How to Read Literature Like a Professor 1-11
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).
Transcendent
Beyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experience.
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.
Rain
Cleansing, restoration, rebirth, plot device, misery, replenishment, awakening, new growth, hope, and fear of drowning. (Paradox)
Snow
Cleansing, warmth, inhospitable, playful, suffocating, filthy, unification, and purification.
Fog
Confusion and murkiness. It is mental, ethical, and physical.
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.
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
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)
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).
Four great struggles of the human being
Nature, the divine, other humans, and ourselves.
Breaking bread together is an act...
Of sharing and peace, since if you're breaking bread you're not breaking heads.
Literature can represent
Religion, desire/sexuality, unity, commonality, loyalty, friendship, and a bad sign.
Allegorical
Stressing a hidden spiritual meaning transcending literal sense of the text of sacred books.
Implications of violence in literature
Symbolic, thematic, Biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, or transcendent. Cultural and societal.
Rainbow
Symbolizes divine promise between heaven and earth.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Four reasons that authors kill off characters in literature
To make action happen Cause plot complications End plot complications Put other characters under stress
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
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?
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.
Literary cannon
A master list of works significant to certain areas that experts pretend doesn't exist.
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)
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.
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.
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.
