How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines

By: Thomas C. Foster

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Synopsis: The author, Thomas C. Foster, wrote the following about his book: "What this book represents is not a database of all the cultural codes by which writers create and readers understand the products of that creation, but a template, a pattern, a grammar of sorts from which you can learn to look for those codes on your own." Other people have commented about the book: The author focuses on the basics of literary criticism ... "major themes and motifs (seasons, quests, food, politics, geography, weather, vampires, violence, illness, and many more); literary models (Shakespeare's plays, Greek mythology, fairy tales, the Bible); and narrative devices (form, irony, plot, and symbol, among others)." To make his work lively and entertaining the author: "draws on a huge variety of examples from all genres: novels, short stories, plays, poems, movies, song lyrics, and cartoons." In one of the final chapters of the book, the author: "encourages readers to test their knowledge on the short story 'The Garden Party' by Katherine Mansfield, offering [his] comments and ideas along the way." Finally, Foster provides an extensive bibliography of works that he hopes that the readers will read in order to practice the literary analytical tools taught in the book.