“Many modern and postmodern texts are essentially ironic, in which the allusions to biblical sources are used not to heighten continuities between the religious tradition and the contemporary moment but to illustrate a disparity or disruption.” — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“We love the plays, the great characters, the fabulous speeches, the witty repartee even in times of duress. I hope never to be mortally stabbed, but if I am, I'd sure like to have the self-possession, when asked if it's… — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“I can’t go as far as Barthes in killing off the author, but I’m with him on the importance of the reader. We are… — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“of his need to assert responsibility for his own life. It may be that Adela does panic in the face of Nothingness, only recovering… — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“When it's over, we may feel wooed, adored, appreciated, or abused, but it will have been an affair to remember.” — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“The novels we read allow us to encounter possible persons, versions of ourselves hat we would never see, never permit ourselves to see, never… — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“Education is mostly about institutions and getting tickets stamped; learning is what we do for ourselves. When we're lucky, they go together. If I… — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“The novels we read allow us to encounter possible persons, visions of ourselves that we would never see, never permit ourselves to become, in… — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“we accept fictions as fictions, as things that might be true in their world, if not quite in ours.” — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“We sometimes hear of the death of literature or of this or that genre, but literature doesn't die, just as it doesn't 'progress' or… — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“Always" and "never" are not words that have much meaning in literary study. For one thing, as soon as something seems to always be… — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“What happens if the writer is good is usually not that the work seems derivative or trivial but just the opposite: the work actually… — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image
“characters as rich and complex as those we believe ourselves to be” — Thomas C. Foster Copy Share Image