How to Read Literature Like a Professor study guide

What does it most likely mean if a meal goes poorly?

A bad sign for the community

How does Foster define "myth"?

A body of a story that matters/ the ability of story to explain ourselves to ourselves in ways that logical things (math, science, etc) can't.

What does Foster give as an example of a journey that is not a quest?

A daily drive to work and back home

Foster defines Archetype as what?

A pattern by which a story comes into being

Foster explains that Shakespeare is pervasive and that we should look at his work as what?

A sacred text or ever adapting and ever changing

Foster defines the word "envoi" as what?

A sending off/ sending off on a mission

What does Summer represent?

Adulthood

Foster says that which two words are rarely a part of his vocabulary of literary study?

Always and never

Foster claims that the first response of a normal reader to a text is what?

An emotional response

How many things can a symbol represent?

Any number of things

Foster claims that, until proven otherwise, literature professors see everything in what way?

As a symbol

Which of the three sorts of myths, according to Foster, seems to cover the greatest range of human situation?

Biblical

What does Spring represent?

Birth

Foster mentions that in stories the seasons spring, summer, fall and winter often represent what?

Birth, adulthood, middle age and death

What does Foster say is the question of a "last-chance-for-a-change" story?

Can this person be saved?

What are two categories of violence in literature?

Character (stabbing, bombing, shooting etc) and authorial (death introduced by the author)

Drowning is a symbolic baptism, but if the character does not come back up it represents what?

Choosing to enter a new life while leaving behind the old one

What does Winter represent?

Death

What does Foster give as an example of an action that would have different significance in previous years?

Eating a meal

What is the significance on Job?

Facing disasters not of the characters fault or making, suffers from it but remains strong

Foster says that physical blindness mirrors what?

Figurative seeing and blindness are a work or physiological, moral, intellectual, mental blindness

What does flight often symbolize?

Freedom

Foster points out that the use of a Christ figure can often create what type of effect?

Ironic effect

According to Foster, what "trumps everything"?

Irony

Foster points out what about Baptism?

Is a symbolic death and rebirth as a new individual

Why is political writing not good writing?

It is one dimensional, it does not travel well of time and place, and it is programmatic and pushes a single cause

What is the significance of the apocalypse?

It symbolizes death, the four horsemen and the end of the world

What is the significance of Garden of Eden?

It symbolizes losing innocence

What is the significance of David and Goliath?

It symbolizes overcoming overwhelming odds and lots of faith

What is the significance of Jonah and the whale?

It symbolizes running away from a problem and end up having really bad consequences from it

In this Chapter, Foster repeats himself by pointing out what?

Literature repeats itself and there is only one story

Foster claims that the professional reader is separated from others by what?

Memory, symbol and pattern

What does Fall represent?

Middle age

What is it that Foster primarily deals with in this chapter (Chapter 24)?

Not reading with your own eyes- putting yourself in the situation of the character and take the work as it was meant to be taken

Which is the most famous example of a mark of greatness?

Oedipus Rex

What viewpoint is one Foster says we should specifically NOT read from?

Our own

What is it that "high" places often symbolize?

Purity, isolation, life, death, clean and cold

what is the significance of the flood?

Rain as destruction, rainbow as restoration

Survival of a flight crash most likely symbolizes what?

Re-birth or a miracle

Foster claims that many people often accuse literature teachers of what?

Reading too much into the text

What makes the reader's experience of literature richer, deeper and more meaningful?

Recognition of a myth in modern work

Foster says that Peter Pan is a symbol of what?

Refusing to grow up

What does Foster say rain often symbolizes?

Restoration, misery, cleansing, and fertitily

Foster says that, "there comes a point in anyone's reading where watching for pattern and symbol becomes" what?

Second nature

Foster states that since the fall of man in the garden, evil has always been about what?

Sex

The breaking of bread is a symbol of what?

Sharing and peace

Literary violence is rarely what?

Straightforward

Foster points out that both Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz represents what?

Supernatural powers and entering a world that operates under different rules

What is the main source of tension in the story "The Garden Party"?

Tension based on social class

What does the heart usually symbolize in literature?

The center of all emotion

How does Foster define "intertextuality"?

The ongoing interaction between poems and stories/ the idea that everything within a work is connected to something else

In which elements of literature is geography relevant?

Theme, plot and symbolism

If a character is not emotionally sound, you shouldn't be surprised when what happens?

They develop a heart condition

Foster says the real reason for a quest is always what?

To gain self-knowledge

Richard III in Shakespeare's tale has scoliosis. For what purpose?

To show he is as spiritually and morally twisted as his back

Foster says we do not have to accept the "what" of a culture to be able to understand the mindset?

Values

According to Foster, when an evil man violates a young woman and steals her innocence, it is an example of what?

Vampirism

Foster points out that 20th century fairy tales are different than traditional fairy tales in that women sometimes do what?

Women sometimes save men