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Toni Morrison's vision of America juxtaposes the rubble and rabble of a silent, screaming America against an affluent America that cannot hear. In "The Bluest Eye" she offers a poignant portrayal of the bastardization of the American Dream: opportunity has become entitlement, success has been translated in currency. This paper analyzes the text of Morrison's novel, which tells the story of the Breedlove family. The paper views Pecola Breedlove as the most tragic character and finds that the novel chronicles Pecola's futile struggle against an assault that she cannot identify and that she certainly cannot understand--the silent assault of racism. Each chapter of the novel is introduced with an excerpt from "Dick and Jane," the primary school basal reader in which all children live harmoniously and prosperously with Mother and Father in a tidy little house. In "The Bluest Eye" Morrison does not prescribe a panacea for the dystopian ills of American society but offers up conflict, injustice, inequality, abuse, prejudice, intolerance, and inhumanity for the reader's critical examination. (NKA)

This paper is the beginning of a plea for a reconsideration of the way in which educators teach short stories. It is only the beginning because the paper's main purpose is to draw together literary critical perspectives on the short story and then briefly examine their implications for teaching. It is the convenient yet evasive nature of short stories that forms the basis of this argument. An examination of broad ranging critical approaches to the short story raises a number of important questions concerning classroom practices. First, what students expect from short stories is considered, comparing responses to a novel with those to a short story. The paper then considers how educators can help students read the lack of resolution in many short stories, noting that students could be asked to summarize the plot in a single sentence, thereby calling attention to what has been left out. How educators can help students to see the significance of the story frame is examined next. In this context, students must be encouraged to predict pasts and futures for the characters, preferably over a broad time span to encourage summarizing. Last, students need to be made aware of short story theories, in the same way that educators want knowledge of literary theory or of poetic diction to inform their responses to novels or poems. Contains 48 references. (TB)

This paper surveys the study of English in British schools from the 16th century to the present. The paper proceeds chronologically, using key terms operative in education at various times to structure discussion. In the 16th century a key term was "rhetoric," which concerns oral expression. "The Art and Craft of Rhetoric," is one of the oldest surviving textbooks, discussing, types of discourse--logical, demonstrative, deliberative, and judicial. By 1700, a key term was "expression"--verse writing in English was encouraged as a skill approved at the highest social levels; imitation and the use of stock expression was the dominant convention. By the middle of the 18th century, literature anthologies were common, as were spelling books and grammar textbooks, but from the middle of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century it is hard to know how much attention was given to written expression, since no textbooks survive. During that same period, however, social and economic developments caused particular attention to be paid to oral expression, especially for those upwardly bound socially. In the 19th century, educators were asking their students to read and explain particular literature selections and grammar continued to be taught through this century and writing remained unpopular with students. History suggests that English has developed as an alliance of components. Includes 22 notes. (TB)

The institutional view of literature in the National Curriculum of Great Britain shows a dramatic belittlement in its revised version. It lacks a coherent literary or pedagogical rationale and substitutes a functional one in which over-simplification purports to be clarification. The institution is primarily concerned to define English literary heritage; it is more interested in control than in curriculum. For this reason, the issues of literature and learning are ignored; tests of levels of attainments are the levers of control. Opposition to Great Britain's National Curriculum could focus on three basic issues that have been the subject of advances in literary studies over the past 25 years and are either neglected or misunderstood in the National Curriculum. First, policy makers must understand that texts are no longer autonomous but are rather fluid, conditioned by the culture and personal inclinations and experience of the reader. Second, a child's reading ability is not systematic but idiosyncratic and serendipitous. Third, a prescribed canon of books is not workable. Current literary scholars regard the canon as evolutionary, subject to the shifting values being negotiated by a culture. (Contains 40 references.) (TB)

Research on teachers and teacher thinking finds itself subject to tensions between two prevailing factions. The first sees promise of progress in the rejection of frequently conservative, idiosyncratic teachers' thoughts; the second embraces those thoughts as expressions of a sacred, lived truth. Detecting conflicting mythologies at the core of this division, the author considers several means by which teachers' memories can be persuaded to yield their fruits: the fruit of structure, which provides a way to organize and retain experiences; and the fruit of quest, which provides an impetus to examine the fruit of structure in order to extract deeper meaning from those experiences. In the process, the author makes use of literary representations and philosophical investigations, concluding that a candid evaluation of researchers' mythologies will recognize them as varieties of meaning-generating faith. (Author)

Explores how two-year college students may be assisted in the transition from reader response criticism to literary analysis and research paper writing. Proposes a heuristic that requires student researchers to draw on previous student essays on their topic. (TB)

