How to Read Like a Literature Professor - PowerPoint Presentation

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How to Read Like a Literature Professor

( hope you read your 9th grade literature)Slide2

1. The Quest

A quest consists of :a knight

-

A

quester

a dangerous road

–

a place to go

A Holy Grail

–

a stated reason to go there

at least one dragon-

challenges and trials en route

one evil knight-

challenges and trials

one princess-

real reason to go thereSlide3

1. Every Trip is a quest

 the individual doesn’t necessarily know he’s on a questhe goes somewhere and does something

the real reason for the quest never involves the stated reason

The quest is educational

The real reason for a quest is always self

knowledge!!!!!!!!Slide4

2. Acts of Communion

Whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion.nearly every religion has some liturgical or social ritual involving the coming together of the faithful to share sustenance

not all communions are holy, some are just the opposite

In the real world, the breaking of bread is an act of sharing and peace. If you’re breaking bread- you’re not breaking heads

.Slide5

2. Acts of Communion

generally, eating with another is a way of saying, “I’m with you, I like you, we form a community together”In literature- writing a meal scene is so difficult that the author needs a really compelling reason to do it.

He does it to show whether the characters get along or NOT.

a failed meal is a bad sign

 Slide6

3. Acts of Vampires

Vampirism isn’t about vampires

It’s about selfishness, exploitation, refusal to respect the autonomy of other people, and sex/sexuality

Victorian’s could not write about sex and sexuality, so they found ways of transforming these taboo subjects and issues into other forms. (The Victorians

were

masters of sublimation)

Writers still use ghosts, vampires, werewolves and other scary things to symbolize aspects of our more common reality.Ghosts and vampires are never only about ghosts and vampires

Ghosts and vampires do not necessarily look like ghosts and vampires.Slide7

3. Acts of Vampires

an older figure representing corrupt, outworn values; a young, usually virginal female; a stripping away of her youth, energy, vitality; a continuance of a the life force of the old male; the death or destruction of a young woman.the cannibal, vampire, succubus, spook etc is seen where someone grows in strength by weakening someone else.

Bottom line: vampires are those who grow in strength by weakening others.

Use adjective form!

Vampiristic

 Slide8

4. If it’s square, it’s a sonnet

no other poem is so versatile, so ubiquitous, so various, so perfectly short as a sonnetthe miracle of the sonnet is that it is 14 lines long and almost always written in iambic pentameterA Shakespearean sonnet tends to divide up this way.

first 4 lines (quatrain,)

second 4 lines ( quatrain)

third 4 lines ( quatrain)

last 2 lines (couplet)

The groups have meaning.

Form matters. Pay attention.

sonnets are short poems that take far more time to write, because everything has to be perfect

 Slide9

5. De ja vu

 Recognizing a pattern in literature, movies etc

This takes

a whole lot of it is

practice.

If you read enough and give what you read thought, you begin to see

patterns, archetypes, and recurrences.There is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature

The dialog between old texts and new texts is always going on at one level or another.

Critics speak of this dialog as

intertextualitySlide10

5. De ja vu

 Recognizing the allusions, references, parallels , & analogies, will increase your understanding of the novel

It will becomes more meaningful and complex

all literature grows out of other literature

Beginner readers (YOU) are disadvantaged because you have not read enough/learned enough

I’ll point you in the right direction & give you the skills but

will NOT GIVE YOU THE ANSWER  Slide11

6. When in doubt…it’s from Shakespeare

You would be amazed at the dominance of the Bard. He is everywhere.

In

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations

Shakespeare takes up 47 pages

Why

quote the Bard?

you sound smarter

you sound well educated

provides

a kind of authority

Shakespeare is sacred- because there is beauty and truth in his words, scenes and

lines.

“No, ‘tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but ‘tis enough, ‘twill serve.” Slide12

7…or maybe the Bible

gardens, serpents, plagues, flood, parting of waters, loaves, fish, 40 days, betrayal, denial, slavery and escape, fatted calves, milk and honey, etc

The devil can quote scripture- so can writers.

