Deconstruction, as a critical theory, maintains that language is a system of signs and, more precisely, a system of oppositions, differences and contradictions. Accordingly, the theory is operative in the sense that meanings are ultimately, unstable, and that a text, any text, contradicts, dismantles and even destroys itself. Hence, literary texts…

Critically analyzing the representation of pedagogy in the novels of J.M. Coetzee, this insightful text illustrates the author's profound conception of learning and personal development as something which takes place well beyond formal education. Bringing together critical and educational theory, "Pedagogy in the Novels of J.M. Coetzee"…

Critiquing two approaches that English teachers use to teach Black, or African-American, literature in the secondary classroom--one that centralises races and the other that ignores it--this article proposes a hybrid approach that combines both. This double-faced approach recognises the culturally specific themes that give the text and the Black…

"An Introduction to Complexity Pedagogy: Using Critical Theory, Critical Pedagogy and Complexity in Performance and Literature" offers readers an introduction to the basic concepts of complexity science and how they might be applied in the teaching of composition, creative writing, performance, and literature. The book builds on Critical…

This paper is prompted by the author's experience as a researcher of English literary education in three different geographies over the past three years: Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Affect theory, as discussed in this paper, concerns atmospheres, surfaces, bodies, emotions, moods, vicinities and capacities. Drawing on affect theory,…

In this article, Rosa Bruno-Jofre and Jon Igelmo Zaldivar examine Ivan Illich's own critique of "Deschooling Society", and his subsequent revised critique of educational institutions and understanding of education, within the context of both his personal intellectual journey and the general epistemological shift that started to take shape in the…

In addition to its beginnings within legal scholarship, Critical Race Theory (CRT) is intimately aligned with the long tradition of African American social critique, which sought to interrogate the intractable nature of racism and White supremacy. Within this intellectual tradition, the works of W.E.B. Du Bois are of critical significance. Du…

Argues for the canonicity of "Sonnet: The Token," a John Donne poem whose authorship has been in doubt for some decades. Employs deconstruction as its critical approach, though that approach is nearly passe in Renaissance studies, and it calls the issue of authorship into question. (TB)

Argues for the study of popular female authors of the Victorian era on two grounds: (1) issues concerning Victorian female writers are relevant to problems in Victorian literary scholarship and to discussions about the relationship between literary theory and feminism; and (2) their works were printed on acid paper. (TB)

Written by teacher-participants during 3 summer institutes in literary criticism and the teaching of literature, the 11 resource guides presented in this book deal with literary texts by American authors--texts which are commonly taught in secondary English classrooms. Each resource guide in the book includes critical commentary and information…