To incorporate Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" into a course on writing may be to subvert the author's purpose. Pirsig meant for his book to be read aimlessly--like a Zen experience whose goal is only realized after it is achieved. Pirsig might even object to the "teaching" of "Zen and the Art" since college courses are driven by purpose and agenda. Nevertheless, the book may be fruitfully used as a tool when preparing students for the task of writing a research paper. Here are six reasons that the study of the book supports the process approach to writing of all types. One, students are interested in "Zen and the Art" for its story line, so they will read it. Two, students enjoy solving the mystery of Phaedrus's identity. To do so, they must gather facts. Three, reading a long, dense text over several weeks, students can practice and gain confidence in their ability to gather significant evidence, to cite correctly, and to combine evidence into an organized essay response. Four, students can follow one or several themes through the book. When they write more than one paper on a single topic, they can see how their perspective changes over time. Five, form follows function in "Zen and the Art," so students learn how verb tense and ordinary words can contribute to a text's success. Six, the book teaches that the Zen experience requires active engagement, so students learn that they must become actively involved in their research paper topics if they are to produce well-written papers. Contains three references. (TB)

The two papers in this compilation were drawn from a conference designed to encourage scholars to continue the rhetorical tradition. The first paper, delivered by Todd Sorenson and Carrie Stopek, was the paper most highly commended by a panel of critics at the conference. The paper uses fantasy theme analysis, specifically the three fantasy theme myths of the Hero, the Fellowship, and the Sacrifice, to examine the so-called "electronic church," today's television ministry. The second paper, by Anthony Hillbruner, was the major address of the conference and presents a rhetorical analysis of Hegel's theory of dialectic. (FL)

The four papers in this compilation were drawn from a conference designed to encourage scholars to continue the rhetorical tradition. The first paper, by Robert S. Cathcart, was the opening address of the conference and discusses the "technologization" of rhetoric. Specifically, the paper discusses the application of rhetorical analysis to the mass media. The remaining three papers in the compilation were those most highly commended by a panel of critics at the conference. The first, by Nancy Garabedian, discusses the techniques used by the television news program "60 Minutes" to build a visual ethos. The second paper, by Sharon Occhipinti, examines the attorney's final argument to a jury as a genre of discourse; and the third paper, by Sean O'Rourke, presents situational analysis of the Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of the Interior-designate James Watt. (FL)

Ten papers discuss the relationship between cultural awareness and literature, with specific references to cultural resonances between East and West and between developed and developing nations. The papers represent seminar presentations of the Contact Literature Project in Honolulu in 1981. Contact literature refers to the study of literary expressions (e.g., novels, poetry, films) of the encounter between people of different cultural traditions. Subjects cover a wide range of cultures such as India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Tibet, Korea, and Vietnam. Specific topics include the role of women in modern Korean drama, the problems of how literature is related to a society and what kind of truth it reveals, the modernization of the poetic tradition in Sinhalese poetry, sociocultural aspects of two South Indian novels, U.S. films on the international scene, and some literary responses to America and Vietnam. (KC)

This paper examines the negative stereotypes so long foisted on witty women and the move of contemporary witty women writers into a comic vision beyond the imposed connection of female wit to sly cleverness and witchcraft. To illustrate how the woman writer had to cope with a prejudice against and a fear of her wit, the paper considers three fictional cunning women: May, in Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale"; Scheherazade, in "The Arabian Nights"; and the goddess Diana, in a curious creation myth connected to the origin of witchcraft. The paper also explores the figure of the witch, an ominous figure lurking in the woman writer's psyche. The paper compares several women writers to witches in terms of wit with words, relationship to the community, and fear of persecution and ridicule. Twenty-six footnotes are included. (KEH)

Designed to make readers more aware of the systematic neglect of women's experience in the traditional literary canon, the paper presents feminist alternatives to the male-dominated canon, an assessment of their impact on the standard canon, and a proposal for new directions for further work. Two suggested approaches for feminist criticism are (1) emphasizing alternative readings that reinterpret women's character, motivations, and actions and that identify and challenge sexist ideology; and/or (2) concentrating on gaining admission to the literary canon for women writers. Nina Baym's introduction to a study of American women's fiction between 1820 and 1870 is presented, the viewpoints of feminist scholars such as Patricia Meyer Spacks, Louise Bernikow, Ellen Moers, Nina Auerbach, and Judith Lowder Newton are discussed and criticisms raised by black and lesbian feminist scholars are noted. A discussion of the fundamentally elite nature of the existing canon is followed by a word about the increasing acceptance being given to women's letters, diaries, journals, autobiographies, oral histories, private poetry, and popular women's literature. The document concludes that feminist alternatives must continue to be pursued--not so as to label and dismiss even the most sexist literary classics, but to apprehend them in all their human dimensions. (LH)

