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

Foster writes about many authors who were part of the Modernist movement, such as James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, and T. S. Eliot. What patterns of Modernist symbols appear in Foster’s book, and what do they suggest about Western society at this time?

In Chapter 24, Foster states that to truly understand a text, we have to see it through the eyes of someone who exists at the time and place in which the text was produced. For example, he finds the anti-Semitism in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice to be less offensive than the anti-Semitism of Ezra Pound’s Cantos, and he bases his opinion on a continuum of offensiveness. After reading Foster’s explanation, where do you stand on the issue? What constitutes or defines “offensive material” in your opinion? 

Choose a favorite fairy tale and analyze its archetypes, including the characters and the narrative elements. Support your response with evidence from the text.