Transcript How to Read Like a Literature Professor

How to Read Like a
Literature Professor
( hope you read your 9th grade
literature)
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 dragonchallenges and trials en
route
• one evil knightchallenges and trials
• one princess- real reason
to go there
1. Every Trip is a quest
• the individual doesn’t
necessarily know he’s on a
quest
• he 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!!!!!!!!
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.
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
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.
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
4. If it’s square, it’s a sonnet
no other poem is so versatile, so
ubiquitous, so various, so perfectly
short as a sonnet
the miracle of the sonnet is that it is 14
lines long and almost always written in
iambic pentameter
A Shakespearean sonnet tends to divide up
this way.
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•
•
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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
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
intertextuality
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
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.”
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 subjectively
7…or maybe the Bible
• Loss of innocence stories
hit hard because they are
so final. There’s no going
back.
• If there is a biblical titleit’s important
• Poetry 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.
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
Scripture
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”
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
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.
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.
9. It’s all Greek to me
• The 4 great struggles of the
Homer novels
• The 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
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.
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
earth
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)
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,
transcendent
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 violence
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?
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
meaning
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 works
13. It’s all political
•
•
Political writing does not age
well
but 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
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.
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 world
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
15. Flying
• in general, flying is freedom;
freedom not only from
specific circumstances but
from those more general
burdens that tie us down
• flight 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
The next one is the one you
have all been waiting for…
16. It’s all about sex…….except…
• sex doesn’t have to look
like sex.
• other objects and
activities can be
symbolic of sex
• why?
• 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
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?
17. Except sex ( huh??)
• if you write about sex
for sex, its called
pornography
• ( we DO NOT READ
this)
17. Except sex ( huh??)
• What would they be
writing about?
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pleasure
sacrifice
submission
rebellion
resignation
supplication
domination
enlightenment
etc
18. Baptism
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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.
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
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, people
19. Geography matters
• geography is setting – but
it can also be
psychological, attitude,
finance, industry
• geography 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 subconscious
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, death
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 death
20. Season matters
• use these as guidelines
• see patterns that can be straightforward, ironic
or subversive
• Christian season biggies are Easter and
Christmas- which coincide with seasonal anxiety
• Christmas( winter) is dismal and we wait for
spring
• Easter ( spring) rebirth( resurrection) planting
• Pay attention to the season
21. Marked for Greatness
• characters can be as
famous for their shape
as for their behavior
• their shapes/marks tell
us something, about
themselves or other
people in the story
• understand physical
imperfection in
symbolic terms
21. Marked for Greatness
• physical imperfections
can be symbolic of moral,
spiritual and/or
psychological
dysfunctions
• character 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
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
physical
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
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
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
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 else
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 audience
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 overcome
• irony 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
meanings
Finally…………….
•Yeah
•This lecture is over