This paper has two complementary objectives. After providing some theoretical perspectives on fiction generally, and on the teaching of fiction more specifically, it firstly evaluates, from a literary-critical perspective, a reasonably representative selection of the portrayal of teachers and teaching in some twentieth-century Anglo-Irish fiction…

In this essay I explore the tensions between the static nature of standardised assessment and the dynamic student-focussed approach to appreciating literature that I value. I have closely analysed two of a series of lessons on the gothic literary genre taught by a student teacher on her first placement. By reflecting critically on my own journey…

Genre theory has been around for a long time now. The exchange between Michael Rosen and Frances Christie recently featured in "Changing English" is the latest in a series of exchanges between advocates of genre and their critics over the past three decades or so. Our aim in this response-essay is not to weigh up the merits of the cases…