Even those who aren’t religious or who don’t live within the Judeo-Christian tradition may work something in from Job or Matthew or Psalms.

Every story about the loss of innocence is really about someone’s private reenactment of the fall from grace, since we experience it no collectively but individually and subjectivelySlide13

7…or maybe the Bible

L

oss of innocence stories hit hard because they are so final. There’s no going back.

If there is a biblical title- it’s important

P

oetry

is full of obvious scripture

Early

English literature is frequently

about

and

informed

by religion

Other religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam etc are also used in literature.Slide14

7…or maybe the Bible

In modern literature, many Christ figures do not act very Christ like.If a character/place has a biblical name – there’s a reason.

Why so many biblical allusions?

Most of the great tribulations to which human beings are subject are detailed in ScriptureSlide15

8. Hanseldee & Greteldum

Writers like to borrow from other traditional works. Who does everyone know? Children literature and Fairy tales

there is a lack of ambiguity in them

the one with the most drawing power is “Hansel and Gretel”Slide16

8. Hanseldee & Greteldum

elements of H and G sense of

lostness

children ( not always) far from home

crisis not of their making

temptation

having to fend for themselves

some fairytales are turned up side down

whole story isn’t always used, the details and patterns are what trigger your memories/reactions

plan on irony

Slide17

9. It’s Greek to me

So far...3 myths; Shakespearean, biblical, folk/fairy tale.

Biblical myth covers the greatest range of human situations. 

Myth in general is a story to explain ourselves in ways that physics, philosophy, mathematics, and chemistry can’t.

Myth is a body of story that matters

Greek mythological characters are not stiff and artificial .

They are not saints. They make mistakes. They are petty, envious, lustful, greedy, courageous, elegant, powerful, knowledgeable, profound.Slide18

9. It’s Greek to me

Ex. In The Iliad

, it’s the story of a man who goes berserk because his stolen war bride is confiscated, acted out against a background of wholesale slaughter, the whole of which is taking place because another man, Menelaus, has had his wife stolen by Paris.

Petty? You bet. Noble?

Yet the story epitomizes heroism, loyalty, sacrifice and loss.

 Slide19

9. It’s all Greek to me

The 4 great struggles of the Homer novelsThe need to protect one’s family (Hector)The need to maintain ones’ dignity ( Achilles)

The determination to remain faithful and have faith (Penelope)

The struggle to return home (Odysseus)

There is no form of dysfunctional family or no personal disintegration of character for which there is NOT a Greek or Roman model

 Slide20

10. It’s more than just rain or snow

1. It’s never just rain. It is symbolic of something.(Drowning is one of our deepest fears, so rain prompts ancestral memories of the most profound sort)

2. It’s a plot devise.Slide21

10. It’s more than just rain or snow

if you want a character to be cleansed, symbolically, let him walk through rain to get somewhere. If he falls down, he’ll be covered in mud and therefore more stained than before

Rain can be restorative

Rain can act as the agent of a new life

Rain is the principal element of Spring. Spring is symbolic

Rain mixes with sun to create rainbows. God promised Noah with the rainbow never again to flood the whole earthSlide22

10. It’s more than just rain or snow

fog almost always signals some sort of confusion

authors use fog to suggest that people can’t see clearly ( philosophically or emotionally) Slide23

11. It’s more than just violence

Real violence is one of the most personal and intimate acts between human beings, but it can be cultural and societal in its implications. In literature it can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romanic, allegorical, transcendentSlide24

11. It’s more than just violence

Violence in literature is usually also something else. A punch in the nose may be a metaphor.Violence is everywhere in literature.

It’s impossible to generalize about the meaning violenceSlide25

11. It’s more than just violence

Ask the following questions

What does this represent thematically?

