these cases, a fictional version of the area in which the authors themselves lived -However, most authors include a variety of settings even within a single work, and thus readers should pay attention not only to where the story overall takes place, but also the symbolic significance of the location of particular moments -In other words, they should be aware of "literary geography," which Foster defines as "humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time spaces inhabiting humans." -Geography has the power to create particular atmospheres and to shape characters. The idea of "home" can be magnetic, elusive, or suffocating, and many characters travel to either find it or escape it. Geography can even be a character -the disconnect between the characters and the setting they are in creates action that propels the story forward -Often, geography is "a metaphor for psyche," meaning the external landscape of a literary work reflects the internal mind of one or more characters -There are also particular tropes of destinations in which certain things can be expected to happen; for example, Foster points out the tradition of sending characters south (to Italy, Greece, Congo, Vietnam, etc.) "so they can run amok." - examples include the prairie within American (and particularly Midwestern) literature, or the bog in Irish literature. During the Romantic era, natural landscapes were celebrated as "sublime," an idea that became clichéd and provoked backlash within later literary movements. -hills and valleys are also significant, with their own set of symbolic implications. High places can represent purity, isolation, life or death, while low places are often associated with people, crowds, dirtiness, and also life or death -Note that neither place has any fixed meaning, but rather a possible set of meanings that can shift depending on what the location is contrasted against.

...Except Sex

-Scenes that explicitly feature sex are notoriously difficult to write, which is another reason why authors often choose to avoid them -When a work of literature does involve an explicit sex scene, this event almost certainly contains layers of meaning beyond sex (if a sex scene only means sex, then this is likely pornography) -While it is not always clear what sex scenes mean, it is almost guaranteed that they signify meaning beyond the sex itself.

Its Greek to Me

-Shakespeare, the Bible, and fairy tales are all types of myth. That doesn't mean they are not true (although, of course, some are not) but that they are stories that aim to "explain ourselves to ourselves. -Myths have an important place in a culture's collective memory, and can be used to provide a sense of national identity -As with reworkings of the Bible and fairy tales, Greek myths are often updated in an ironic way.

Hanseldee and Greteldum

-The canon refers to an elusive and ever-changing list of literary texts that critics feel are essential to understanding the history of English literature as a whole -canon is not an official list, but rather a notionally agreed-upon group of books that is constantly being amended, updated, and fought over -common for authors to "borrow" from the canon, nowadays many indisputably canonical texts will not be familiar to the average reader -many authors have chosen to borrow from children's literature -the fairy tale with the most enduring appeal is "Hansel and Gretel. -uthors do not need to lift everything from a fairy tale, but can pick and choose certain elements. -Fairy tales represent an oversimplified, morally straightforward version of the world, and thus their adaptation in the modern era is almost always laced with irony -borrowing from fairy tales allows authors to create a mix of strangeness and familiarity within their work, and it is this mix that creates the depth and vibrancy of good literature.

Envoi

-The word "envoi" is a ritual sending-off of someone or something on a mission. Foster directs his envoy to the reader, thanking them for their attention. He admits that How to Read Literature Like a Professor only contains a fraction of the reading techniques that exist in the world, and that what has been included is rather idiosyncratic. However, the book does provide a useful template for exploring other literary devices and reading strategies. -Once you've mastered some techniques, it becomes easier to pick up new ones, and identify literary devices you haven't seen before. -Foster stresses that reading should be fun. Although he provides a reading list at the end of the book, he advises the reader to choose books that they themselves enjoy. According to Foster, literary analysis should be "a form of play."

