How to Read Novels like a Professor: A Jaunty Exploration of the World's Favorite Literary Form

What do you think Roland Barthes meant when he said that the author is “dead”? Write a brief essay that agrees or disagrees with Barthes, citing online research and including examples from Foster’s guide.

According to Foster, “Here’s the Law of Narrative Unreliability: Stop believing the narrator when you see the word ‘I.’ Yes, even if it’s the first word in the novel. He’s toast. Given the game away” (57). Choosing a novel with a first-person narrator, examine the truth of Foster’s law about unreliability. Use textual evidence to illustrate.

In describing the unique advantages of engaging with a novel, Foster notes, “Films and television let us experience other lives vicariously, or perhaps voyeuristically, as we watch those lives play out. But in a novel, we can become those characters, we can identify from the inside with someone whose life is radically different from our own” (229). Take a stance, either agreeing or disagreeing with Foster’s assessment of film and TV as a limited medium, and include textual examples as part of the argument.

Foster places great importance on the opening lines of novels. Make a list of five opening passages from novels—other than those Foster mentions in the text—that illustrate his point that their purpose is to immediately hook readers, compelling them to keep reading.

In his discussion on untidy endings, Foster describes feeling dissatisfied with the way Great Expectations by Charles Dickens ends. Choosing a novel in which the ending was not satisfying and analyze why the resolution was less than ideal. What would be a better ending to this novel and why?

Examining the theme of The Enduring Power of the Novel, analyze why the novel continues to be the world’s dominant literary form. Be sure to examine reasons other than those discussed in the book.

Foster notes that postcolonial novels from recently freed nations “are trying […] to articulate something that has never existed before, an identity as part of a newly established country separate from that same place and same people under colonial rule […] but also […] from what it had been before” (284). Select a relevant postcolonial novel and analyze whether Foster’s statement holds true for it. Possible suggestions include Midnight’s Children (1981) by Salman Rushdie and Arrow of God (1964) by Chinua Achebe.

Examine some of the features of Foster’s narrative style in the text, using textual examples to illustrate.