Literature Like A Professor Allusion

In Sven Birkerts writing, “The Owl Has Flown,” Birkerts puts forth something to think about for any modern day reader. Birkerts believes that over the years the methodology of reading has changed as the technology has advanced. In the older days, people had small amounts of texts to choose from, but read them more thoroughly, and gained in depth knowledge about each book. In this day and age, the scope of reading has broadened but at the same time become shallower. He believes that we now read large amounts of materials, divulging ourselves into all sorts of different subject matter, but that we merely skim across its surface gaining no knowledge. In his opinion we have gone from vertical to horizontal depth. He deems an increase in the

How to Read Literature like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster, is like painting a picture; with painting the first step is to paint inside the lines, but an advanced artist understands that a picture is made up of not just color, texture, and shapes, but also considers the purpose behind each stroke. Foster brings a different meaning to reading a book and draws attention to the author and his or her intention. While applying Fosters teaching's to Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, the main character, Santiago's journey becomes more than a journey- it turns into a quest. Simple drinks and foods turn symbolic into acts of communion and while

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster is a book that explains there is more to literature than just a few words on a paper or a few pages in a book. Thomas Foster’s book portrays a relatable message to a wide based audience. This book is relatable for two reasons, the way it is written and the examples it uses. The book is written in a conversational manner, as if the reader was in a group discussion about books and writing. As for the examples, they are informative, descriptive, relative, and entertaining.

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, author Thomas C. Foster extensively teaches literary conventions that teach a reader how to read between the lines. The main goal of this guide is to help a reader read to a level such as a professor, which entails being able to read analytically. Throughout Foster's literary guide, he sets out essential elements of literature that aid in the ability to read analytically. How to Read Literature Like a Professor focuses on not only external influences, but also in text elements such as structure, themes, and setting. Throughout Foster's guide there are many valuable keys to reading, some of the most prominent in literature being biblical reference, character quests, and character baptism. Chapters

In ancient Rome and ancient Greece, myths were an oral tradition of storytelling that served to answer two primary purposes. The first role was to create stories that responded to unanswerable questions such as “Why is there thunder?” and the second function of myths, about gods, goddesses, monsters, and heroes, was to give structure to their society and culture in psychological manifestations. In addition, the gods and prophecies served as a reminder to the characters that they don’t ultimately have any control over their lives. This epic poem by Homer is not just a simple story of an argument between Achilles and Agamemnon or the well-known story of the war but also has a psychological theme incorporating anger, especially Achilles’ as

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster is an all-encompassing guide to literature. Thomas C. Foster sets outs to explain how seemingly each detail in a story has some sort of symbolic meaning that may not be easily noticed at first glance. These symbolic meanings can range from the more potent symbolism of the weather to the obscure deeper meaning of a supernatural creature in a story’s plot. As I was reading this book, I was amazed and somewhat taken aback to how much other works of literature are used as examples to validate Foster’s explanations. Well-known novels like Animal Farm, Shakespearean plays such as Hamlet, biblical stories, and Greek myths are referred to. It was immediately apparent that the author was very

When a novel is revealing, witty and whimsical it unlocks the hidden truths about literature as discussed in the book How To Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster. This book is written in second person so the reader can experience Foster’s personality that is directed towards them. A reader is given a fresh and clear perception on literature to understand what is being read. Foster clarifies the way writers uses symbols and themes. He believes by analyzing the deeper meaning in literature will help foster a better reader.

Thomas Foster is an english professor from Michigan he his the author of How To Read literature like a professor. How To Read literature like a professor is a how to book. It guides readers to get better at reading non fiction books. Each chapter challenges its readers to look for different things in stories. The novel Insurgent written by Veronica Roth that has a few connections to How To Read literature like a professor. When reading Insurgent you `can Identify nice to eat with you, Or the bible and it all political.

Foster reveals various tropes and archetypes that can be found manifesting within literature. He proclaims that there is no original works in the world of literature, they have all derived from a singular source. Through the duration of How To Read Literature Like A Professor, Foster continues to explain symbolic figures and how they are not always what they seem to be. In chapter four, Foster explains the greatest thing about being an English teacher is the ability recognize repetitive characters and archetypes within literature, like “meeting old friends”. Later in chapter nine, Foster discussed the significance of how location can change a situation drastically and how climate, culture and a ways of adapting play a big role in

Throughout the semester of TE 348, I was able to read many books of various genres, themes, messages and characters. Due to the variety of text I read, I used a range of lenses when engaging with the text in my responses. This has shown me how I tend to react to a text, and what lenses I don’t use as often. Also, I am able to reflect on the advantages and disadvantages that come with engaging with the text with certain lenses. All of this has led to my development of engaging with literature.

    Most people think of a hero as a strong, superior, good-looking person that could never make a mistake. However, in a story called The Odyssey, a connection to real life reveals imperfections to be common in heroes. Each person has their low points and highlights, regardless of their “rank”. The author and epic poet, Homer, exemplifies our main character, Odysseus, to take on this idea of a hero and a father figure throughout his writing. Monsters were also used to excite a reader and still are a vital archetype used today. The time period took place in Ancient Greece, allowing Greek culture to relate to the poem. Different aspects of such culture and history may have influenced the works and creativity of Homer as well. A major point includes The Trojan War because it focuses in on Odysseus’ journey to bring Helen back home by devising a plan to destroy warriors in the city. Acknowledge this factor when reading The Odyssey, for not only evidence of heroism, but also other major points of archetypes, in which the device reflects the insights of readers in modern time and what is seen from Ancient Greek culture.

Bunn argues that every single word in a text has specific purpose and affects the holistic interpretation of the work. He uses this point to educate his audience of college students on how to read not only for content, but for every author’s techniques used to convey certain ideas and feelings. He begins by saturating his audience in reasons to read texts word-by-word. Using this basis, Bunn takes the idea that each word has discrete purpose and extends it to claim any decision the writer makes affects the ultimate meaning. Finally, he shows his audience how to apply these ideas and implement “reading like a writer”

We read How to Read Literature like a professor over the summer. This book wasn’t anything like the other two required readings; instead, it provided me with a glimpse into the thought process and mind of a Literature Major. The reading was informative and provided me with a plethora of new ways of helping analyze books and stories. Compared to what I knew before, this new accumulation of knowledge provided me with much more freedom while reading other books. Though there were many chapters which presented a new concept/idea to analyzing a story, the concepts that caught my eye were the symbolism of certain objects or events, the borrowing of ideas from older stories (intertextuality), and the meaning of weather and the seasons.

This essay attempts to investigate the extent of how similarities and differences between the modern and classical interpretations of ancient Greek mythology reflects popular culture at the time of their creation. These differences arise with the development of new technology, trends, as well as changes in popular culture and opinion. The example of modern Greek mythology interpretation is provided by the 2010 film, ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief’, directed by Chris Columbus, while primary sources, including images and quotations for Greek mythology from a variety of ancient Greek writers, are provided by the website www.theoi.com, a well-reputed reference guide to Greek mythology. This website is created by Aaron J. Atsma

Myths are often times very complex and difficult to understand, so in order to attain a better understanding of a myth we apply certain strategies and techniques, such as Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale, to ensure a more effective or deeper understanding of a myth. Propp’s structuralist approach, when used to analyze the Iliad, creates a very streamlined outline of what should occur throughout the story; however, as Professor Jamison has made very clear during lecture, the things that stand out are what one is supposed to look into. The structured outline makes it much more feasible to pin point the instances that stand out, and because of that one is able to further analyze that specific instance and find its significance in the myth.