How to Read Literature Like a Professor: REVIEW ch. 1-15

Question 1

For a sonnet, what is the line count, meter, & number of syllables per line?

Accepted Answer

14; iambic pentameter; 10

Question 2

What is the gender of a vampire, USUALLY? What is the gender of a vampire’s victim, USUALLY?

Accepted Answer

male, female

Question 3

How many stories are there, according to Foster?

Accepted Answer

one

Question 4

Communion is an example of ____ because ______.

Accepted Answer

sharing & peace; while eating there can be no violence, kinship & community; ingesting s/t w/ others is v personal

Question 5

The real reason for a quest is always ______.

Accepted Answer

self-knowledge

Question 6

WHAT "is the only poetic form the great majority of readers ever needs to know"?

Accepted Answer

sonnet

Question 7

For Foster, which is the worse option?

Accepted Answer

a not-racist work by an irredeemably racist author

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT a reason people allude to fairytales?

Accepted Answer

we want neither strangeness nor familiarity in our stories

Question 9

Will a working knowledge of Greek myth be useful to you?

Accepted Answer

uh, yeah

Question 10

Which of the following could be considered a Christ figure?

Accepted Answer

a "rough beast" that "slouches toward Bethlehem to be born", the old man in The Old Man and the Sea

Question 11

What is the significance of the painting "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"?

Accepted Answer

tragedy can be mundane and quotidian, the world goes on even in the face of our private tragedies

Question 12

Which of the following does NOT come from Shakespeare?

Accepted Answer

do you flip us off, sir?

Question 13

Literature may draw from ________.

Accepted Answer

history, culture, myth, other literature

Question 14

Which of the following would probably be a Christ figure?

Accepted Answer

frat bro who spends 40 days being tempted to cheat on his gf, woman with wounded hands who dies for a train full of people, thirty-three-year-old carpenter

Question 15

If it's not from Shakespeare, it's from _____.

Accepted Answer

the Bible

Question 16

Wait but--did the author REALLY mean to do that??

Accepted Answer

we can never truly know, but it doesn't [redacted] matter

Question 17

Is the real reason for a quest the same as the stated reason?

Accepted Answer

no

Question 18

What are vampires really about?

Accepted Answer

sex, selfishness, exploitation, refuse 2 respect others' autonomy

Question 19

Is it okay if you don’t pick up on the references in a work of literature?

Accepted Answer

yes; if a work is bad, those references don't matter anyway

Question 20

SCARIER: a literary vampire symbolic of s/t else, or a ghost or vampire that's only that?

Accepted Answer

a literary vampire that's symbolic of something else

Question 21

Which of the following would be examples of communion?

Accepted Answer

two rivals sitting together & passing a [redacted], taking the bread and wine at church, four characters doing shots together

Question 22

"April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land" ____ because _________.

Accepted Answer

plays w/ expectations; usually, spring is a time of rebirth

Question 23

You can't write stories in a vacuum: there’s no such thing as a wholly ____ work of literature.

Accepted Answer

original

Question 24

Hey--is that a symbol? What does it mean?

Accepted Answer

yes; what you say it means, as long as you can justify it

Question 25

FOR A SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET, where does the volta (turn) typically occur?

Accepted Answer

between the 3rd quartet & the couplet

Question 26

Violence is ___ and even ___ but can also be ___ and ____ in its implications.

Accepted Answer

personal; intimate; cultural; societal

Question 27

Why do so many people allude to/reference/draw from Shakespeare?

Accepted Answer

it's good, it's well known

Question 28

Flight is ______.

Accepted Answer

freedom

Question 29

What's the fancy device name for when something references or is influenced by something else?

Accepted Answer

allusion

Question 30

What do Biblical references/allusions add to a text?

Accepted Answer

depth, the resonance of archetype

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: REVIEW ch. 1-15

Questions 30

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: REVIEW ch. 1-15

Questions 30