Wednesday, May 18, 2011

How to Read Literature Like a Keith


Read from Friday, May 13th to Monday, May 16th.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas Foster.  I read this book while on vacation in Asheville, North Carolina, and I wanted a quick, easy read after the adventure of Don Quixote.  This book offers some interesting insights on what it is that professors of literature look for in classic works, and how they are interpreted.  There are many short chapters on different themes, symbols, and other devices that authors use to add a deeper meaning to their stories.

Any trip that a character takes usually signifies a quest, and any meal that characters share signifies communion and a deeper connection.  Authors only reveal important details in their stories, so everything is important and serves to either advance the story or signify something.  Authors also borrow heavily from previous works.  It is not plagiarism, it is telling the same story in a different form.  For example, many modern novels take the form of Greek myths, stories from the Bible, Shakespeare, or even local Fairy Tales. Vampires represent evil men dominating virginal women, and the weather and seasons are also very important.  Many of the stuff is common sense, such as Spring is young, and Winter is old age.  Foster discusses violence in literature and what it means, political messages in popular literature, the symbols of flying, sex, the avoidance of sex, dunking in water (baptism, rebirth), physical deformities and blindness.  He teaches readers how to spot Christ figures, and whether the author means it literally or ironically.  Geography is important, as is the type of illness a character suffers from (heart disease is symbolic of love, and why consumption was such a perfect literary disease). 

At the end, Foster gives us a test story to analyze.  It is called "The Garden Party" and it is about a young, rich girl whose family throws a party, while the poor people nearby grieve over a man killed in a horse accident.  The young Laura goes to visit the house of mourning at the end, and she is very distraught.  Foster shows us how the story mirrors the journey of Persephone to Hades and her confrontation with mortality.  Overall, I enjoyed this read, and hopefully will be more perceptive in my future journeys into literature.  Foster uses many examples, some from books I have read, and some from new books that I am interested in finding out more about.  He does rely very heavily on Toni Morrison, D.H. Lawrence and some others, and I would've liked him to branch out more.  It seems very much like one of his semester lesson plans put into book form.  But still, I enjoyed it very much.  Three and a half out of five stars.

No comments:

Post a Comment