How to Read Literature Like a Professor Don't Read With Your Eyes

In Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Red-Headed League," Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson both discover Jabez Wilson carefully, even so their differing interpretations of the same details reveal the divergence between a "Skillful Reader" and a "Bad Reader." Watson tin just describe what he sees; Holmes has the knowledge to interpret what he sees, to draw conclusions, and to solve the mystery.

Understanding literature need no longer be a mystery -- Thomas Foster's book will help transform y'all from a naive, sometimes confused Watson to an insightful, literary Holmes. Professors and other informed readers run across symbols, archetypes, and patterns because those things are there -- if y'all have learned to await for them. As Foster says, you learn to recognize the literary conventions the "same style y'all get to Carnegie Hall. Practice." (xiv).

How to Read Literature Like a Professor:
A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Betwixt the Lines
by Thomas C. Foster Total TEXT

As well available in a revised 2d edition, with significant changes. Total TEXT

Note to teachers: LitCharts has chapter handouts and a Teacher Guide. Harper Collins Teacher Guide presents challenging analytical writing and is correlated with Common Core. PowerPoint version of Marti Nelson'southward notes (sent to me by an unnamed correspondent). Literary Guideposts from Oak Park High School combines notes and questions (by Enoch and Rohlfs). Thomas Foster Meets Kate Chopin requires that students apply Foster to "The Story of an Hr" (by Rebecca Mooring).

Teachers Pay Teachers offers workheets and quizzes on the volume. In item, AP Lit and More than, Gina Kortuem's shop materials are adjusted for the 2019 CED and could largely stand up without the text through the daily Bellringers. But in time for distance learning, Kortuem has added a Hyperdoc Unit of measurement that works in Google Slides, consummate with bellringers, lesson principles, awarding, additional information, and a various written responses.

Note to students: These curt writing assignments volition let yous do your literary analysis and they volition help me get to know y'all and your literary tastes. Whenever I enquire for an example from literature, you may utilise short stories, novels, plays, or films (Yes, moving-picture show is a literary genre). If your literary repertoire is thin and undeveloped, employ the Appendix to jog your memory or to select additional works to explore. At the very least, watch some of the "Movies to Read" that are listed on pages 293-294. Please note that your responses should exist paragraphs -- non pages!

Even though this is analytical writing, you may use "I" if you deem it important to do so; call back, nonetheless, that most uses of "I" are just padding. For example, "I think the wolf is the near important grapheme in 'Little Reddish Ridinghood'" is padded. Every bit you compose each written response, re-phrase the prompt equally part of your answer. In other words, I should be able to tell which question y'all are answering without referring back to the prompts.

Concerning mechanics, pay special attention to pronouns. Make antecedents clear. Say Foster first; not "he." Remember to capitalize and punctuate titles properly for each genre.

Assignments below are for the outset edition. They are re-listed, with advisable additions, for the 2nd edition on its page. Y'all may download a prepare of Notes (by Marti Nelson) on this book to assistance you in your analysis. Besides a copy of these assignments (Give-and-take or as .PDF) and a Grading Checklist (Word or as .PDF).

Introduction: How'd He Do That?
How do retention, symbol, and design touch on the reading of literature? How does the recognition of patterns make it easier to read complicated literature? Discuss a time when your appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by understanding symbol or pattern.

Chapter 1 -- Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When Information technology's Not)
Listing the five aspects of the QUEST and and then apply them to something yous have read (or viewed) in the class used on pages 3-five.

Chapter 2 -- Dainty to Consume with You lot: Acts of Communion
Choose a repast from a literary work and apply the ideas of Chapter 2 to this literary depiction.

Chapter 3: --Overnice to Consume You: Acts of Vampires
What are the essentials of the Vampire story? Apply this to a literary work yous have read or viewed.

Affiliate 4 -- If Information technology's Square, It's a Sonnet
Select three sonnets and show which class they are. Hash out how their content reflects the class. (Submit copies of the sonnets, marked to show your analysis).

Affiliate 5 --Now, Where Take I Seen Her Before?
Define intertextuality. Discuss 3 examples that accept helped you in reading specific works.

Chapter 6 -- When in Dubiety, It's from Shakespeare...
Discuss a piece of work that yous are familiar with that alludes to or reflects Shakespeare. Show how the author uses this connection thematically. Read pages 44-46 carefully. In these pages, Foster shows how Fugard reflects Shakespeare through both plot and theme. In your discussion, focus on theme.

Chapter 7 -- ...Or the Bible
Read "Araby" (available here). Discuss Biblical allusions that Foster does non mention. Look at the example of the "ii keen jars." Be artistic and imaginative in these connections.