The pedagogical and theoretical questions raised by the notion of using microcomputers in the teaching of literature are covered in this report, rather than the current state of computer use in the classroom. In part, the report formulates basic premises that underly what teachers do in literature classrooms and asks what skills, concepts, and content are actually taught. It analyzes types of interaction between students and other students, texts, and instructors--delivered traditionally or through microcomputer--and the process by which students interpret literature. The report concludes that while microcomputers can serve as useful tools for college literature students, there is no real evidence that they can forward the core of the learning process--the process of interpretation--that defines the undergraduate study of literature. (CRH)

Presents two articles in which teachers describe how film can be used in the language arts classroom to accomplish many of the same things that books can. Shows, in particular, how film facilitates the teaching of literary terms and devices and how it heightens interest in the student research paper without detracting from the basic lessons of the project. (TB)

Discusses overt and covert values in environmental education communicated in children's literature. Argues that environmental educators should concentrate on extending children's already existing relationship with the earth into young adulthood. (Contains 15 references.) (MDH)

The "Harry Potter" series has become a phenomenal success with children. "Harry Potter" books in print worldwide is in excess of 116 million, and they have been translated into 47 languages. What might account for this huge popularity? While the characters and events are certainly engaging, funny, original, and creative, they also illuminate another dimension of interpretation that may explain their appeal and popularity: that of the archetype. This paper explores the concept of the archetype as viewed through the characters in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" stories. The paper discusses definitions and examples of archetypes. Finally, it offers selected comments, noting that Harry is an evolving archetype, essentially still a work-in-progress, and that as such, readers across the globe can only speculate as to the eventual outcome. (Contains 2 table and 15 references.) (NKA)

An instructor of an adolescent literature course wanted to give the students an opportunity to study some novels not specifically written for an adolescent audience. Examples of such novels were: Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," and Jamaica Kincaid's "Annie John." Including these novels, however, meant excluding young adult novels. So the instructor created a course designed to complement the adolescent literature course that featured adolescent protagonists in fiction written and marketed for adults. This paper discusses the course, "Reading and Writing about Adolescence," contending that it is the differences these novels have from young adult literature that merit their place in the curriculum. The paper cites the novels selected for the course, along with a packet of short fiction and essays on diverse topics assembled by the instructor. It notes that the fiction is introduced in the order in which it was published and no novels published before World War II are used. The paper discusses the novel which usually begins the course, Carson McCullers'"Member of the Wedding,". It continues with "Catcher in the Rye," John Knowles "A Separate Peace," and Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye." The paper states that students write informal responses each week to assigned readings and, in addition, two longer, more formal pieces of criticism. It explains that the final writing assignment includes a project on which students have been working since mid-term and which has been the focus of individual conferences. Contains an annotated 25-item bibliography of additional suggestions for novels, short fiction pack suggestions, and critical essays suggestions. (NKA)

Demonstrating a critical stance requires readers to stand apart from the text and consider it objectively. It involves a range of tasks including critical evaluation; comparing and contrasting; and understanding the impact of such features as irony, humor, and organization. According to this paper, the selection of appropriate literature is a crucial initial step in developing a critical stance. The paper delineates the following 16 teaching strategies to engage students in responding to literature: questioning the author; students develop own questions; teacher-guided questioning; teacher modeling of strategies; journals; create a strong response; sketch-to-stretch; defining good literature; collaboration; graphic organizers; sustained silent reading; engage students in peer response; alternatives to summarization; read aloud short stories; literature circles; and other ideas for developing a critical stance. (Contains 19 references.) (NKA)

Eric Campbell, an English teacher, spent most of his working life in New Guinea and in East Africa, where he lived in the shadow of Kilimanjaro. He now lives in England and writes about Africa. People could expect an objective, and perhaps, a dispassionate account or depiction of African children and adults--their individual lives and sociocultural functions in a true geopolitical and sociocultural milieu in the 1990s--from a British writer and teacher reminiscent of another British teacher and writer, William Golding. But what a reader finds particularly in reading "The Year of the Leopard Song" is a disappointment. This paper discusses and analyzes Campbell's 1992 novel for children. The paper sees the novel as a deliberate continuation and revival of the misplaced old stereotypes of the barbaric and evil Africans. It states that in a children's literature course students can learn more about ideology and how the aesthetic practices of literary representation transform culture than in any other course they may take--they see how ideas of capitalism and imperialism get welded to moral imperatives in turn-of-the-century boys' adventure fiction, creating an ideal imperial subject itching for travel and conquest in the services of God and country. The paper notes that the functional nature of children's literature is to bring the world together in true brotherhood and sisterhood. It finds that international understanding and cooperation cannot be possible through "racist books" like Eric Campbell's "The Year of the Leopard Song." (Contains 12 references.) (NKA)

