The teaching of literature is not well understood in American schools, nor has there been any major change in conceptualizing secondary school literature instruction in the past 25 years. In addition, study of how students come to understand literature parallel to the study of the writing process is almost nonexistent. For the past few years,…

Intended for literature instructors, this digest explains the relationship of transactional theory (a reciprocal, mutually defining relationship between the reader and the literary text) to the teaching of literature. The importance of the reader's part in literature is first demonstrated, noting that attention must be paid to who the readers are,…