What famous or mythic death does this resemble?

Why this particular violence and not another?

 Slide26

12. Is that a symbol?

Yes it is!!!The problem with symbols? Symbols generally cannot be reduced to standing for just one thing.

if a symbol can stand for one thing is not a symbol-

it’s an metaphor

Symbols are not reducible to a single meaningSlide27

12. Is that a symbol?

Symbols are not reducible to a single statement, but involve a range of possible meanings and interpretations.

Why?

we each bring our individual history to our reading ( like education, gender, race, class, faith, social involvement)

symbols are not necessarily objects or images, they can be actions

the more you exercise symbolic imagination, the better and quicker it worksSlide28

13. It’s all political

Political writing does not age wellbut it engages in the reality of its world.

nearly all writing is political on some level

the political reality of the time deals with issues like

power structures

relations between classes

issues of justice and social rights

interactions between sexes

interactions between various racial , social , and ethnic groups

knowing something about the social and political milieu can help you understand the work

 Slide29

14. Yes, She’s a Christ figure too

Culture is so influenced by its dominant religious systems that they naturally inform the literary work.religion can show up in the form of allusions

Knowing other religions will help you appreciate other religious allusions/ references of other authors.Slide30

14. Yes, She’s a Christ figure too

You might be a Christ figure if: crucified; agony; self sacrificing; good with children; good with loaves, fish, water wine; 33 yrs of age when last seen; employed as carpenter; portrayed with arms outstretched; spends time alone in wilderness; had confrontation with Satan; creator of aphorisms and parables; buried, but came back on 3rd day; had 12 disciples; very forgiving; came to redeem an unworthy worldSlide31

14. Yes, She’s a Christ figure too

Religious knowledge is helpful to read analytically, but if held to tightly can be a problem.no literary figure is as perfect as Christ

the author is making a point

 Slide32

15. Flying

in general, flying is freedom; freedom not only from specific circumstances but from those more general burdens that tie us downflight is freedom

falling from vast heights and surviving is miraculous and symbolically meaningful as the act of flight itself

the notion that the disembodied soul is capable of flight is deeply imbedded in Christian tradition

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The next one is the one you have all been waiting for…Slide34

16. It’s all about sex…….except…

 sex doesn’t have to look like sex. other objects and activities can be symbolic of sexwhy?

it’s encoded for younger audiences ( in Victorian novels)

Sometimes it’s encoded rather than explicit because it can work at multiple levels and be more intense than the literal depictions.

these levels protect the innocent

 Slide35

17.

Except sex ( huh??)Usually when writers are writing about sex, they are really writing about something else.

When writers are writing about other things, they really mean sex,

and when they are writing about sex they really mean other things.

Huh?Slide36

17. Except sex ( huh??)

 if you write about sex for sex, its called pornography( we DO NOT READ this)Slide37

17. Except sex ( huh??)

What would they be writing about? pleasure sacrificesubmission

rebellion

resignation

supplication

domination

enlightenment

etc Slide38

18. Baptism

 Ever notice how many literary characters get wet?It is symbolic.

Did the character: get pushed, pulled, dragged, tripped etc.?

Did the character: get rescued, grab some driftwood, rise up and walk. Each would mean something different on a symbolic level

Is he reborn?

See it in symbolic terms

Remember in baptism, you have to be ready to receive it.

 Slide39

18. Baptism

 rebirths/baptisms have a lot of common themes, but drowning is serving its own purpose ( character revelation, thematic development of violence or failure or guilt, plot complication or denouement ( final outcome of the main dramatic complication in literary work)

when your character goes underwater look for the symbolism

 Slide40

19. Geography matters

It means something when the landscape in the novel is high, low, steep, shallow, flat ,sunken.

Why did this character die on a mountain , and this one on the savanna?