This paper speculates about whether a literary canon exists in contemporary Latin American literature, particularly in the prose genre. The paper points to Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa as the three authors who might form this traditional and liberal canon with their works "La Muerte de Artemio Cruz" (Fuentes), "Cien Anos de Soledad" (Garcia Marquez), and "La Cuiudad y los Perros" (Vargas Llosa). It discusses how the idea of a literary canon came about originally and how the canon of Latin American literature seems to be based mostly on the votes of publishing houses, reviews, anthologies, and preferences of academics. The paper states that, in a 1995 study Joan Brown and Crista Johnson found: "The present study indicates that there is currently no canon of 20th century prose fiction for Spanish or Spanish American literature, if "canonical" is defined as a work's presence on every reading list. Not one novel was selected unanimously by the Spanish faculty studied." Despite this finding, the paper contends that the three novels cited, because of their structure, aesthetics, linguistic expression, and thematic richness, form a Latin American literary canon. (NKA)

The "Bhagavad Gita" is a didactic dialogue inserted approximately in the middle of an immensely long Indian epic entitled the "Mahabharata." This paper examines the use of narrative in this ancient Hindu religious work, the "Bhagavad Gita"--specific attention is given to how the story in this didactic text uses dialogic events between the two main characters to establish a complicated and seemingly contradictory stance on ethical behavior, unethical behavior, war, etc. Noting that the complicated lineage of events in this work establishes a foundation from which criticism can proceed, the paper shows that the evaluative qualities of narrative "probability" and "fidelity" (as discussed by Fisher, 1987) are not clearly discernible in the text; the western audience can construct differing arguments from this text, as well as receive differing impressions of its coherence and logic. The paper states that, as a result of this analysis, the "Bhagavad Gita" can be considered to advance the narrative paradigm in that it provides a prime example of a "multivalent narrative" from the eastern world. It finds that this text is very deserving of study and that this inquiry has been a step toward constructing some theoretical insights into the practice of Indian rhetoric and narrative practice. Cites 42 works. (NKA)

The idea of experience needs to be examined before the experiential aspect of literary reading can be understood, and before literary reading as an ethical practice can properly be defined. Open-mindedness is necessary when fostering student interpretations of a literary text, just as it is necessary for accepting the varying life experiences of others. The paper continues with a brief history of the concept of experience, concluding with an application of the experience concept to literary reading and suggesting possible uses of the term "text" which do not rely on a dualistic concept of experience, such as framing the idea of a text not as a representation of meaning but as a specialized language application for transforming an experience. (Contains 11 references.) (EF)

Noting that even a cursory examination of curricula at the K-12 and postsecondary levels reveals a prolonged crisis of Chicano representation in the liberal arts, this paper considers how literature and history can be linked productively through a practice of critical cultural studies, one that places the poetics of these discursive forms in dialogue with one another. While the focus is on the Chicana/o experience, the paper suggests that the method of analysis is broadly applicable and advocates an approach that is simultaneously interdisciplinary and inter- and intra-cultural. It examines the literature of people of Mexican descent in the United States as they have chosen to represent their past through "factual" and "fictional" narratives. It concludes by discussing efforts to realize a cultural studies praxis and by offering considerations on methodology. (BT)

Literature seeks to recover the "facts" and fill in the gaps of knowledge as it enunciates the truth of existence. Nowhere is this more apparent than in African-American literature, where history and art are inextricably linked, where the personal truly is political. Throughout the history of the United States, the institution of slavery and subsequent policies of segregation have tainted the official record. But there was a concomitant, alternate record--the oral and written African-American tradition. Complicating matters, however, was the actual form of this tradition. Spirituals, sermons, letters, diaries, slave narratives as autobiography did not conform to the established, i.e., White male definition of literature. This paper, noting that the African-American literary tradition provides a cultural and historical record of the struggle for survival, freedom and equality, contends that African-American literature, besides striving to delight and teach, is committed to setting the record straight. To show an example of the African-American struggle, the paper gives a detailed analysis of a contemporary novel, "A Lesson Before Dying," by Ernest Gaines, which revolves around a murder--the result of the protagonist's being in the wrong place at the wrong time--and the degradation of racism in the South. The paper states that Gaines can be described as an author who gives voice to individuals silenced by history. Includes 41 notes. (NKA)

This paper reflects upon Plato's "Phaedrus" from a background in education and experience teaching written business communications. The interpretation and development presented are guided by the Platonic method of collection and division, which is introduced in "Phaedrus." The paper begins with an evaluative overview, followed by an interpretation of Plato's collective orientation to the work. Major parts of the dialogue, such as Lysias' and Socrates' speeches and immortal forms represented, are then analyzed, followed by a synthetic reflection that provides a brief review of the organic whole, and a concise critique of the quality and helpfulness of R. Hackforth's commentary. The closing summary suggests that: (1) "Phaedrus" challenges the reader's intellect and supplies deeper perception with each reading; (2) it contains a related set of themes and subthemes which all serve to improve the soul and intellect; and (3) the degree of focused mental activities engaged by the reader is at least a partial indicator of the value "Phaedrus" will impart. (EF)

