Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
Published byMagnus Lyons Modified over 9 years ago
1
Thomas C. Foster
2
Professor of English, University of Michigan at Flint
3
A quester A place to go A stated reason to go there Challenges and trials en route A real reason to go there
5
Educational; self-knowledge The questers are often young, inexperienced, immature, sheltered
6
Whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion; breaking bread Sharing, sense of community
7
Early lit: sex was taboo…couldn’t write about sex, couldn’t openly show sex …eating scenes with chomping, gnawing on bones, licking fingers, slurping, moaning, groaning…sexual meaning not all communions are holy …or even decent
8
Dracula Lestat Edward
9
Vampirism is about selfishness, exploitation, a refusal to respect the autonomy of other people Evil has to do with sex since the serpent seduced Eve
10
Young Preferable virginal female A stripping away of her youth, energy, virtue Life force of old male, death or destruction of the young woman
11
Ghosts and vampires are never only about ghosts and vampires
12
Ghosts are about something besides themselves Hamlet: not simply to haunt his son but to point out something drastically wrong in Denmark’s royal household A Christmas Carol: Marley’s ghost is a lesson in ethics for Scrooge Dr. Jekyll’s other half: respectable man may have a dark side Frankenstein
13
Do not begin by counting lines or looking at line endings Enjoy the experience, then see how the poet worked his or her magic on you Look for literary techniques and analyze and how and why
14
There’s no such thing as a wholly original work of literature
15
Stories grow out of other stories, poems out of other poems
16
The ongoing interaction between texts and poems Everything’s connected
17
Your understanding of the novel deepens; it becomes more meaningful, more complex
18
He’s everywhere, in every literary form you can think of Every age and writer reinvents its own Shakespeare
20
Loss of innocence, “the fall,” Adam & Eve A serpent, an apple, a garden, plagues, flood, parting of water, loaves, fishes, forty days, betrayal, denial, slavery and escape, fatted calves, milk and honey East of Eden, Beloved, Paradise Lost, The Divine Comedy, Song of Solomon, Go Tell It on the Mountain…
21
Hansel and Gretel: children lost from home Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Wind in the Willows, The Wizard of Oz
22
Christian story: two great celebrations C & E coincide with dates of great seasonal anxiety The story of the birth of Jesus, and of hope, is placed almost on the shortest and therefore most dismal, day of the year The crucifixion and resurrection come very near the spring equinox, the death of winter and beginning of renewed life
23
Myth is a body of story that matters Part of our society The Spartans, The Trojans, Troy, Athens, Romulus, Sparta, Rome
24
Parental attempt to save the child and the grief at having failed; the cure that proves as deadly as the ailment; the youthful exuberance that leads to self-destruction; the class between sober, adult wisdom and adolescent recklessness; the terror involved in the headlong descent into the sea
25
Every story needs a setting; weather is a part of the setting Weather is never just weather – it’s never just rain Rain, major flood, ark, dove, olive branch, rainbow Drowning; one of our deepest fears
26
Rain: mysterious, misery, cleansing, restorative (spring); Rain literary associations: chills, cold, pneumonia, death Rain mixes with sun to create rainbows (pots of gold, leprechauns, divine promise, peace between heaven and earth Fog: mental, ethical, physical (can’t see clearly) Snow: clean, stark, severe, playful, suffocating,
27
Is everywhere in literature One of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings Cultural and societal implications First type: shootings, stabbings, drownings, poisonings, bludgeonings, rape, bombings, hit-and-run accidents, starvations, etc. Second type: characters are responsible
28
Writers kill off characters to make action happen, cause plot complications, end plot complications, put other characters under stress
29
It’s everywhere…
30
Stands for one thing: allegory Symbols have a range of possible meanings and interpretations River: danger, safety, freedom
31
The story is meant to change us and through us to change society
32
Freedom Self-determination
33
