Jamie Wills

7/27/2019 Jamie Wills

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The Place of LiteraryCriticism in the High

School Classroom

Jamie L. Wills

Kennesaw State University


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Do you use literary criticism

in your classroom? If so,how do you use it?


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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Readers

Reflections on Literature through

Literary Theories Joanne M. Golden& Donna Canan

Main Point!

The article provided a

unique way to introduce

and explain to studentsliterary theory.


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Literary Theories and Snow White

Versus

StructuralistTheory

Enables us to see

how language itself

produces meaning.

Binary Oppositions

good/evilyouth/age

innocence/artifice

castle/cottage


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Feminist Criticism

Exploring womensredefinition of their

identity in writing.- Snow Whites life with the

dwarves as important toher education as a

submissive female wholearns lessons of service,selflessness, anddomesticity.


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The role of thedwarves is similar tothat of the peasantclasses in that itechoes the value ofhard work andsolidarity needed forsurvival. These

dwarves support thefairytales socialorder.

Marxist TheorySeeing society as

a class struggle.


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The next step:

Applying Literary Theories

Structuralist: rich/poor,death/life, lucky/unlucky

Feminist: Paul saves

his mom, like princecharming always savesthe princess.

Marxist: When they

pool the money, it is asymbol of wanting toshare equally thewealth in the sameclass.

D.H. Lawrence

The Rocking-

Horse Winner


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The next step:

Applying Literary Theories

Structuralist: war/peace, reality/illusion,hate/love, truth/lies, sanity/insanity

Feminist: Womens basic role is to havechildren.

Marxist: The proles are worthless. Theyrejust like poor people, and they have no sayin what goes on.


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Ours and StudentsResponses

The novel should be finished before the

theories are introduced.

Additional theories could be used.

The choice of works is important.

Snow White was effective for introducing

the theories.

The theories should be wovenin over the course of the

semester.


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Demystifying the Text:Literary Criticism in the High

School Classroom

Lisa Schade

Criticism adds another level to our

literary study and gives the studentsadded insight into the mysteries of

literary interpretations.


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Criticism all the year long

Archetypal Criticism Gilgamesh

Structuralism Oedipus Rex

Reader-Response Criticism HamletBiographical CriticismDantes

Paradiso

Marxist Kaffir BoyPhilosophical CriticismKafkas The

Metamorphosis


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The Final Product

Students research in groups a

geographical area of their choice.

The research culminates in a 45 min.

presentation about their country andits literary history. Students must

locate and read poetry, essays, short

stories, and one novel or long playlooking for a unifying philosophical or

critical base.


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Sing a New Song: A FreshLook at Literary Criticism

Catherine P. Sagan

Dr. Sagan, this is really tough. It

took me half and hour to read a

single page; its so dense!


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The Response

About eighteen years ago, experiencing

mild guilt pangs at my audacity, I threw out

all research assignments that mandated

reference to formal literary criticism; in theirplace I asked my students to design their

own thesis and surprise me-to link an

original theory to an article found in a

popular magazine they read for pleasure-e.g.,Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan,

Seventeen, Omni, Time.


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The Result The conch, rather thanbeing a symbol fordemocratic order, is an

instrument of censorshipthat contributes to theevolving disorder on theisland.

Simon is not a Christfigure but is sufferingfrom schizophrenicpsychosis, as described

in an article inPsychology Today byDan Hurley, ImminentDanger.


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The rewards of using this research

approach

My students felt comfortable during

later classroom discussions when I

introduced the views of literary critics.

The contemporary relevance of texts

studied did not have to be defended:

my students proved this by the

connections they forged.


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Reception Moments, Modern

Literary Theory, and the

Teaching of Literature

- Patrick Sullivan

Reception Moment examining

how a text was received by the

public when it was first printed


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Reception Moment #1

Was characterized as rough,

coarse and inelegantthe

whole book suited to the

slums than to intelligent,respectable people.

Quote raises questions about

the nature of language &

deomonstrates the operationof different kinds of cultural

norms.


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Reception Moment #2

In later years the book wastermed as a grotesqueexample of racist trash everwritten.

Questions students mayexplore comparing the firstreception with the secondmay include the explorationof why it wasnt seen asracist when it first cameout.


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Classroom Application

This is a great way to introduce

literary criticism.

Students can begin to appreciate the

interrelationship between language,

culture, and history as factors that

influence the way we respond to the

literature we read.


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Lets give them something to talk

(and think) about: Using literarytheory to enliven our

classrooms. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm

A look into the experts on

literary criticism in the

classroom.


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Deborah ApplemanAppleman focuses onhow literary theory is notonly engaging tostudents because ithelps them to see theworld in a new way andto wield power in thatworld, but because ithelps them and us enter

into and understandpositions other than ourown in a diverse andcomplex world.


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Peter J. Rabinowitz

Authorizing Readers

Rabinowitz and co-authorMichael W. Smith talk

about the authorialaudience. This is whenstudents adopt theknowledge andsensibilities of theaudience for whom thetext seems to have beenwritten.


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Their Cooperative Conclusion

English is about nothing! A high

school student with whom I worked

recently ranted on and on: English is

about reading poems, telling aboutrhythm. English is about commas, for

Gods sake! Its about nothing!

Jeffrey D. Wilhelm


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SourcesGolden, J. M., & Canan, D. (2004, May). Mirror, mirror on

the wall: Readers reflections on literature through literarytheories. English Journal, 93(5), 42-46.

Sagan, C. P. (2003, July). Sing a new song: A fresh look atliterary criticism. English Journal, 92(6), 40.

Schade, L. (1996, March). Demystifying the text: Literary

criticism in the high school classroom. English Journal,85(3), 26-31.

Sullivan, P. (2002, April). Reception moments, modernliterary theory, and the teaching of literature. Journal of

Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 45(7), 568-578.

Wilhelm, J. D. (2002, January). Lets give them something

to talk (and think) about: Using literary theory to enlivenour classrooms. English Journal, 91(3), 128-130.

Documents

Jamie Wills