Taylor 1

Jack Taylor

Mrs. Mann

AP Literature Period 3

23 October 2018

Annotated Bibliography--Research Paper on Classic

Codde, Philippe. "Philomela revisited: traumatic iconicity in Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud &

Incredibly Close." Studies in American Fiction, vol. 35, no. 2, 2007, p. 241+. Academic OneFile,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A175021845/AONE?u=fol36665&sid=AONE&xid=4b2ac30d.

Accessed 22 Oct. 2018.

Codde’s article in Studies in American Fiction covers the novel -- Extremely Loud &

Incredibly Close -- and compares it with the myth of Philomela and the author’s personal

experiences. Codde intends to write to critics and those who have read the novel to

consider elements of the novel they did not look at before. He brings up historical context

and allusions to understand certain parts of the plot like the visual of the falling man at the

end of the novel. Codde focuses on the Foer’s experiences -- who like Oskar -- is on a

quest to find someone, only to find nothing is remaining of the village. His emphasis on

this point shows how Foer’s style and writing this novel reflect his personal experiences.

Thus, Codde Foer’s view on trauma in the novel is shown to have a slant on it because he

himself has gone through it to experience it. Due to Codde’s lens he chooses to view

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, this source brings a great perspective on the novel

and its consideration as a classic.

Faber, Michel. “Review: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.” The Guardian,

Guardian News and Media, 3 June 2005,

www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jun/04/featuresreviews.guardianreview22. Accessed 22 Oct.

2018.
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Faber includes his insight into the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in this

article explaining his reasoning for Foer’s style in his narrative. He intends to speak to

those who have read the novel in analyzing how good it is comparing to Foer’s other

works. He looks at the elements of the plot and literary style to determine its worth. Faber

looks at the novel as a postmodernist due to its art and style. He emphasizes the familiarity

Foer had with Everything is Illuminated in his story about the Holocaust, but finds it

harder to make sense of the tragedy of 9/11 in New York. He feels that Foer used his

platform to create an art to help people cope with the severe trauma they were facing. Due

to the great length as well as focusing on the literary merit of the novel, this source will be

useful in determining its consideration as a classic.

Ingersoll, Earl G. “One Boy's Passage, and His Nation's: Jonathan Safran Foer's "Extremely Loud and

Incredibly Close." CEA Critic, Vol. 71, No. 3, 2009, pp. 54-69.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44378396?read-

now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3Af64a7abf065d769b944a553e2bb0d7ac&seq=1#page_scan_tab_co

ntents. Accessed 22 Oct. 2018.

Ingersoll critiques the novel through a reader-response and formality lens in his article

“One Boy's Passage, and His Nation's: Jonathan Safran Foer's "Extremely Loud and

Incredibly Close." His audience is to those who have considered reading the novel or have

read the novel to gain perspective from a literary critic. He also explores the plot and

themes of the novel and how they relate to the structure Foer uses in the novel. His belief

is that the novel is great for postmodernism but lacks the master narrative of what a classic

should have. The disconnect in the stream of consciousness is confusing for Ingersoll and

assumes his audience (readers of the novel) also have a disconnect with the text. Due to

the criticism of what Ingersoll considers a classic, this source will be useful to examine

Foer’s narrative and his central themes within the novel.

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Uytterschout, Sien, and Kristiaan Versluys. “Melancholy and Mourning in Jonathan Safran Foer's

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” Orbis Litterarum, Wiley/Blackwell (10.1111), 15 May

2008, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1600-0730.2008.00927.x. Accessed 21 Oct.

2018.

Co-writers Uytterschout and Versluys analyze themes of the novel Extremely Loud and

Incredibly Close in the article “Melancholy and Mourning in Jonathan Safran Foer's

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” Their intended audience are to those who have not

read the novel, thus going into detail of the main characters and the themes they represent.

They share the trauma after the 9/11 attacks and how Oskar Schell suffers heavily from it

with the death of his father. All characters of the story share their internal suffering from

past events they have faced. They also note the parallelism of Oskar’s trials of his

grandfather, Thomas Schell, suffers from melancholy after the Dresden Bombing. Both

writers use the stages of grief after death in both Oskar and Thomas to drive the theme of

coping with trauma after tragedy. Their inclusion of textual evidence show their

familiairity with the text and instances where the theme is shown throughout the novel.

Due to the length and insight with specific textual evidence, this article will be useful for

discussing the research for what themes it explores for its inclusion of what a classic is.

“'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close' author Jonathan Safran Foer visits with students, lectures at

KO.” YouTube, uploaded by Kingswood Oxford School, 8 February 2012,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx0a2q9FB9w. Accessed 22 Oct. 2018.

This Youtube video of Jonathan Safran Foer details him talking to students at Kingswood

Oxford School about what a good book is. It is clear his audience is to students, but he

addresses them in a mature tone to convey his point of what makes a good novel. He is

able to detail that it is not a love for literature that makes us interested, but of good

literature. In evaluating his novels, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and
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Incredibly Close, he is able to state how the best novels are for him. This emphasizes his

point that his novels are best for him because of his relation and style that he was able to

present for him to understand. He is able to distinct what a good book is without having to

explain the literary merit of a classic. Getting insight from the author’s novel helps give

credibility to the argument I will pose in stating if the book is a classic or not, thus will be

useful in my research paper.