This paper addresses what is illusionary about the implication that a more representative canon has anything to do with a more representative student body and university administration and, ultimately, a better representation of marginalized groups in society. It considers the institutional and methodological barriers which hinder such changes and then turns to its main thesis that for any reform of the canon and of the curriculum in literature to be successful students first need to learn about the controversies surrounding the definitions and redefinitions of the canon. The paper argues for bringing the debate within the profession into the classroom, noting that both sides at odds do not consider the change in higher education's structure, wherein the teaching of literature becomes ever more marginalized as colleges turn into pre-professional schools with little room for the liberal arts. It stresses that only by giving students a clear picture of how the canon was used in the past and what is at stake when it is changed can they appreciate the alternatives that their professors want to offer. The paper outlines approaches to canonical texts which highlight the controversies surrounding the canon and which can motivate students to abandon received ways of reading literature--ground for a reformed canon must be prepared by changes in the ways texts are read. The paper's final point is that there are chances missed when new texts are simply substituted for the traditional canon. Contains 19 notes and 15 references. (NKA)

At the State University of New York at Albany, a controversy arose over what type of writing assignment is appropriate in introductory literature classes, particularly those taught by graduate students. Undergraduates applying for the honors division were unable to produce even one literary criticism essay despite 9 hours of literature courses taken. The assumption was that creative writing assignments serve a lesser purpose and require less in the way of critical analysis. If in fact the "lit-crit" paper is superior to the creative paper, what is it that it possesses? "The Norton Introduction to Literature" asks students to cite evidence and "so forth" in their literary criticism essays, to consider tone, "thesis" and "central thrust." Excerpts from a model lit crit essay the Norton provides share many virtues with excerpts from a creative literary essay written by a student. Each seems aware of focus, organization and central thrust. It is hard not to wonder, however, whether constructed defenses of the creative approach such as this are honest. Perhaps the real reason an instructor chooses a certain approach is because he/she likes it. Could it be that there is something disingenuous about claiming a certain critical approach is more "accurate," more "responsible," more "scholarly," or more "intellectual." Are these words not smoke screens for the instructor's desires? Admitting the genres have much in common might be a way to compromise. (Contains 13 references.) (TB)

Instructors and students of literature should look to George McDonald Fraser's "Flashman: From the Flashman Papers, 1839-1842" for a clever critique of 19th-century notions of character, virtue, and moral teleology. Written to criticize Thomas Hughes's famous 19th-century novel, "Tom Brown's School Days," Fraser's 20th-century novel turns on end the Victorian assumption that courage, virtue, fortitude and leadership, as taught in the English schools, lead to good deeds and success in the real world. In Fraser's novel, Harry Flashman, the rogue and scoundrel from "Tom Brown's School Days," tells his side of the story through some papers that fall into the fictive narrator/editor's hands. Far from the failure "Tom Brown's School Day's" suggests he will grow up to be, Flashman, with none of the qualities needed for success, has acquired four inches of meritorious accomplishments in "Who's Who." In his old age, Flashman goes about explaining the discrepancy between his public image as a heroic soldier and his private notion of himself as cheat and fraud. He has no use for military character. By giving the reader an engaging and humorous rogue for a hero and narrator, Fraser can look at the history of the 19th century with the caustic vision and cutting satire associated with picaresque realism. (TB)

This paper argues for the inclusion of computer-based writing assignments in literature and writing courses, citing as objectives for students the fostering of collaboration; the cultivation of scholarly ideals; and the exploration of issues, ideas, and literature from varying perspectives. It explains how the instructor developed assignments through reading "Computers in Composition" and other journals, through attendance at computer-assisted instruction workshops at regional and national conferences, by following discussions on MBU (Megabyte University) and other electronic lists, and through trial and error. The paper presents various sample writing assignments (using WordPerfect) for different classes in American Literature, such as a poetry explication assignment, a romantic fiction group project, and a paired letter exchange. Samples of student writing for the assignments are included with the paper, as are selected group e-mail compositions. (TB)

