Over the summer, after taking a break from reading a novel just for entertainment, I sat down to read How to Read Literature like a Professor and it was the exact novel to refresh and supplement my dusty analysis skills. After reading and applying Foster’s novel, How to Read Literature like a Professor, towards The Bonesetter’s Daughter I found a previously elusive and individualized insight towards literature. Although, The Bonesetter’s Daughter is full of cryptic messages and a theme that is universal, I was able to implement an individual perspective on comprehending the novel’s universal literary devices, and coming upon the unique inference that Precious Auntie is the main protagonist of the novel. In How to Read Literature like a Professor one of the new literary skills I learned was intertextuality. Intertextuality is a connection between different literary sources, such as “the ongoing interactions between poems and stories” (Foster 29). Similar to intertextuality, the …show more content…
This title stuck out for me. Instinctively I knew that the title foreshadows the events of the novel. By the end of the chapter I found the symbols that Foster had so greatly stressed in his novel. One symbol that I considered important is the fact that Liu Lang doesn’t seem to remember Precious Auntie’s name. This seems to pose a question and mystery about Precious Auntie’s identity and is the start of the journey towards Ruth gaining the answers. In the chapter Truth Liu Lang placed Precious Auntie’s name in the “trunk of best things” (Tan 8). This indicates that Precious Auntie is important, cherished, and crucial to the plot; through such foreshadows, I learned the plot of the novel was a journey of remembering Precious Auntie’s name, and the theme was of revelations and realizations. For this reason I consider the main protagonist to be Precious Auntie because it’s through her that the plot and theme are
An example of intertextuality is in West Side Story. Although this is a play, I could connect it back to Romeo and Juliet. The musical is a modern day version of the Shakespeare book, so there was a lot of intertextuality between the two. When watching the play, I noticed that two gangs have always been enemies and are fighting for control over the area. This is much like the on going battle between the Capulets and Montagues. Knowing this helped me see the rivalry between the two gangs. On top of this, one of the gang members falls in love with a rival’s sister. Again, having read Romeo and Juliet,I could relate this part to it. The both have the same theme of wanting something you can’t have. Another example
...onally transposing indirect to direct quotation, putting words into people mouths and blending two separate eye witness's accounts. How can one read a novel for knowledge gaining purposes when the structure appears so flawed? The use of modern and old English are combined in the sentence structure. The highly academic vocabulary not only is confusing, but breaks the flow of the book when that is the evident purpose for the format of the book. The confusing order in which Starkey retells events and the ineffective and useless information that is put in for building character personalities.
Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature like a Professor: a Lively and Entertaining Guide to
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.
In John Hassler’s novel Staggerford, a spotlight is shining on Miles Pruitt and Beverly Bingham. Beverly Bingham, Miles’ student, preyed on Miles until he fell to his knees. If Beverly had never shown interest in him, Miles would not have thought of her as anything but a student. She was relentless, and that is all it took for Miles to write, “Don’t tell me I’m falling in love with the Bonewoman’s daughter” (Hassler 112). Their growing scandal was based on convenience and not on love.
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 conclusion, the brilliant novel “How To Read Literature Like A Professor” by Thomas C. Foster is a fantastic novel that helps grasp the basic ideas and structure that makes up a work of literature. Foster’s laid-back attitude made a major contribution to the great tone of the novel, and made it easier to understand. Many connections were included in the novel, along with some great quotes. After reading this novel, I have a better idea of what to look for when reading a novel.
Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.
we are told that this story is about a girl or a woman and perhaps her
Carlsen, G. Robert. Insights Themes in Literature. New York: Webster Division, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1967.
["Books & Such Literary Management." Books Such Literary Management. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.] This gives the reader included data around a character's past, including his or her insider facts, internal or outer clashes, or huge occasions that influenced his or her life. On the off chance that the writer has the capacity to do this well, the reader will start to pass on thinking for the characters' activities all through the story and add to a superior comprehension of present occasions. Likewise it assists with the author making a topic for the story and building the passionate effect it will have on the
...d. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 254. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2008. 287-89. Literature Criticism Online. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Intertextuality can be defined as the ongoing interaction between various works of prose and poetry. I actually had an aha! moment with How to Read Literature like a Professor because it’s basically TV Tropes developed into an entire book and much more in-depth than the website. Specifically, the chapters about the quest, sex, and illness. Another time was when I was reading To Kill a Mockingbird. The family name is a big deal, often being the only thing that separates a person from poverty which reminded me of The Lazarillo de Tormes where an hidalgo is dirt poor, but still maintains an illusion of wealth due to his name. Lastly, Cat’s Cradle seems like an ironic parody of any literature relating to the apocalypse, religion, and politics.
The Intertextuality and Analysis of Homoerotic Relations and Desires between UbiquitousMixie’s fan fiction “As Long As You Love Me” and its canon The Hours by Michael Cunningham. Intertextuality according to Genette is a “relationship between two texts [...] the actual presence of one text within another” (Allen 98). Genette’s theory of hypertextuality is presented as “literature which are intentionally inter-textual”. Genette uses the terms hypo- and hypertext, which means that the hypotext is considered as the source for the hypertext. In this case, “As Long As You Love Me” is the hypertext and its source is the hypotext; The Hours. Genette also argues that “the meaning of hypertextual works are depended on the reader’s knowledge [...] imitates
A. “Reading Little Women.” Temple University Press (1984): 151-65. Rpt in Novels for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Thomason.