What’s geography? rivers, hills, buttes, steppes, glaciers, swamps, mountains, prairies, chasms, seas, islands, peopleSlide41

19. Geography matters

geography is setting – but it can also be psychological, attitude, finance, industrygeography can define or even develop character

there is rebirth when there is a renaming

when writers send characters south- it’s so they can run amok ( wild)

this running south is because they are having direct, raw encounters with the subconsciousSlide42

19. Geography matters

geography also becomes a way which the writer can express theme

Hills and valleys have their own logic

low: swamps, crowds, fog, darkness, fields, heat, unpleasantness, people, life, death

high; snow, ice, purity, thin air, clear view, isolation, life, deathSlide43

20. Season matters

summer is passion and love

winter is anger and hatred

seasons stand for a set of meanings

spring- childhood and youth

summer- adulthood

,

romance, fulfillment & passion

fall- decline, middle age, tiredness, harvest

winter- old age, resentment deathSlide44

20. Season matters

use these as guidelinessee patterns that can be straightforward, ironic or subversiveChristian season biggies are Easter and Christmas- which coincide with seasonal anxietyChristmas( winter) is dismal and we wait for spring

Easter ( spring) rebirth( resurrection) planting

Pay attention to the seasonSlide45

21. Marked for Greatness

characters can be as famous for their shape as for their behaviortheir shapes/marks tell us something, about themselves or other people in the story

understand physical imperfection in symbolic termsSlide46

21. Marked for Greatness

physical imperfections can be symbolic of moral, spiritual and/or psychological dysfunctionscharacter markings stand as indicators of the damage life inflicts

physical markings by their very nature call attention to themselves and signify some psychological or thematic point the writer wants to make

 Slide47

22. He’s blind for a reason you know

 There are a lot of things that have to happen when a writer introduces a blind character into a story, and even more so for a play

Something important must be at stake when blindness comes up.

The author wants to emphasize other levels of sight and blindness beyond the physicalSlide48

22. He’s blind for a reason you know

as soon as we notice blindness and sight as thematic components of a work, more and more related images and phrases emerge in the text

when literal blindness, sight, darkness and light are introduced into a story, it is nearly always the case that figurative seeing and blindness are at work Slide49

23. It’s never just heart disease

In literature there is no better, no more lyrical, nor more perfectly metaphorical illness than heart disease.

the heart is the symbolic repository ( place) of emotion

the writer can use heart ailments as a kind of shorthand for the character, or it can be used as metaphor.

Metaphor for what?

bad love, loneliness, cruelty, pederasty, disloyalty, cowardice, lack of determination Slide50

24. ..and rarely just illness

Not all diseases are create equal

it should be picturesque

it should be mysterious in origin

it should have strong symbolic or metaphorical possibilities

Example: Tuberculosis is a wasting disease. So many characters contract tuberculosis either because the writer themselves had it, or many of their friends, etc

 Slide51

24. ..and rarely just illness

Is the disease from a plague? Divine wrath? Example: malaria metaphorically translates to “Bad air” ( gossip, public opinion)

every age has its special disease. The romantics and Victorians had consumption, we have AIDS.

Example: Fever could represent the randomness of fate, the

unknowability

of the mind of God, lack of author imagination, or anything elseSlide52

25. Don’t read with your eyes

we all have our own blind spots, that’s normal

don’t take a rigid stance on the literature

take the work as it was intended to be taken

don’t read with your eyes-

read with your mind/soul

try to find a reading with the

historical perspective

that allows for sympathy with the historical moment of the story,

understand the text as having been written against its social, historical, cultural and the authors personal background.

adopt the worldview that the work requests of its audienceSlide53

26. Irony trumps everything

in literary works we watch characters who are our equals or even superiors, in an ironic work we watch characters struggle futilely with forces we might be able to overcomeirony is a deflection from expectation

most writers use irony

irony can be comic, tragic, wry, perplexing

irony provides additional richness to the literary work because the reader can find multiple layers and meaningsSlide54

Finally…………….

YeahThis lecture is over