It seems that this paper, as if it were some textual Elvis, by the author's own admission has eluded him. With the set of commas included in the title of the paper, it is not clear whether 2 or 3 people are being referred to. The paper's first version took Bakhtin as the reigning monarch of English studies and applied his complicated and complicating theories of dialogism to Maxine Hong Kingston's "No Name Woman." But then, on second thought, the paper considers that some of those attending the 4C's (Conference on College Composition and Communication) presentation in Tennessee might have come for the "Elvisness" of the panel, to be "all shook up." Noting that Elvis is an American icon, the paper also notes that Elvis is dead. The paper points out that just as Elvis' becoming so carnivalized and internally persuasive means that his audience can never recover his essence, the original reason for his mass popularity, so too is the reader unable to know "No Name Aunt," the adulterous figure in Kingston's book. Obviously, this paper takes a turn--it began as a deriding impersonation of the academic paper but has itself become carnivalized, turned topsy turvy, retreating into the object of its ridicule. The paper suggests that it is impossible to laugh at Kingston because carnival is concerned with the masses, the folk, not the individual. The paper concludes that Elvis, as a non-writer, was powerless to do anything but occupy a class of his own, while Kingston, as a writer, is able to rescue her aunt from the same fate. (TB)

This paper examines the Christian Identity artifact, "The Book of Adam," by Dan Gayman. Using narrative criticism, this artifact is shown to construct the white race as "progressing through time, as occupying sacred spatial locations, as essentially chosen by God, and as separate from other races." This narrative blurs the distinction between the Biblical myth and the lives of audience members. Attention is drawn to the dangerous ambiguity of Gayman's language; this derivative of original "differance" could be effective in reaching non-fundamentalist audiences with this text. Contains 38 references. (Author/RS)

In the 1970s, the relatively new discipline of Women's Studies was taught by educators whose primary fields were literature, psychology, sociology, or history. One problem that faces many instructors is the double-bind situation that Women's Studies courses are popular, so the dynamic teacher may find herself/himself teaching more courses--sometimes with as many as 120 undergraduates--writing more papers, and attending more conferences. Some students see literary readings such as Doris Lessing's "To Room Nineteen" as an attack on their traditional mothers. Explanation and re-explanation of truths and realities in society, while necessary in the classroom, are energy-draining over a period of time, and can cause instructor fatigue and "burn out." Additionally, evolving consciousness sometimes turns student rage on the instructor; also, the Women's Studies instructor can find herself/himself spending more and more time with more and more students. The final hurdle for many instructors is that Women's Studies is seen as a "mongrel" discipline, which is not helpful in the tenure process. Many academics fail to perceive the legitimacy of feminist literary criticism, but feel that anyone writing is this area can get any article or book published. The vulnerability of courses in Women's Studies to educational budget cuts is another drawback. Those who teach Women's Studies, however, feel that it can go a long way in helping men and women to more completely understand each other and the society which shaped their attitudes. (NKA)

This paper discusses the dynamics of Paulo Freire's "true perception" and the importance of language awareness, and even style, to that "interdependence" which makes possible the perception and transformation of reality. Freire calls for a critical intervention to transform reality, and because this intervention simultaneously incorporates subjective and objective experience, it is necessarily an awareness of language. Several concepts from British critical linguistics, "gap filling" and "inferencing," are helpful in understanding and employing liberatory critical interventions in advanced and regular composition classes. In Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (1968), the critical intervention is the activity that brings forth consciousness: a subject is born when its object is changed. Critical linguistics, as Lester Faigley (1992) argues, has been better than most perspectives at facilitating an appreciation of an ambiguous, double sense of agency, an interdependence of actor and acted upon. The first step in a modern tradition of stylistic analysis is the perception of a "dominant feature" in the text. In the critical linguistics classroom, the instructor aims to induce an awareness of style by giving students the purposefully vague direction to "identify 'THE' outstanding feature" in an excerpt of their own choosing. Then, the instructor asks the students to find a gap in the text and write a detailed "ghost chapter" to fill it. Finally, inferencing goes beyond gap filling: it examines the zone of "background intuition" that Freire mentions--it calls on the set of assumptions and expectations framed in common sense. (Contains 17 references.) (TB)

For one instructor, learning that personal response, particularly emotions, had no place in the construction of a public self began in high school senior English class where students learned to never use personal pronouns in their writing. The lesson continued in college where she majored in journalism and literature under the direction of text-focused New Critics. However, required readings in a graduate seminar made impersonal criticism difficult, if not impossible. A search for different critical approaches introduced literary critics, feminist scholars, and compositionists who welcome the instruction of the personal into scholarship. Echoing social constructionists, these theorists and teachers question the detached, objective reader and researcher as valued model by showing why this role is impossible and even undesirable. The meaning of literary text is located in the reader's self and interpretive strategies. Personal, interactive reading can be messy, however, sabotaging efforts to produce carefully tailored prose. Practicing discourse diversity, writing autobiographically, is fraught with risks, especially for academic women--they risk not being heard in a climate that does not always value what women have to say. Remarks from student papers in a Composition 101 class offer anecdotal evidence that autobiographical writing options may not eliminate writing anxiety but can generate motivations that will allow students to transcend the "academic exercise" and experience writing and scholarship as personally meaningful and rewarding acts. (Contains 16 references.) (CR)