A Test Case

-This chapter consists of the short story "The Garden Party" by Katherine Mansfield -Laura attempts to speak to the men in an authoritative way, but doesn't quite manage it, and they respond to her in an informal manner, eventually choosing the location of the marquee themselves. One of the workmen pauses, bends down and smells a sprig of lavender, and Laura wishes that the men she knows were more like him. In her mind, she blames "these absurd class distinctions." She feels that the workmen behave more naturally and wishes she herself was free of "stupid conventions." -Once the party is over, Laura's father mentions the man who died, and says that he had a wife and six children. Mrs. Sheridan decides to make up a basket of the leftover food to send to the grieving widow, but Laura is unsure if this is a good idea. She instructs Laura to take the basket to the man's cottage, at first including lilies—"people of that class are so impressed by arum lilies"—before deciding against it when Jose points out they would ruin Laura's dress. -Laura tries to leave, but the woman who answered the door—who is Mrs. Scott's sister—insists that she see the dead man's body. Upon seeing it, Laura thinks that he looks serene and happy, far away from earthly activities like garden parties. She lets out a sob and rushes out into the street, where she encounters Laurie. He comforts her, and she tries to express her feelings to him, saying "Isn't life... isn't life—." However, she is unable to say anything more, and the story ends with Laurie saying "Isn't it, darling?" -Katherine Mansfield. Originally from New Zealand, she married an Englishman and spent her adult life in England, where she was a friend of D.H. Lawrence. She died young of tuberculosis, and published "The Garden Party" the year before her death -A history major points out that the central dilemma of the story is whether or not to have the party, and that the way the characters react reveal the "indifference of the dominant class of people to the suffering of others." Laura's feelings are ambivalent; she hopes Laurie will provide her with an answer, but finds that "there are no answers, just shared perceptions of reality." -He argues it is important to note that the responses above focus on the "phenomena" of the story, meaning the things that actually happen. While there is nothing wrong with this, readers also need to pay attention to the "noumenal level of the story, its spiritual or essential level of being." -He points out that the weather is described as perfect, and that the overall impression of the garden is more ethereal than earthly. He also advises the reader to pay close attention to the descriptions of food, and to the hat Laura wears, which is symbolic of her mother's power. Note also the description of Laura's journey to the cottages, which is filled with imagery of darkness and smoke. Foster argues that this represents a descent into hell, and that Laura is a version of the Greek mythic character Persephone. -The story thus explores this moment of initiation—the departure from childhood innocence into adulthood—in the context of class tensions and familial dynamics.

Never Stand Next to the Hero

-This is the problem of surrogacy, or the fact that characters close to the hero/main character are likely to be killed because the main character won't be. -Characters' deaths are important plot devices. -Although this might seem unjust, it is important to remember that "characters are not people." Although they may be based on real, living humans, characters are not real or alive. -While writers etch out an impression of a given character, readers inevitably "shape, or rather reshape, characters in order to make sense of them." This makes us sympathetic to characters and invested in their fate. -It is necessary that it is this proximate person who dies, and not the character himself—otherwise there would be no opportunity for the character to grow. -some literary characters are "round," while others are "flat"--meaning some characters are complex, contradictory, and capable of growth, whereas others have a more simplistic, instrumental role to play. -Firstly, if all characters were round, the reader would not know on whom they should focus their attention. Creating flat characters also saves the author the effort (and space on the page!), as the author does not have to develop a full, detailed back-story for everyone who happens to feature in the work. Furthermore, it would simply not be necessary to include this information for many characters, as the purpose they serve is more akin to a literary device (like rain) than an intricate depiction of a human person. -argued that "plot is character revealed in action," meaning that plots must be driven by the choices, actions, and development of characters. -All characters, flat and round, share the task of providing narrative momentum, moving the story toward its conclusion.

Nice to Eat You: Act of Vampires

-Vampirism is as much about "body shame and unwholesome lust," seduction, temptation, selfishness, and exploitation as it is about actual bloodsucking bat-people -Often, ghosts exist in order to convey a message or teach living characters a lesson -Doppelgangers, on the other hand, emphasize the idea that everyone has a dark side -ghosts and vampires are never only about ghosts and vampires. This is also true of other scary stories, even if these stories do not feature any fantastical figures. -humans (metaphorically) devour one another through scheming, voyeurism, and exploitation -less haunting than literature depicting the "horrors" of human psychology

Is That A Symbol?

-if you're wondering whether something in a piece of literature is a symbol, it's pretty safe to say that yes, it is. What's rarely clear is the exact symbolic meaning. In fact, symbols that only have one specific meaning aren't technically symbols at all, but allegories -An allegory is a text (or image) that has a hidden meaning beyond the story being told on the surface. Although this is similar to a symbol, the important distinction is that allegories have a single meaning that the reader (or viewer) is supposed to discover. Allegories are not designed to produce multiple interpretations that people will argue over, but rather to lead the reader through clues to find the one "true" meaning. -Symbols, on the other hand, remain open to multiple possible interpretations. -however, generally literary criticism seeks to identify a single interpretation that the critic finds most interesting, resonant, or convincing -Even when it seems likely that a given symbol will have a fixed, consistent meaning, this is in fact rarely the case. -favored method of literary analysis tends to emphasize the historical context in which a piece of literature was written—this is called a historicist reading. However, this is only one method, and should not be taken as definitive; indeed, the clashes between contrasting interpretations are a positive quality of literary analysis, and Foster encourages readers to take pleasure in disagreement. -Readers often assume that only objects can be symbols, but actually, so can actions and events -advises readers to avoid making definitive statements about symbolic meaning, but also to trust their existing knowledge of literature as well as their instincts when it comes to figuring out what a given part of a text might symbolize. Although readers shouldn't invent meaning out of thin air, the act of reading is nonetheless an active, imaginative exercise, and we shouldn't be afraid to be creative in our experiments with interpretation.

