How to Read Literature Like a Professor Interlude - Chapter 15
Interlude
Does He Mean That?
The author acknowledges that it is impossible to understand what is going on in the author’s mind and that it may be misleading to certainly claim that all authors are making intertextual references, using symbols, or employing a certain pattern. There are certain writers labeled the Intentionalists who have certainly been known to employ the aforementioned literary devices to reference other texts. Many of these writers were a part of the modernist movement and include stalwarts like James Joyce, T.S. Elliot, and Virginia Wolf.
Besides, there are other authors from times before the modernist movement, whose use of such techniques can be conclusively attested. This is mostly because writers tend to be voracious readers, and thus the author concludes that the level of deliberate planning in a text may generally be underestimated.
Chapter 11
More than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence
Beloved by Toni Morrison features the murder of a child by her mother, Sethe, who attempts to shield her children from slavery through death. The violence in the sequence alludes to the greater violence of the slave trade and slavery. In this way, although the violence is between characters, it yet indicates the broader picture of the culture. Violence may be meaningless and cruel in the real world but it almost always has multiple interpretations in literature. The author explains two different kinds of violence that can be found across books, the first is the violence that characters bring upon one another. The other is the kind of violence that happens to the characters and so moves along the plot. Violence isn’t necessarily a physical altercation and could also be represented in the form of a heart attack.
The author argues that meaningless violence in literature books tends to be limited to mysteries and other similar genres since it serves mainly as a trigger for the plot of the book. On the other hand, Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence features violence between characters which is a symbol for the conflict inherently found in the social system of Industrial Capitalism. William Falkner’s work is rife with violence that references the history of conflict and its remains in the southern states of America. His story the Burning Barn explores the violence and resentment among classes as the protagonist’s father is shot by a nobleman for burning down a barn.
Chapter 12
Is that a Symbol?
The author explains that objects can be assumed to be symbols if the reader suspects them to be, but determining the meaning or significance of a symbol may prove to be more challenging. He explains that symbols that have only one clear meaning, are not truly symbols at all but rather allegories. George Orwell’s Animal Farm serves as a great example of an allegory. The author conveys the different facets of political power as well as an uprising in the setting of Animal Farm. Unlike an allegory, symbols are open to multiple interpretations, and we as readers tend to favor those meanings that resonate the most with us as individuals. He cites the symbol of a cave from A passage to India by E.M. Foster. A white woman believes she was assaulted in the cave, and so the cave can be thought to symbolize the void through its nothingness, or something frightening through its darkness.
It is also rare for symbols to have fixed meanings, as they may have different meanings in different contexts. The river is a perfect example of a symbol that has been used by multiple authors who were alive around the same time and yet used it to convey disparate meanings. The author explains that there are multiple ways in which literature can be interpreted and that the subject allows for debate and discussions. However, the historic reading is one of the most favored methods of literary analysis and focuses on the historical period in which the text was created. Additionally, symbols are not limited to objects but can be found in events and actions as well. He cites the example of Mowing, a poem by Robert Frost, who is particularly remarked for his frequent use of symbolic actions. The author believes that it is impossible to make definitive conclusions about the meaning of symbols. However, a reader should follow their knowledge and intuition when trying to decipher the meaning of a symbol since reading involves the application of active imagination.
Chapter 13
It’s All Political
Literature is pervaded with political messages, and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a perfect example of a story with a subtle political message. Although, the message is so subtle that it would be nearly impossible to pick up on the meaning without knowing the victorian political landscape. The story is a criticism of Thomas Malthus’ theory that giving food to the needy would create a spiral of poverty. The author explains that propaganda writing does not truly belong to literature since it seeks to present a specific viewpoint about an issue at a particular place and time, such writing fails to resonate with the next generation of readers. He then cites the work of Edgar Allan Poe and Virginia Woolf for having written works with excellent political messages. Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway draws attention to the gender inequality prevalent in her time when men with bad ideas were in power while women with good ideas held none. He adds that a reader can have a better experience of the text with an understanding of its historical context. The appreciation for Dickens’ work grows as one begins to understand the exploitative institutions and practices that emerged during the industrial revolution.
Chapter 14
Yes, She’s a Christ Figure Too
The author expounds on the christ figure referred to in Literature and lists some of the features that may be used to indicate one. These characters can be injured, in their 30s, lead a group of people, sacrifice themselves, perform miracles or even come back from the dead. While a character does not have to have all of these, it is also possible that the character may have qualities that are the opposite of the ones cited above. The author then gives examples of a couple of christ characters from popular literature, and the first is Santiago from Ernest Hemingway’s Old man and the sea. The man has a disciple, goes through suffering, and is employed in a humble occupation. Another example is that of June Kashpaw from Love Medicine by Louis Erdrich. The selfish character dies during a trek, and her death leads to the creation of mythology around her life by the people she leaves behind.
Chapter 15
Flights of Fancy
Humans have thought about flight for thousands of years, and have written about it several times. In Song of Solomon, the author suggests that the African flying myth was a response to captivity, while Angela Carter creates an ironic situation when the character in Nights at the Circus becomes trapped due to her ability to fly, which in general is a symbol of liberation and freedom. Authors like Fay Weldon and Salman Rushdie have alluded to impossible situations that feature characters surviving falls from airplanes and so symbolized rebirth in their flight. Generally, authors make use of more mundane imagery for the symbol of flight, such as a bird in flight. Flight may also be indicated through the death of a person as their soul leaves the body and goes up to heaven, in this context it represents freedom from the pain and suffering of the world.
Analysis
Foster makes mention of the Intentionalists in the Interlude. The Intentionalists came about in response to the Romantics. The romantics believed that artists should create art organically and be inspired by innate genius. The intentionalists, on the other hand, felt that art could be created through meticulous planning and intention rather than momentary inspiration. In Chapter 11, the author goes over the role of violence in literature and then categorizes violence into two separate classes. The distinction between the two types of violence can seem confusing, but it can be simplified by considering whether a human perpetrated the violence or not. Violence caused by humans can be classified as character-driven violence, while other kinds of violence are categorized as plot-based. The discovery of the symbolic significance of violence can be simplified by looking at violence as a conflict between forces rather than just characters. A reader can then ponder on what one of the forces represents, and in this way, a literature professor can detect when violence is used to depict the struggle between different factions, whether those be political, racial, or related to gender. Like most other symbols in literature, the meaning of violence can be difficult to understand and decipher. This could also be due to the meaningless and cruel nature of violence in real life, but Foster emphasizes that just because an act of violence may seem meaningless, it may not be so.
He then focuses on conveying the differences between an allegory and a symbol. An allegory only ever has one meaning and is written to lead the reader towards understanding its significance, while symbols can be interpreted in multiple ways. Foster argues that the presence of multiple interpretations is not a negative thing in literature, but rather a positive practice that makes literary analysis more interesting and challenging. He exemplifies this aspect of literary analysis as he presents the multiple interpretations that exist for the symbol of the cave from A passage to India.
