How to Read Literature Like a Professor Guided Reading Note

In Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Scarlet-Headed League," Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson both observe Jabez Wilson carefully, all the same their differing interpretations of the aforementioned details reveal the difference between a "Good Reader" and a "Bad Reader." Watson tin only describe what he sees; Holmes has the cognition to translate what he sees, to describe conclusions, and to solve the mystery.

Understanding literature need no longer be a mystery -- Thomas Foster's volume will assistance transform y'all from a naive, sometimes confused Watson to an insightful, literary Holmes. Professors and other informed readers see symbols, archetypes, and patterns because those things are there -- if you have learned to expect for them. Every bit Foster says, you learn to recognize the literary conventions the "same way you get to Carnegie Hall. Practise." (fourteen).

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

Too available in a revised second edition, with significant changes. FULL TEXT

Note to teachers: LitCharts has chapter handouts and a Instructor Guide. Harper Collins Instructor Guide presents challenging analytical writing and is correlated with Mutual Core. PowerPoint version of Marti Nelson's notes (sent to me by an unnamed contributor). 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" (past Rebecca Mooring).

Teachers Pay Teachers offers workheets and quizzes on the book. In particular, AP Lit and More, Gina Kortuem's store materials are adapted for the 2019 CED and could largely stand without the text through the daily Bellringers. Just in time for distance learning, Kortuem has added a Hyperdoc Unit that works in Google Slides, complete with bellringers, lesson principles, application, boosted data, and a various written responses.

Annotation to students: These short writing assignments will allow you practice your literary analysis and they volition assistance me get to know y'all and your literary tastes. Whenever I ask for an example from literature, yous may use short stories, novels, plays, or films (Yes, film is a literary genre). If your literary repertoire is thin and undeveloped, utilise the Appendix to jog your retentiveness or to select additional works to explore. At the very least, sentinel some of the "Movies to Read" that are listed on pages 293-294. Delight annotation that your responses should exist paragraphs -- not pages!

Even though this is belittling writing, you may use "I" if y'all deem it important to do so; remember, nevertheless, that most uses of "I" are just padding. For example, "I think the wolf is the most important graphic symbol in 'Piffling Blood-red Ridinghood'" is padded. As you compose each written response, re-phrase the prompt as part of your respond. In other words, I should exist able to tell which question yous are answering without referring back to the prompts.

Concerning mechanics, pay special attention to pronouns. Brand antecedents articulate. Say Foster offset; non "he." Recollect to capitalize and punctuate titles properly for each genre.

Assignments below are for the first edition. They are re-listed, with appropriate additions, for the second edition on its page. You may download a prepare of Notes (by Marti Nelson) on this volume to help y'all in your analysis. Likewise a re-create of these assignments (Word or as .PDF) and a Grading Checklist (Word or as .PDF).

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

Affiliate 1 -- Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When Information technology's Not)
List the five aspects of the QUEST and and so employ them to something you lot accept read (or viewed) in the form used on pages 3-v.

Chapter 2 -- Dainty to Eat with You: Acts of Communion
Cull a meal from a literary work and apply the ideas of Chapter two to this literary depiction.

Chapter 3: --Nice to Eat Y'all: 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 It's Square, It'south a Sonnet
Select three sonnets and prove which form they are. Hash out how their content reflects the form. (Submit copies of the sonnets, marked to show your assay).

Chapter 5 --Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?
Ascertain intertextuality. Discuss 3 examples that have helped you in reading specific works.

Chapter 6 -- When in Dubiety, It'south from Shakespeare...
Discuss a work that you are familiar with that alludes to or reflects Shakespeare. Testify 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 give-and-take, focus on theme.

Chapter 7 -- ...Or the Bible
Read "Araby" (available here). Discuss Biblical allusions that Foster does not mention. Look at the example of the "two great jars." Exist creative and imaginative in these connections.

Chapter 8 -- Hanseldee and Greteldum
Think of a work of literature (including film) that reflects a fairy tale. Talk over the parallels. Does it create irony or deepen appreciation?

Chapter 9 -- It's Greek to Me
Write a gratis verse poem derived or inspired past characters or situations from Greek mythology. Be prepared to share your poem with the class. Greek mythology available online.

Affiliate ten -- It's More than Merely Rain or Snow
Talk over the importance of weather in a specific literary work, not in terms of plot.

Interlude -- Does He Mean That

Chapter 11 --...More Than It's Gonna Injure You: Concerning Violence
Present examples of the ii kinds of violence found in literature (including film). Evidence how the effects are different.

Chapter 12 -- Is That a Symbol?
Apply the process described on page 106 and investigate the symbolism of the fence in "Araby." (Mangan'due south sister stands behind it.)

Chapter 13 -- It's All Political
Assume that Foster is right and "information technology is all political." Use his criteria to testify that one of the major works assigned in a previous twelvemonth is political.

Chapter 14 -- Yes, She's a Christ Figure, As well
Apply the criteria on page 119 to a major grapheme in a pregnant literary work. Attempt to choose a character that will have many matches. This is a especially apt tool for analyzing film -- for instance, Star Wars, Cool Hand Luke, Excalibur, Malcolm X, Braveheart, Spartacus, Gladiator and Ben-Hur.

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

Affiliate 16 -- It's All Near Sex...
Chapter 17 -- ...Except the Sex
OK ..the sex activity capacity. The key idea from this chapter is that "scenes in which sex is coded rather than explicit can work at multiple levels and sometimes exist more intense that literal depictions" (141). In other words, sex is often suggested with much more art and effort than it is described, and, if the author is doing his job, it reflects and creates theme or graphic symbol. Choose a novel or moving picture in which sex is suggested, merely non described, and talk over how the human relationship is suggested and how this implication affects the theme or develops characterization.

Chapter xviii -- If She Comes Up, It'southward Baptism
Think of a "baptism scene" from a meaning literary work. How was the grapheme different after the feel? Talk over.

Chapter 19 -- Geography Matters...
Discuss at least four different aspects of a specific literary piece of work that Foster would classify under "geography."

Chapter 20 -- ...And then Does Season
Find a poem that mentions a specific season. Then talk over how the poet uses the season in a meaningful, traditional, or unusual style. (Submit a copy of the verse form with your analysis.)

Interlude -- I Story
Write your ain definition for classic. Then identify an archetypal story and employ information technology to a literary work with which you lot are familiar.

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

Chapter 22 -- He'southward Blind for a Reason, You Know
If information technology is difficult to write a story with a blind character, why might an author include one? Explicate what Foster
calls the "Indiana Jones Principle".

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

Chapter 25 -- Don't Read with Your Eyes
Subsequently reading Chapter 25, choose a scene or episode from a novel, play or ballsy written before the twentieth century. Contrast how it could be viewed by a reader from the xx-first century with how it might be viewed by a contemporary reader. Focus on specific assumptions that the writer makes, assumptions that would not make it in this century.

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

Chapter 27 -- A Test Example
Read "The Garden Party" by Katherine Mansfield, the short story starting on folio 245. Complete the exercise on pages 265-266, post-obit the directions exactly. Then compare your writing with the three examples. How did you exercise? What does the essay that follows comparing Laura with Persephone add to your appreciation of Mansfield's story?

Envoi
Choose a motif non discussed in this book (as the equus caballus reference on page 280) and annotation its advent in three or four different works. What does this idea seem to signify?

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

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

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