Culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012) has emerged as an essential way to value the evolution of culture among diverse learners. Discussions around teaching in a culturally sustaining manner in the English language arts classroom, specifically when teaching literary analysis, often address the need to incorporate multicultural literature so…

The study of perceptual genres offers opportunities for the treatment of films in a variety of course structures. (JH)

Studying the structural nature of a literary work was considered by a Harvard Graduate School of Education seminar as a rational, nonsubjective basis for a literature curriculum in the elementary grades. Russian formalist criticism was used as a basic approach to the study of literature, and Vladimir Propp's approach to the folktale was used as an…

Presents an exchange between two English professors who offer opposing perspectives on the profession of English. Covers arguments on the understanding of theory, literary history, reading, curricular design, and pedagogy through the examination of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil." (MM)

Martha Nussbaum and others claim that the study of literature can make a significant contribution to political education by nurturing empathic capacities. In Nussbaum's reading of the situation, the need to promote the creation of bonds of compassion-based solidarity between co-citizens provides material for an argument to restore the study of…

Discusses current thinking on the theory-practice relationship within both literary and curriculum theory by presenting ideas and positions of representative figures from each discipline. Suggests an approach that seeks to capitalize on the important and common aspects of both. (KEH)

Argues that (1) even the most radical critics of departmental structures are committed to the perpetuation of English departments and, therefore, will adopt, regardless of potential contradictions, the professional discourse that validates them and (2) that this will be done even though the Babel of contemporary critical discourse makes a…

Discusses the redesign of the sophomore literature course at Francis Marion University by an interdisciplinary team. Considers the three diverse epistemologies found in different disciplines, concluding that literary study is best pursued within the rhetorical tradition of analysis and disputation. (DMM)

This study explores the proposition that literary criticism may be an important part of the elementary school curriculum and that its practice can be informed by the theories of Northrop Frye. The study is in three parts. The first chapter of Part I argues that there is virtually no emphasis in the elementary school on the study of literature as…

Examines the silence of women authors within the canonical political-theory conversation. Discusses the experience of teaching Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman." Stresses the ongoing importance of the feminist project to reclaim women's writing and suggests ways that feminist theory can transform the teaching of…

A course in gay literature, intended to help raise the consciousness of gay college students, is described. (JH)

Reconstructionism is an extension and elaboration of the progressivist philosophy of education developed by John Dewey and his intellectual associates. Thomas Brameld also views reconstructionism as the beginning of a new philosphy of education, and this dissertation develops an approach to teaching literature that functions with Brameld's views.…

Examines the strengths and weaknesses of Terry Eagleton's "Literary Theory," a book explaining the Marxist position on literature and criticizing what it calls the liberal humanist approach for its tendency to isolate literature from life. (MM)