Below I will finish out the points I especially want you to remember from the final chapters of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, chapters 25 through "Envoi." Your quiz Wednesday will cover these points: Ch. 25: Foster's saying, "Don't read with your eyes"--or better yet, use Sam's emphasis: "don't read w/ YOUR eyes" as you consider the cultural context; the essential question of the "last-chance-for-change" story; what criteria Foster uses about bigotry and prejudice in his reading selections, and where he absolutely draws the line.
Ch. 26: irony trumps everything; be able to give a couple of examples of 20th century authors who use irony liberally and a couple of well-known titles in which irony is critical; be able to give a clear enough definition of irony; besides irony's trumping everything, be able to explain why it doesn't work for everyone (e.g. the reaction to Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses); why Foster suggests that everything he has explained in the book flies out the window when irony comes in.
Ch. 27: familiarity w/ Katherine Mansfield's "The Garden Party"--read it, please; some familiarity w/ both Foster's and his stellar student's (the third one he mentions) interpretation of the story.
"Envoi": know what this French word means; be able to tell a little something about the disclaimers Foster issues at the end of the book; why does he say you should not only read dead writers?
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DUE ON FEB. 11:
Read "A Jury of Her Peers," and as you read, look for archetypes, motifs, irony, symbolism, etc.--any concept you learned more about from Foster's book. Then write a 2-4-pp analysis of the story in which you try your best to cite instances of FIVE (minimally three) of Foster's ideas exemplified in this story; we deliberately chose one RIFE with possibilities. Use the student's analysis of "A Garden Party" from Foster, pp 267-268, as a guide. If you're a mythology buff (Sam?), try your hand at an analysis like Foster's, in which he compares Laura Sheridan to Persephone in Hades.
Here are a few specifics I'd like you to focus on as you write:
--Remember our mantra: MEMORY, SYMBOL, PATTERN.
--Try to answer Foster's two questions, expending most of your energy on the latter of the two:
1) What does it signify?, and 2) HOW does it signify?
--Avoid plot summary, but get the reader oriented by giving a very brief nod to/synopsis of the basic storyline. (See above.)
--Use specific detail and, when relevant, quotations to back up your points.
--Use vivid verbs
--Try to avoid using pronouns as much as possible, instead replacing them with a variety of more interesting nouns.
--Check for the major editing errors; again, if you print off a copy of your paper in a font you never use and proofread that w/ pen in hand, you'll be surprised at the objectivity you will gain.
