How to Read How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. FosterLiterature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

How to Read How to Read Literature Like a Professorby Thomas C. FosterA Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines

Review Chapters 15-20

Flights of FancyChapter 15I took just enough Physics in school to master one significant fact: human being cant fly (125).

[] soar into interpretation and speculation (134) Flights of FancyChapter 15when we see a person suspended in the air, even briefly, he is one or more of the following:1) a superhero2) a ski jumper3) crazy (redundant if also number 2)4) fictional5) a circus act, departing a cannon6) suspended on wires7) an angel8) heavily symbolic (126).Flights of FancyChapter 15So what does it all mean when literary characters fly? (127).Freedom from somethingReturn to somewhereSpiritual flightLOVEWonder / MagicIts really pretty straightforward: flight is freedom (128).

Flights of FancyChapter 15But dont forgetirony trumps everything. (129)Its All About SexChapter 16Blame it on Freud (135).

Its All About SexChapter 16Suddenly we discover that sex doesnt have to look like sex: other objects and activities can stand in (136).

Its All About SexChapter 16Oh yes, Freud taught us well. And some of those he taught are writers. Suddenly, as the twentieth century gets rolling, two things are happening. Critics and readers are learning that sexuality may be encoded in their reading, while writers are learning that they can encode sexuality into their writing (136).Except SexChapter 17When theyre writing about other things, they really mean sex, and when they write about sex, they really mean something else. If they write about sex and mean strictly sex, we have a word for that. Pornography (144).You just know that these scenes mean something more than whats going on in them (150).

If She Comes Up, Its BaptismChapter 18Have you even noticed how much literary characters get wet? Some drown, some merely get drenched, and some bob to the surface. What difference does it make? (152).Consider, just for a moment, that a disconcertingly large number of writers met their ends in water (153).If She Comes Up, Its BaptismChapter 18Rescued?

Rise and walk away

Grab on to something

Passivity

Good fortune

IndebtednessThe Soggy CharacterIf She Comes Up, Its BaptismChapter 18Baptism=Death, rebirth, new identityLiterallySpiritually

Drowning=deathCharacter revelationDevelop themePlot structure

Geography MattersChapter 19Geography is hills, mountains, lakes, etc.Geography in literature is more than PLACEIt includes economics, politics, historyLiterary geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time the spaces that inhabit humans (166).

Geography MattersChapter 19when writers send characters south, its so they can run amok (171).

Geography MattersChapter 19So, high or low, near or far, north or south, east or west, the places of poems and fiction really matter. It isnt just setting, that hoary old English class topic. Its place and space and shape that bring us to ideas and psychology and history and dynamism. Its enough to make you read a map (174).So Does SeasonChapter 20For about as long as anyones been writing anything, the seasons have stood for the same set of meanings. Maybe its hardwired into us that spring has to do with childhood and youth, summer with adulthood and romance and fulfillment and passion, autumn with decline and middle ages and tiredness but also harvest, winter with old age, resentment and death (178). So Does SeasonChapter 20This pattern is so deeply ingrained in our cultural experience that we dont even have to stop and think about it. Think about it we should, though, since once we know the pattern is in play, we can start looking at variance and nuance (178).