How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

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When I was in high school, I hated my English classes. I thought that the literature we were forced to read was deathly boring, and worse yet, the teachers always made farfetched claims about the authors’ intentions that couldn’t possibly be true. I distinctly remember sitting through an entire class period while the teacher recited every mention of boxes and the boxed-in motif in Of Mice and Men. My friends and I rolled our eyes, passed notes, and later ridiculed our teacher for his obsession with boxes. Sure, Steinbeck mentions boxes a few times in the book, but wasn’t it going a bit far to say that Steinbeck did this on purpose?

Luckily, my impression of literature changed completely in college due to a few great professors. I came to understand that there might be more in the text than just the plot and the surface details. I even managed to write a number of analytical papers that earned me pretty good grades, and developed a love of modern literature that will stay with me through my lifetime.

I noticed recently, however, that I hadn’t really learned how to approach literary analysis on my own. I had gone to lectures where the professor presented his or her own ideas, which I dutifully wrote down in my notes. I then used these views and strategies to shape my own reading and writing about the books. Now, the farther out of college I get, the more I realize I don’t know how to do this on my own.

I picked up How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster on a bit of a lark. I thought it might be interesting, but wasn’t expecting it to really affect the way I read. It was too much to hope that I might learn from a book what four years at Harvard didn’t teach me. As soon as I started reading it, though, I was quite pleasantly surprised.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor is primarily concerned with symbolic and thematic analysis in novels. I thought that the structure of the book works very well: each chapter addresses one symbol or theme and explains how an author might employ it, either in a straight or ironic way. Foster also uses a huge number of real examples from literature to illustrate his ideas, which also serves to whet the reader’s appetite for the books he cites.

Essentially, Foster argues that being able to pick up on an author’s secondary intention through symbolism and allusion is a matter of pattern recognition. If you’ve seen the same images appear over and over again in different works, you begin to form associations for what those things might signify. Topics addressed range from the meaning of rain, seasons, and food to references to older works such as the Bible, Shakespeare, and fairy tales.

Most importantly to me, Foster addressed the question that I have had since high school: Did the author really put those details in on purpose? He consistently addresses this issue throughout the book, but also writes a separate “interlude” chapter called, “Does He Mean That?”

Along about now you should be asking a question, something like this: you keep saying that the writer is alluding to this obscure work and using that symbol or following some pattern or other that I never heard of, but does he really intend to do that? Can anyone really have all that going on in his head at one time?

While Foster concedes that no one knows for certain what is going on in an author’s head while she is writing, he makes the argument that writers are not only intelligent, but well-educated with literature of the past. And since they are the ones painstakingly putting together each sentence, it isn’t likely that they would naively use allusions and repetitive symbols by accident. On the other hand, any well-read writer might not be overtly using influences from the past. “By the time she writes her books, she has access to that tradition in ways that need not be conscious. Nevertheless, whatever parts have infiltrated her consciousness are always available to her.” I buy that.

In the end, however, Foster is practical. Whatever the author’s intentions were, he believes, what is most important is what we readers can discover in the work. He doesn’t insist that we readers be so knowledgeable that we recognize every instance of allusion or symbolism in everything we read. Rather, even a subconscious nod to these literary devices can make a text seem richer and more meaningful than simply reading for plot.

I just finished this book a few days ago, but I had been simultaneously reading Cold Mountain. I must say, the basic knowledge of authorial intention I have picked up by reading Foster’s engaging and interesting suggestions has made a huge difference already. Besides generally paying more attention to the text as I am reading, I am making associations, filing away images, and putting together a richer and more thoughtful picture of Cold Mountain as a whole, and I’m only halfway through. It definitely takes more effort and is slower going, but what I am getting out of the book has already exceeded my usual cursory read. I feel smarter already.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

Tags: book reviews literature analysis Thomas Foster