Thomas C. Foster in, “How to Read Literature like a Professor,” discusses how writers use different seasons in their work to convey meaning. Foster first explains, “that spring has to do with childhood and youth, summer with adulthood and romance and fulfillment and passion, autumn with decline and middle age and tiredness but also harvest, winter with old age and resentment and death” (Foster 186). Each season has a certain set of meanings or feelings that go along with that season. Writers know these meanings and can put scenes in certain seasons to portray the meaning they want. Foster provides the example where, “the young lovers escape to the enchanted woods to sort out their romantic difficulties and thereby take their proper places in the adult world, it is a midsummer night” (Foster 184). This example portrays how scenes can be put into certain seasons and settings to further emphasize their meaning. The young lovers escape in midsummer and summer does represent romance along with other themes. Writers can also use seasons with out directly mentioning them such as when Robert Frost uses, “the fact that he’s finished his apple picking [to] inform us we’re in autumn,” and also, “expands on the seasonal implications with time of day (late evening), mood (very tired), tone (almost elegiac), and point of view (backward-looking)” (Foster 187). Not only can writers use seasons to portray settings but they can also use mood and setting to portray the season. They can do this because each season has a certain mood and meanings to go along with it that both writers and readers can recognize. Foster provides examples to convey how writers use different seasons in their work to produce certain moods and meanings.
Conclusion sentence sounds like you are about to go into listing examples. Be careful with conclusions like this. Don't redo - just consider for further posts.
In “How to Read Literature like a Professor,” Thomas Foster elaborates on seasons in literature, and how author utilize them within their works. Characters can represent seasons through their personalities, Foster explains, as he discusses characters from Henry James: “One is a girl, American, young, fresh, direct, open, naïve, flirtatious, maybe a little too much of each; the others is a man, also American but long resident in Europe, slightly older, jaded, worldly, emotionally closed, indirect, even surreptitious, totally dependent on the good opinion of others,” with their names being Daisy Miller and Frederic Winterbourne, respectively (Foster 185). Readers often associate the seasons in literature with positive or negative qualities that they are generally associated with. In this case, the author brings more meaning out of the characters through naming then in relation to seasons; Daisy, who represents spring, is happy, upbeat, and full of life, while Mr. Winterbourne, obviously representing winter, is somber, and in more a state of despair with a cold personality. Readers view seasons in certain ways that they do because over the years its been “hard-wired into [readers] that spring has to do with childhood and youth, summer with adulthood and romance and fulfillment and passion, autumn with decline and middle age and tiredness but also harvest, winter with old age and resentment and death” (Foster 186). Readers are able to identify certain qualities as traits of certain seasons because they’ve been used to represent those seasons so many times before. These themes become so common that readers immediately begin to take notice of the direction the story may be headed when the author decides to discuss a certain season. This being said, seasons don’t always have to be used in the same way either, as Foster explains that “what we learn, finally, as readers is that we don’t look for a shorthand in seasonal use – summer means x, winter y, minus x –but a set of patterns that can be employed in a host of ways, some of them straightforward, others ironic or subversive” (Foster 188-189). Authors, just as with any other concept, can use seasons in a number of implications, especially when authors introduce irony. Readers have become familiar with how authors use seasons to convey certain meaning, whether it be the more common implied meanings or through irony, so as they recognize these seasonal connections their prior knowledge kicks in and assists them for a better understanding of the text. Authors use seasons within their writing to add more depth the story knowing that their readers will automatically associate certain seasons with certain themes.
Thomas C. Foster in "How to Read Literature Like Professor" describes how many different ideas and emotions can be represented by seasons. He tells us that "the Book of Ecclesiastes tells us that to everything there is a season" (Foster 185). Foster explains that Shakespeare has used fall to represent age and others have used summer and winter to show emotions. He provides examples of how "a few other writers have also had something to say about the seasons in connection with the human experience" (Foster 185). Foster used a story by Henry James to explain how writers incorporate seasons into their work. The characters names were "Daisy Miller and Frederic Winterbourne"; their personalities in the story corresponded with the seasons referenced in their names (Foster 185). Foster explained how just those two names foreshadow the rest of the story because "daisies can't flourish in winter" (Foster 186). He states how "for about as long as anyone's been writing anything, the seasons have stood for the same set of meanings" because "this pattern is so deeply ingrained in our cultural experience that we don't even have to stop and think about it" (Foster 186). He exemplifies how Robert Frost does not have to even specifically mention a season in "After Apple Picking". Foster describes how Frost "speaks of overwhelming sense of both tiredness and completion, or bringing in a huge harvest" (Foster 187). He explains how tiredness and harvest are always associated with fall and that is how a reader can recognize the season being used in Frost's story. Seasons have a big impact in writing and can represent moods or tell readers the whole story.
