Sharadin McWhorter Mrs. Mary Smith AP Literature 20 September 2017 Analysis of Allusions in “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” What goes through your mind when you read? Do you read deliberately, looking for certain aspects, or do you read as a blank slate? When reading, professors expect a deliberateness that will help you to uncover meanings that are not readily apparent. Thomas C. Foster in his book “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” expands on this concept. He endeavors to instruct his readers in the way he believes they should read, in order to get the most out of each book. He concedes that, “When lay readers encounter a fictive text, they focus, as they should, on the story and the characters” but to truly read like a professor you must also divert a portion of your attention on “other elements of the novel” such as “memory… symbol… [And] pattern” (Foster, 15). Foster clarifies …show more content…
He accomplishes this by elucidating symbolism, irony, metaphor, allusion and a number of other elements concealed throughout literature. Furthermore, he breaks down how highly educated and practiced readers read and asks you to apply these strategies to your own reading. He acknowledges that this type of reading takes considerable practices but is attainable for anyone who devotes the time and effort. One theme that Foster utilizes through the course of his book, thus letting the readers understand it is imperative, is allusion. Just a couple examples of allusions present in this work are myths and the Bible. Myths are, arguably, the most important allusion. Myths find themselves littered around the world and throughout time. Since the beginning of written language to present day, people experience myths in literature. Before science and modern religion, myths were what people used to explain the world around them. They used them to make the sun setting and rising, seasons, the
Memory, symbol, and pattern are a big bulk of reading in literature. By reading more and more, you will begin to see patterns in different works. Once you begin to compare and contrast, it will help you understand the bottom line of books.It’s becomes fun and exciting when you make connections.
Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature like a Professor: a Lively and Entertaining Guide to
In some novels, strong impressions are exploited to conceal other meanings. Unraveling these symbolic word puzzles may reveal insights into the author's perspective and one's own secrets. A careful analysis of selected passages of two books: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, will show that symbolical language can reveal even more insight. In this comparison, symbolism in the passages containing variations of the words "blossom" or "blooming" will be examined to reveal human development beyond sexuality and anatomy.
How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C Foster is a how to do book that teaches children how to become better readers. The novel was written in second person. The purpose of this novel is to inform readers on details that they wouldn’t usually realize in literature. Students who read Thomas C Foster’s How to Read Literature like a Professor are suppose to gain knowledge of how to identify details of their story that have connections to other literature or have alternative meanings that the author is trying to get across to the reader. Thomas C Foster believes reading his novel can help develop you into a better reader. He believes this because the information that he includes can apply to your reading. When you realize the connections he talks about, it gives you a better understanding of the book you are reading.
He too quickly dismisses the idea of reading on your own to find meaning and think critically about a book. For him, Graff states that “It was through exposure to such critical reading and discussion over a period of time that I came to catch the literary bug.” (26) While this may have worked for Graff, not all students will “experience a personal reaction” (27) through the use of critical discussion. The solution to this seems to be neither giving away answers or lazily doing assigned reading in order to find meaning within the text.
Without much thought, authors use brilliant techniques in order to portray the images and stories that they wish to tell. The novel, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas C Foster, helps readers discover the hidden truths among literature and the brilliant techniques that the authors use as well as learn how to add innovative concepts into their writing in order to portray exactly what they are trying to say. It is evident that in A Thousand Splendid Suns the author, Khaled Hosseini, unconsciously uses some of the brilliant concepts that Foster addresses in his book. Khaled Hosseini, the accomplished author, habitually uses the concepts by Thomas C Foster in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, therefore making Hosseini an iconic author.
In the skillful novel, "How To Read Literature Like A Professor" by Thomas C. Foster, there is neither a protagonist nor antagonist. As a whole, the novel gives insights on how to pick up signs of symbolism, irony, and many other hidden details that are buried within the words of literature. Foster refers to many classis novels by classic authors to demonstrate the use of logic in writing. The novel is extremely educational, leaving many insightful questions and interpretations to the reader's opinion.
In both of the poems, "Introduction to Poetry" and "Trouble with Poetry", Collins makes an interesting form of observation of the world he lives in while possibly explaining his daily life or experiences.
When reading someone else's work you need to be certain that you read between the lines. Author's, at times, will attempt to distort information in order to make their beliefs more prominent. In order to avoid this disinformation, you have to learn the difference between denotations and connotations and facts from opinions. Furthermore, you'll have to recognize figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, which can incite specific feelings onto readers.
Atwood’s way of structuring the novel changes the readers’ interpretation throughout the whole novel. She does this by using symbolic references, e.g. the language she uses in the novel express what the characters represent and what they feel.
reader creates “supplementary meaning” to the text by unconsciously setting up tension, also called binary opposition. Culler describes this process in his statement “The process of thematic interpretation requires us to move from facts towards values, so we can develop each thematic complex, retaining the opposition between them” (294). Though supplementary meaning created within the text can take many forms, within V...
Throughout literature and novels we can find authors who will reference history, other authors works and most often the Bible. One may ask themselves the reasoning behind allusions and how it can affect our perspective and the authors meaning when reading the novel. In the late sixties, Julia Kristeve, who studied the elements of literature and other communication systems, introduced the word “Intertextuality”. In Kristave’s essay “Word, Dialogue, and Novel” she went into deep analysis of an authors work and its text, “A literary work, then, is not simply the product of a single author, but of its relationship to other texts and to the strucutures of language itself. Any text," she argues, "is constructed of a mosaic of quotations; any text
To start with the most common one, the role of the gods, one can see many such allusions thrown all over the odyssey. The epic poem starts in Mt.Olympus where the gods are discussing what will happen to Odysseus , Master mariner and warrior of Ithaka. As it so happens he is on the island of Kalypso, one of the lesser gods. Also, as Odysseus travels, one learns about the role of the gods in not only his travels but other peoples ones too. Agisthos, the man who stole Agamemnon's wife and killed him, was sent a message from Zeus by Hermes, giving him the information of what will happen if he kills him. Also, Menelaus, the red haired king of war, had to wrestle with a sea-god in order to gain acceptance and sail all the way back to his homeland of Sparta, and find news about the rest of his companions. He would not find out about his brothers demise until he got home.
Kennedy, X. J., & Gioia, D. (2013). Symbol. In J. Terry, K. Glynn & D. Campion (Eds.), Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing (7 ed., pp. 234-245; pp. 250-256). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
Allegory is a literary device used to express meaningful convictions, concepts and prescripts in a composition. This ideas can be transmitted through characters , event which occurs on the story, or even a figure . The purpose of this function is to teach humans the importance of a lesson. The meaning of this word can be also explained as a method to express a meaning of a guidance through a tangible elements of a story. Furthermore it can also be described as a extended metaphor. For instance, in the book “ Lord of the Flies” Piggy is the very representation of civilness and another character which contributes to the allegory established in the book is Jack who is the portrayal of evilness within humans. In most book one can be able to find