Few empirical studies have focused on how composition students draw on classroom interactions to develop as writers. For instance, when students disagree fundamentally in their interpretations of what they have read, how are the range of voices reflected in their subsequent writing? The student-led format for discussions proves conducive to participation with often more than 90% of students speaking during such sessions. Case studies: (1) refute the assumption that a student has to participate in classroom discussions to benefit from them as a writer; (2) lead students to accept the idea that multiple interpretations of texts are permissible; (3) help students recognize that classroom diversity leads to productive difference of perspective; (4) point out that the essential ingredients of mutual respect and willingness to listen in a discussion can influence students to write papers that are springboards for introducing topics and raising questions during discussions; and (5) help students understand that both discussing and writing are occasions for rethinking. The interaction of oral and written language is underscored by the wide array of ways students draw upon each other's words and ideas when they are writing about books. Student-led discussions allow renegotiation of authority in the classroom with the aim of allowing students to effectively (and independently) engage each other and the text. Above all, students themselves view student-led discussions of literature as a welcome alternative to school-as-usual--one that transforms how they view themselves as readers talking and writing about texts. (SAM)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a revolt against what she labels as "Androcentric Culture" where men have access to the world while women have access only to the home and where "the common humanity" of women has largely been ignored. Salvadore Dali's "The Object as Revealed in Surrealist Experiment," Michel Carrouges'"Andre Breton and the Basic Concepts of Surrealism" and other art theorists reveal the extent to which Perkins employs ideas similar to those of surrealism to criticize the condition of women in American society in the late nineteenth century. Exposing students to the relationships between major areas of study, such as, art, literature, psychology and women's studies, illuminates the meaning behind the climatic moments in the story, when the narrator, having been confined to a bedroom papered with yellow wallpaper, believes that she sees a woman entrapped behind the paper's ornate design. As her madness intensifies, she identifies herself with the trapped woman until subject-object relations become confused: the two women become one. In surrealist works, according to Haim N. Finkelstein, the metamorphosis of subject and object, the "change of role," is "an act of defiance against the mediocrity of life, a gesture of liberation from the accepted notions of usage and function"--the ability to see what lies beyond external appearance is enhanced. (Contains 11 references.) (TB)

An instructor's teaching practices have been influenced by Edward T. Hall's theory in "Beyond Culture," which begins with the notion that "what is known least well and is therefore in the poorest position to be studied is what is closest to oneself," the "unconscious patterns that control us." This wisdom has been useful in planning introductory writing courses using materials on cultural autobiography and anthropology, and recently, in planning a literature-based writing course. The focus was on fiction in which characters encountered new experiences on foreign soil (a cross-cultural initiation when values or beliefs of the new place clash with those of the home setting). Among the books chosen were Isak Dinesen's "Babette's Feast" and Henry James's "The Ambassadors." Students were required to keep journals, in which they recorded their own responses to the literature, and to write a research paper. During class time, students conversed about their journal entries or responded in the margins of each other's journals; they also discussed "lead" questions which modeled a way of making connections between the readings. Meetings ended with students submitting weekly journal entries that could be used in preparing a class ditto for the following week. This ditto would contain excerpts for discussion from student journals. Extensive examples of student writing show the range of sophisticated responses reflecting on issues of cultural literacy and criticism. (Contains 23 references.) (TB)

This paper traces Machiavelli's debt to classical rhetoric while outlining the rhetorical tenor of his comedy, "Mandragola." The paper specifically analyzes Machiavelli's attention to the medieval transmission of Ciceronian rhetoric by Boethius, as interpreted from the setting, characterization, and dialogue of "Mandragola." The conclusion addresses critical problems posed by Machiavelli's "reactionary" view of the roles that rhetoric and dialectic should play in Renaissance discourse. (FL)

This paper examines the controversy over the status and objectives of the social studies and suggests ways in which educators can resolve the controversy. In addition, it offers critical comments on several recent overviews of the field of social studies, including the "SPAN Report," by Irving Morrissett, Sharryl Hawke, and Douglas Superka, and "Defining the Social Studies," by Robert Barr, James Barth, and Sam Shermis. The major groups holding conflicting views which have to such a large degree fragmented the field of social studies are identified as advocates of back-to-basics, the psuedo-social science specialists, and the single-minded humanists. Arguments advanced by the first group recommend that schooling consist mainly of the basic subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic; the second group favors a heavy concentration of courses in history, geography, and civics/government; and people believing in the humanistic approach advocate basing the social studies curriculum on the humanities without proper regard for the social sciences. The conclusion is that the field of social studies will be improved if educators concentrate on a professional study of the foundations of social studies. The implication is that social studies would benefit if educators and, in particular, people who write about improving the field of social studies, would take the history of social studies into account and, specifically, if they would realize that social studies is a distinct field built on a tradition that borrows fully from social sciences and humanities. (DB)