Preface

-impossible to predict how a piece of literature will be received and interpreted by readers -prove that the best thing for a professor to do (once he or she has properly explained different reading techniques) is "stand aside" and allow students to analyze texts for themselves. -literature does not die... it expands.

Interlude: Does He Mean That?

-juggling intertextual references, creating multiple layers of symbolic meaning, following preexisting patterns, and so on. -Foster acknowledges that it might be hard to believe that one person could be doing all these things at once, and to say conclusively that authors do this would be incorrect, "or at least misleading." -The reality is that it is, of course, impossible to know what happens inside an author's head. -groups of writers who we know made conscious choices in the way they including symbolic, intertextual, archetypical, and ironic meaning; these are called the "Intentionalists," and many were part of the modernist movement. -these choices were conscious and intentional, emerging from the authors' familiarity with previous eras of literature as well as Greek myth, religion, and psychoanalytic thought. -we also have clues that indicate that writers prior to the modernist period also deliberately infused their texts with these many complicated layers of meaning -writers tend to be "aggressive readers" whose love of literature means they are familiar with a big range of their literary ancestors -we probably underestimate how much of what we encounter in a text is the result of deliberate planning on the part of the author

Marked For Greatness

-people's physical differences rarely have much symbolic meaning; if you have a birthmark or a short leg, this just means you have a birthmark or a short leg. Historically, however, physical aberrations have been associated with moral shortcomings -The more beautiful a person was, the closer they were thought to be to God, and vice versa. Although humanity has shifted our understanding about this topic in recent years, in literature physical attributes do still tend to carry symbolic meaning. -characters have scars, it gives a sense of their history, and therefore scars can be a way for authors to reveal information about their characters' pasts. Sometimes this is more information than the character knows about themselves -There is a reason why we speak of mental and emotional scars as well as physical ones. In many ways, scars are a real-life symbol, a physical phenomenon with built-in symbolic connotations

When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare

-plays of William Shakespeare have been endlessly adapted, transformed, and used loosely as inspiration for a countless number of artistic works, from TV shows to Broadway musicals. -Shakespeare is "everywhere, in every literary form you can imagine," -Quoting Shakespeare makes you seem smart, though Foster is quick to point out that you don't necessarily have to be familiar with Shakespeare's work in order to quote him. Rather, many of us have Shakespeare's words at the forefront of our minds simply because they are so emotionally powerful. Furthermore, quoting Shakespeare "confers authority" in a similar way to quoting the Bible, simply because more people have read his work than that of any other author of literature. -authors feature allusions to Shakespeare—while it is rare for exact passages and plots of Shakespeare's to reappear in other literary works, countless authors engage in dialogue with Shakespeare by reworking, alluding to, or responding to the Bard's work within their own.

It's More Than Just Rain Or Snow

-weather is never just weather. -Types of weather often have significant symbolic meaning; rain, for example, invokes the Biblical story of Noah, and with it the fear of drowning and the promise of beginning anew. -Weather can also be a useful plot device, as it forces characters into acts and situations they might not have willingly chosen themselves. -weather is an equalizing force, affecting the most and least powerful in society and sometimes forcing them to interact with one another. -Rain is often depicted as having a cleansing or restorative effect on characters. It can "wash away" illusions -writers toy with the conflicting meanings of rain—on one level it is associated with cold, illness, and suffering, and on another with spring, birth, and renewal -Rainbows are another important weather symbol, with close ties to the Biblical story of Noah, in which God signals through a rainbow that He will never again flood the entire world -Fog, meanwhile, is used to symbolize mystery, ambiguity, and danger. -snow is the type of weather with perhaps the greatest range of meanings. Depending on how it is used in a literary work, it could be joyful, cleansing, claustrophobic, or threatening

It's All Political

-writing with an explicit, straightforward political agenda tends to be unappealing to everyone except those living in the same time and place as the text was written, and who share the author's views -"political" writing—note the quotation marks—is rich, fascinating, and important. Foster argues that "all writing is political on some level," and that one way to locate political elements in a work of literature is to examine how the lives of the characters fit within the society in which they live -if a literary work features characters from the ruling class, an author might convey disdain for the hierarchical class system by presenting these characters in an unflattering light. -Discovering the political angle within a work of literature can be challenging, and it helps to bear in mind the author's background, the historical context in which they lived, and any sociocultural traditions they might be writing against -very important to bear in mind the social and political context in which a work of literature was written. This can be especially helpful because historically, many authors—such as women and members of the working-class—would have expected to have their work judged differently based on the social and political climate in which they lived