Chapter viii -- Hanseldee and Greteldum
Retrieve of a work of literature (including motion-picture show) that reflects a fairy tale. Discuss the parallels. Does it create irony or deepen appreciation?

Chapter 9 -- It's Greek to Me
Write a free verse poem derived or inspired by characters or situations from Greek mythology. Exist prepared to share your poem with the course. Greek mythology available online.

Chapter x -- It'south More Only Pelting or Snow
Discuss the importance of weather in a specific literary work, not in terms of plot.

Interlude -- Does He Mean That

Chapter 11 --...More Than It'southward Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence
Nowadays examples of the ii kinds of violence institute in literature (including film). Show how the effects are dissimilar.

Affiliate 12 -- Is That a Symbol?
Use the process described on page 106 and investigate the symbolism of the fence in "Araby." (Mangan's sister stands behind information technology.)

Affiliate xiii -- It's All Political
Assume that Foster is right and "information technology is all political." Apply his criteria to bear witness that one of the major works assigned in a previous year is political.

Chapter 14 -- Yes, She's a Christ Figure, Too
Use the criteria on page 119 to a major grapheme in a meaning literary work. Endeavor to choose a grapheme that will have many matches. This is a particularly apt tool for analyzing movie -- for example, Star Wars, Cool Mitt Luke, Excalibur, Malcolm Ten, Braveheart, Spartacus, Gladiator and Ben-Hur.

Chapter 15 -- Flights of Fancy
Select a literary piece of work in which flight signifies escape or freedom. Explain in detail.

Affiliate 16 -- It'due south All About Sex...
Chapter 17 -- ...Except the Sex
OK ..the sex chapters. The cardinal idea from this affiliate is that "scenes in which sex is coded rather than explicit can work at multiple levels and sometimes be more intense that literal depictions" (141). In other words, sex is frequently suggested with much more than fine art and effort than information technology is described, and, if the writer is doing his task, it reflects and creates theme or grapheme. Choose a novel or moving picture in which sex is suggested, but non described, and talk over how the human relationship is suggested and how this implication affects the theme or develops characterization.

Affiliate 18 -- If She Comes Upward, Information technology's Baptism
Think of a "baptism scene" from a significant literary work. How was the character different afterwards the experience? Hash out.

Chapter nineteen -- Geography Matters...
Hash out at to the lowest degree 4 different aspects of a specific literary work that Foster would classify under "geography."

Chapter 20 -- ...Then Does Flavour
Find a poem that mentions a specific flavor. Then discuss how the poet uses the season in a meaningful, traditional, or unusual way. (Submit a copy of the poem with your analysis.)

Interlude -- Ane Story
Write your ain definition for archetype. And then identify an archetypal story and apply it to a literary work with which yous are familiar.

Chapter 21 -- Marked for Greatness
Why exercise writers give characters in literature deformities? Figure out Harry Potter'south scar. If yous aren't familiar with Harry Potter, select another character with a physical imperfection and analyze its implications for characterization.

Chapter 22 -- He'southward Bullheaded for a Reason, You lot Know
If it is difficult to write a story with a blind character, why might an author include 1? Explain what Foster
calls the "Indiana Jones Principle".

Chapter 23 -- It'due south Never Only Heart Affliction...
Affiliate 24 -- ...And Rarely Only Illness
Why does Foster consider heart disease the best, near lyrical, most perfectly metaphorical disease? Recall two characters who died of a disease in a literary work. Consider how these deaths reverberate the "principles governing the apply of disease in literature" (215-217). Discuss the effectiveness of the death every bit related to plot, theme, or symbolism.

Chapter 25 -- Don't Read with Your Eyes
Afterward reading Affiliate 25, choose a scene or episode from a novel, play or epic written before the twentieth century. Dissimilarity how it could be viewed by a reader from the twenty-first century with how it might be viewed by a contemporary reader. Focus on specific assumptions that the author makes, assumptions that would non make it in this century.

Affiliate 26 -- Is He Serious? And Other Ironies
Select an ironic literary work and explain the multivocal nature of the irony in the work.

Affiliate 27 -- A Test Example
Read "The Garden Party" by Katherine Mansfield, the brusque story starting on page 245. Complete the exercise on pages 265-266, following the directions exactly. And so compare your writing with the three examples. How did you do? What does the essay that follows comparing Laura with Persephone add together to your appreciation of Mansfield's story?

Envoi
Choose a motif not discussed in this book (as the equus caballus reference on page 280) and note its appearance in three or four different works. What does this idea seem to signify?

Adapted from Assignments originally developed by Donna Anglin. Notes by Marti Nelson.

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Source: https://mseffie.com/assignments/professor/professor.html

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