Crucified, wounds in hands, feet, side and head In agony Self-sacrificing Good with children Good with loaves, fishes, water, wine 33 years of age when last seen Employed as a carpenter Known to use humble modes of transportation, feet or donkeys preferred
34
Believed to have walked on water Often portrayed with arms outstretched Known to have spent time alone in the wilderness Believed to have had a confrontation with the devil, possibly tempted Last seen in the company of theives Creator of many parables, aphorisms Buried, rose on the third day
35
Had disciples, 12 at first, not all equally devoted Very forgiving Came to redeem an unworthy world
36
They don’t all hit them marks. They don’t have to be male. They don’t have to be Christian. They don’t have to be good. No Christ figure can ever be as pure, as perfect, as divine as Jesus Christ. Look for a character’s sacrifice similar to the greatest sacrifice we know of. Redemption, hope, miracle
37
If it flies, it isn’t human If he/she is one of the following: A superhero A ski jumper Crazy (see #2) Fictional A circus act Suspended on wires An angel Heavily symbolic
38
Flying is freedom, escape, wonder, magic Freedom from specific circumstances but also from those general burdens which tie us down Flight of imagination Soul as taking wing
39
Tall buildings…male sexuality Rolling landscapes…female sexuality Smutty minds…maybe Knight with his lance…phallic symbol Holy grail…empty vessel waiting to be filled
40
Authors and filmmakers didn’t always write about/show sex/sex scenes Authors subtle Movie directors cut to waves on the beach or train going into a tunnel
41
Male: lances, swords, guns, keys Female: chalices, grails, bowls, locks
42
Literary characters get wet Water: death, rebirth, reborn, baptism Milkman Dead in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon gets wet three times… …Father, son and holy ghost
43
What does geography mean to a work of literature? Hills, creeks, deserts, beaches, moors, rivers, etc. William Faulkner: Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi
44
Geography is setting but it can be psychology, attitude, finance, industry – anything that place can forge in the people who live there
45
Geography in literature can be a part of theme, symbol, plot… Can define or develop a character
46
When writers send characters south, it’s so they can run amok
47
Low: swamps, crowds, fog, darkness, fields, heat, unpleasantness, people, life, death High: snow, ice, purity, thin air, clean views, isolation, life, death
48
Spring: rebirth, childhood, youth Summer: love, adulthood, romance, fulfillment, passion Fall/autumn: change, middle age, decline, tiredness, harvest Winter: old age, anger, resentment, hatred, death Daisy Miller, Frederic Winterbourne
49
Not just agricultural but personal harvests, the results of our endeavors, whether over the course of a growing season or life …we reap what we sow…we reap the rewards and punishments of our conduct
50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ0CGH woo6M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ0CGH woo6M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfTGxpTd yN0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfTGxpTd yN0
51
Look at physical imperfection in symbolic terms Frankenstein: is the monster or man? Harry Potter (why does he have a scar, where is it, how did he get it, what does it resemble?)
52
…a glass eye, harelip, badly scarred, amputations, deaf, limbs missing, etc. We don’t get through life without being marked by the experience Don’t judge by appearances…
53
The “Indiana Jones” principal: if you want your audience to know something important about your character (or work at large), introduce it early, before you need it. (Indy is afraid of snakes.)
54
Pump that keeps us alive…symbolic repository of emotion What shape were your childhood Valentine’s cards? Last year? Fall in love…we feel it on our hearts Lose a love…heartbroken Overwhelmed by emotion…our hearts are full to bursting
55
Bad love Loneliness Cruelty Disloyalty Cowardice Lack of determination Something seriously amiss at the heart of things
56
Not all diseases are created equal Cholera: unsightly, painful, smelly, violent TB: picturesque (Poe “The Masque of the Red Death”) Syphilis, gonorrhea near epidemic late 19 th century: Henrik Ibsen put STDs on the map STD = Moral corruption Diseases could be mysterious Plague = social devastation = champion
57
Picturesque? Mysterious? Symbolic? Political angle?
58
Irony tops everything. Period.
Similar presentations
© 2025 SlidePlayer.com. Inc.
All rights reserved.