Many students struggle to analyze literature and fall into writing plot summaries. They fail to engage with the text because analyzing literature is a foreign concept for so many of them. In this article, the author discusses how she came up with a method to help students adapt to college writing and thinking. Building from a technique that…

Shows how teachers can use the videotapes and writings of Joseph Campbell to help students see patterns in literature and respond personally to it. Presents Campbell's explanation of the monomyth of the hero's journey, and discusses three works in which the pattern is present. (SR)

Claims that the insights of reader response theory can be brought into the teaching of poetry in college literature courses. Outlines methods for utilizing reader response techniques to help students enjoy and understand poetry. (HB)

Responds to an article in an earlier issue of this journal about using reading response in a college literature classroom. Argues that the use of reader-response theory with two-year college students requires some caution. (SR)

Answers the question of whether fiction can mean anything you want it to. Offers suggestions to help students use their personal experiences to make sense out of Kafka's "A Hunger Artist." (EL)

Shows how students can benefit from expressing their emotional responses to literature in writing. (EL)

Discusses an explicit method for applying deconstruction--a philosophical approach to literary criticism originated by Derrida--in the introductory literature course and shows how to maintain the system's challenging and intellectual rigor, while avoiding much of its potentially offputting terminology and its tendency toward subjective word play.…

Outlines a series of summary-writing assignments which focus on differences between expository and literary texts, and provide unusual opportunities for students to develop their response to literature. Maintains that such summaries increase students' facility as perceptive readers and insightful writers. (SR)

Argues in favor of a reader-response approach to the process of selecting the literary works students read in introductory or survey courses. Offers a rationale for using "The Tempest" in such a course. (FL)