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ReplyDeleteThomas C. Foster in, “How to Read Literature like a Professor,” discusses how writers use different seasons in their work to convey meaning. Foster first explains, “that spring has to do with childhood and youth, summer with adulthood and romance and fulfillment and passion, autumn with decline and middle age and tiredness but also harvest, winter with old age and resentment and death” (Foster 186). Each season has a certain set of meanings or feelings that go along with that season. Writers know these meanings and can put scenes in certain seasons to portray the meaning they want. Foster provides the example where, “the young lovers escape to the enchanted woods to sort out their romantic difficulties and thereby take their proper places in the adult world, it is a midsummer night” (Foster 184). This example portrays how scenes can be put into certain seasons and settings to further emphasize their meaning. The young lovers escape in midsummer and summer does represent romance along with other themes. Writers can also use seasons with out directly mentioning them such as when Robert Frost uses, “the fact that he’s finished his apple picking [to] inform us we’re in autumn,” and also, “expands on the seasonal implications with time of day (late evening), mood (very tired), tone (almost elegiac), and point of view (backward-looking)” (Foster 187). Not only can writers use seasons to portray settings but they can also use mood and setting to portray the season. They can do this because each season has a certain mood and meanings to go along with it that both writers and readers can recognize. Foster provides examples to convey how writers use different seasons in their work to produce certain moods and meanings.
ReplyDeleteConclusion sentence sounds like you are about to go into listing examples. Be careful with conclusions like this. Don't redo - just consider for further posts.
ReplyDeleteIn “How to Read Literature like a Professor,” Thomas Foster elaborates on seasons in literature, and how author utilize them within their works. Characters can represent seasons through their personalities, Foster explains, as he discusses characters from Henry James: “One is a girl, American, young, fresh, direct, open, naïve, flirtatious, maybe a little too much of each; the others is a man, also American but long resident in Europe, slightly older, jaded, worldly, emotionally closed, indirect, even surreptitious, totally dependent on the good opinion of others,” with their names being Daisy Miller and Frederic Winterbourne, respectively (Foster 185). Readers often associate the seasons in literature with positive or negative qualities that they are generally associated with. In this case, the author brings more meaning out of the characters through naming then in relation to seasons; Daisy, who represents spring, is happy, upbeat, and full of life, while Mr. Winterbourne, obviously representing winter, is somber, and in more a state of despair with a cold personality. Readers view seasons in certain ways that they do because over the years its been “hard-wired into [readers] that spring has to do with childhood and youth, summer with adulthood and romance and fulfillment and passion, autumn with decline and middle age and tiredness but also harvest, winter with old age and resentment and death” (Foster 186). Readers are able to identify certain qualities as traits of certain seasons because they’ve been used to represent those seasons so many times before. These themes become so common that readers immediately begin to take notice of the direction the story may be headed when the author decides to discuss a certain season. This being said, seasons don’t always have to be used in the same way either, as Foster explains that “what we learn, finally, as readers is that we don’t look for a shorthand in seasonal use – summer means x, winter y, minus x –but a set of patterns that can be employed in a host of ways, some of them straightforward, others ironic or subversive” (Foster 188-189). Authors, just as with any other concept, can use seasons in a number of implications, especially when authors introduce irony. Readers have become familiar with how authors use seasons to convey certain meaning, whether it be the more common implied meanings or through irony, so as they recognize these seasonal connections their prior knowledge kicks in and assists them for a better understanding of the text. Authors use seasons within their writing to add more depth the story knowing that their readers will automatically associate certain seasons with certain themes.
ReplyDeleteThomas C. Foster in "How to Read Literature Like Professor" describes how many different ideas and emotions can be represented by seasons. He tells us that "the Book of Ecclesiastes tells us that to everything there is a season" (Foster 185). Foster explains that Shakespeare has used fall to represent age and others have used summer and winter to show emotions. He provides examples of how "a few other writers have also had something to say about the seasons in connection with the human experience" (Foster 185). Foster used a story by Henry James to explain how writers incorporate seasons into their work. The characters names were "Daisy Miller and Frederic Winterbourne"; their personalities in the story corresponded with the seasons referenced in their names (Foster 185). Foster explained how just those two names foreshadow the rest of the story because "daisies can't flourish in winter" (Foster 186). He states how "for about as long as anyone's been writing anything, the seasons have stood for the same set of meanings" because "this pattern is so deeply ingrained in our cultural experience that we don't even have to stop and think about it" (Foster 186). He exemplifies how Robert Frost does not have to even specifically mention a season in "After Apple Picking". Foster describes how Frost "speaks of overwhelming sense of both tiredness and completion, or bringing in a huge harvest" (Foster 187). He explains how tiredness and harvest are always associated with fall and that is how a reader can recognize the season being used in Frost's story. Seasons have a big impact in writing and can represent moods or tell readers the whole story.
ReplyDeleteNo personal pronouns; don't repost just keep in mind for future responses.
ReplyDelete