How to Read like a Professor Quiz

Foster calls the dialogue between old texts and new ones "intertextuality." He says that students can learn to recognize associations between characters and plots on their own but also benefit from a good literature teacher who helps point out the connections. To what real-life learning experience does he liken this process?

His father teaching him how to recognize mushroom varieties.

What is Foster's short and immediate answer to the question posed by this chapter's title? (Is That a Symbol?)

Of course it is

In this chapter, Foster asserts that when a character flies, it is always heavily symbolic. What does he say flight is symbolic of?

flight is freedom

Foster begins this chapter about politics in literature by discussing a very well-known tale. Which one?

A Christmas Carol

Some of the things that happen when a writer introduces a blind character into a story or a play:

A and C

Writers tend to write about political issues--power structures, relations among classes, issues of justice and rights, interactions between sexes and among racial and ethnic constituencies. Which of the following is also mentioned in this chapter?

A and C

How does Foster define his use of the term "myth"?

A body of story that matters

What is Foster's main point in this chapter(Hanseldee and Greteldum)?

Allusions to humble, familiar texts are as effective as those to the Bible or Shakespeare

Which novella does Foster spend several pages analyzing as a "vampire" story?

Daisy Miller by Henry James

Which of these most closely summarizes Foster's overall main point in this chapter? (If she comes up, Its Baptism)

In nearly every case, a character being submerged in water is symbolic of baptism.

Foster opens with a discussion of a Faustian Bargain. What fictional character does Thomas Foster say is a literary version of the devil?

Mr. Lindner from A raisin in the sun

Foster discusses three items that separate the professorial reader from the crowd: MEMORY, SYMBOL, PATTERN. What psychological phenomenon does Foster suggest was discovered (Freud) using the same combination of "symbolic mind, pattern observer, and powerful memory" that literary analysis requires?

Oedipal complex

Which of these is closest to Foster's overall main point in this chapter? (It's all about Sex)

Sex and sexuality are often not overtly mentioned in literature, but symbolically instead.

Which of these most closely summarizes Foster's main overall point in this chapter? (Except Sex..)

Sex scenes in literature are rarely about the actual sex; they are generally about something more profound and symbolic.

Foster tells us that "...depth is what the biblical dimension adds to the story...the story resonates with the richness of distant antecedents, with the power of accumulated myth." Specifically, what short story's Biblical allusions has Foster been discussing in detail for several pages of this chapter?

Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin

According to Foster, why is the heart symbolically important in literature?

The heart is the symbolic repository of emotion

Foster suggests that there is a "language of reading" made up of a "set of conventions, patterns, codes, and rules that we learn to employ" when analyzing literature. What answer does Foster use to tell students how they can get better at understanding this "language of reading"?

The same way you get to Carnegie Hall. Practice

In the example story Foster uses to discuss the basic components of a quest, what does he use to represent the "Holy Grail" -- that is, the item being sought?

a loaf of bread

What is the difference between symbolism and allegory?

all of the above

Which are characteristics of Christ figures?

all of the above

According to Foster, vampirism in literature has to do mostly with..

exploitation

According to Foster, eating scenes in literature are generally the author's way of...

exploring characters and relationships between the characters

In this chapter, Foster spends a lot of time explaining how associations readers have with seasons can affect the meaning and impact of a piece of writing. He mentions that Frost speaks of the "overwhelming sense of both tiredness and completion, of bringing in a huge harvest that surpassed even his hopes, of being on a ladder so long that the sense of its swaying will stay with him even after he falls into bed the way a fishing bobber, watched all day, will imprint itself on the visual sense of eyes closed for sleep." Frost doesn't come out and say this, but harvest is one element of _____, and can refer not only to agricultural but also to personal harvests

fall

True or False: In this "interlude," Foster asserts that it is possible to prove that all professional "literary" writers always intend, and indeed pre-plan, the connections and allusions apparent in their works.

false

In this "interlude," Foster asserts that true originality in writing is impossible because, "There's only one story." What idea from an earlier chapter does this "interlude" invoke?

intertextuality

In this chapter, Foster is careful to explain what he means by the statement "irony trumps everything." He says, "Every chapter in this book goes out the window when irony comes in the door." In other words, if a reader detects that a writer is using something ironically, that reader can no longer rely on what he or she knows about conventional symbolism. The reader will have to figure out what is meant by the ironic use, instead. According to Foster, what is the difficulty or problem with this?

irony doesn't work for everyone.

Those figurative elements that are not part of the common share can be considered:

private symbols

In this chapter, Foster discusses the implications of weather in literature. He discusses several different types of weather phenomena and their possible implications. Which does he spend most of the chapter discussing?

rain

More often than not, physical markings by their very nature call attention to themselves and

signify some psychological or thematic point the writer wants to make

In this chapter Foster spends a lot of time discussing the many possible meanings, roles, and implications of geography upon a literary work. He gives one rule (in bold). It says, "When writers send characters south, it's...

so they can run amok

Obviously, Foster's point in this chapter is that Shakespeare's works are quoted, copied, and alluded to on a regular and frequent basis in Western literature. Why?

the stories are great, the characters compelling, the language fabulous.

In this chapter, Foster mentions that fictional novels are often divided up into round and flat characters. Which of the following are true of round characters?

three dimensional, full of traits and strengths and weaknesses and contradictions, might also be called dynamic characters.

What does Foster say is always the "real reason for a quest"?

to achieve self knowledge

True or False: Foster's main point in this chapter is metaphorical. He means that you should read with your mind (and possibly your heart) rather than with your eyes

true

According to Foster, which of the following diseases showed up most frequently in literature prior to the twentieth century?

tuberculosis