How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines | 
 enlarge | Author: Thomas C. Foster
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  60 reviews
Sales Rank: 339
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 006000942X
Dewey Decimal Number: 808
EAN: 9780060009427
ASIN: 006000942X
Publication Date: March 1, 2003
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Product Description
What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey?. Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface—a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character—and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you. In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and gratifying it is to unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain. Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, How to Read Literature Like a Professor is the perfect companion for making your reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 55 more reviews...
How to Read Literature like a Professor is a popular introduction to critical reading skills for students, teachers and readers August 20, 2008
Dr. Thomas C. Foster is a Michigan Professor of English who has written this bestseller and its sequel "How To Read Novels Like a Professor". This is the initial volume published in paperback by Quill in 2003.
Foster is well versed in all aspects of the literary field from ancient works to fiction by living writers. In his lively little book he introduces us to such terms as the following:
Seasons; Food; the Bible, Greek and Latin classical allusions and the world of fairy tales. He discusses irony, plote, motif and theme. All of this can be found elsewhere and in greater depth but Foster does an adequate job by using cogent illustrations from outstanding works such as "The Alexandrine Quartet" of Lawrence Durrell;
"A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess; "Grendel" by John Gardner as well as classics penned by such notables as Dickens, Henry James, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence and the ancient Greek dramatists. He also uses examples from African-American, Latin American and Native American works which is commendable. I especially enjoyed his contention that the chief character in Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" is a Christ figure.
The best part of the book was the chapter in which we are asked to peruse Katherine Mansfield's "The Garden Party" short story and then analyze it using the tools of the literary critic which we have acquired1 This was great fun! Valid interpretations of a literary work are myriad making it fun to become engrossed in literature!
Foster alludes to the sonnet and Shakespeare but otherwise has little to say about legitimate drama. The book is a beginner's guide not for the advanced literary scholar. It will keep your interest for several hours; you will learn new ways of looking at old books and you will become a better reader. Recommended!
 It may ruin literature for you unless you can both appreciate your opinion and the authors. August 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Most people I encounter, after reading this book, complain that it is pushing a single opinion about the meaning of a story. That's not the case. While it does convey the language that people use to communicate, since that is what literature is supposed to do, it still does recognize that everyone will hear a story differently, due to the intertextuality it even mentions. This is an excellent book to have people "join the conversation" instead of being trapped in their own interpretation which may not be shared with anyone.
makes you look a the novels you read in a different way August 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
How to Read Literature Like a Professor explains some of the devices used by authors to express themselves. The author covers many aspects of the novel such as the quest and the frequent appearance of references to previous authors such as Shakespeare. The author's approach is flexible, he explains that, for example the weather, can have many uses as a device rather than just one. Rather than tell you precisely what to think about a use of a literary device in a novel, the author encourages you to think about them for yourself. After reading this book you will pay more attention to what is going on in a novel so I recommend this book for those people looking for a comparatively easy way to deepen one's appreciation of literature.
 Like a professor? Hardly... August 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book provided a handful of interesting things for me to consider (and a small list of interesting titles to check out later). However, as a literature major, the whole endeavor seemed a bit too elementary to be worth reading. The title should have been something akin to "How to Read Literature in Such a Way So as to Pass AP English Lit." Most of the concepts Foster discusses may be easily grasped through one critical read of a novel in a high school senior literature class.
The most enjoyable part of the book was the "case study" of "The Garden Party" by Mansfield; unfortunately for Foster, I simply mean Mansfield's short story. The story was fantastic, but it was quite easy to analyze the story and come to nearly as many supposedly "profound" conclusions as the author. In fact, I am only keeping this book for that story.
I would recommend this book to high school juniors and seniors (or even college students outside the English major). However, I would NOT recommend this book to a well-read individual, nor do I desire to read Foster's other book any longer.
Great for Anyone Interested in Literature July 30, 2008
It's an interesting, funny, and informative book that can give you ideas of how to interpret the literature you're reading, and even give you more ideas of what to read next. It's entertaining, and you learn more than you even realize until the next time you read a difficult novel.
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