Noting that for some time, the theory of literature has been supplanted by other disciplines as the major influences on the teaching of English in the secondary schools, this paper challenges the assumptions underlying two major principles for selecting and teaching literature: the social relevance of its subject matter and its immediate impact on students. The paper notes that both these criteria espouse a Platonic view of criticism, which regards literature and literary response in terms of its rhetorical effects rather than its aesthetic structure. It then offers analyses of two works, Ernest Hemingway's "The Killers" and Robert Bolt's "A Man for All Seasons," as examples of how "content and feeling" approaches to literature can misconstrue literary meaning, affect the role of the teacher, and influence educational policy. Finally, the paper suggests an alternative approach that argues for the critical response and the perception of literary form as the basis for literary experience and curriculum design. (FL)

Both film and ancient religious writing have much in common, especially in regard to their ability to convey powerful messages to modern audiences. A study analyzed the timeless meta-narratives in the ancient Hindu poem, the "Bhagavad Gita," and in the 1998 American film, "The Thin Red Line." It used the methodology of narrative criticism to make a cross-cultural contribution to philosophical and rhetorical studies that focus on the construction of evil and other philosophical themes in these two popular works. Since these two works potentially enshrine timeless cross-cultural narratives, an examination of these artifacts is warranted. The results of this inquiry indicate that these narratives construct issues of good/evil, self-transcendence, and personal duty in astonishingly similar ways. The study has shown that both artifacts portray evil as an inclination toward selfish action and the refusal to acknowledge a transcendent "ultimate" self behind the physical self of each human. The film points out that nature and humanity, once individuated and self-absorbed, go to war with itself. Both works also had similar themes in regard to issues of duty, selfless action, and the horror of war. The moral and enlightened individual is to avoid running away from the tragedies of existence and instead must uphold his duty with non-attached action. In both the literary portrayal and the cinematic portrayal of war, the narrative urges the warriors to fight with compassion and a lack of desire concerning the "fruits" of their actions. This study not only focuses attention on an undeveloped line of narrative inquiry, specifically that of ancient India, but also sheds comparative light on cross-cultural and multi-temporal narrative criticism in light of powerful philosophical storylines. (Contains 54 references.) (Author/RS)

Multicultural literature is one good way to raise children's awareness of diversity, but how does one decide what constitutes "good" multicultural children's literature? Most any book can be critiqued from numerous perspectives: first and foremost is the book's literary quality--plot, character development, setting, themes, and style; of secondary importance is the author's and/or illustrator's handling of a particular social issue, such as gender or cultural depictions of the characters. Critical analysis requires the use of specific language. Three different pages of Wade Hudson's "I Love My Family" (1993) were analyzed as to the use of language, taking two opposing views to demonstrate that each reader will have a unique interpretation, and that each opinion is valid, provided it is supported with evidence. The novel depicts an African-American family which gathers each summer for a family reunion on Grandpa Lawrence's farm in North Carolina. Also analyzed is Sherley Anne Williams's "Working Cotton" (1944), which depicts an African-American family of migrant laborers working in the cotton fields of the American South. Analysis suggests that there can be more than one model for family values, and that it is the interactions between family members that demonstrate values, whether the family is shown relaxing in their home or laboring in cotton fields. It is essential that classrooms contain books that depict a wide variety of cultures and of family constellations, showing characters in a wide variety of roles. (NKA)

Composition instructors are particularly interested in the fact that hypertext, as the mode of discourse that computers promote and prefer, introduces a new problematic for those concerned with teaching critical thinking. What kind of discourse is hypertext, and to what extent does it encourage, enable and demand critical thinking? The issue is not strictly about a computer technology, but a way of writing and a way of reading. To think about hypertext's nature as discourse, for example, consider Paul Ricoeur's interpretation theory as a guide in his "Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning." Ricoeur bases discourse analysis on the distinction between semantics and semiotics. His approach to interpretation theory makes it possible to see how critical thinking remains possible and necessary, but in important respects, changed in the hypertext environment. Considered as discourse, hypertext is closer to writing than to speech and so presents the tasks of literary interpretation and criticism. If hypertext remains in a sense "text," then the reading skills that are required still bear a relation to those that print requires. It is the larger structures that hypertext radically transforms. It is the "link," a particular kind of transition, that seems to characterize hypertext as a genre; the invitation is to explore a world that exists not simply in front and behind but offers paths in many directions. Hypertext encourages exploratory, multilinear writing rather than polemical writing. (CR)

What is pleasing about hypertext is what has always been pleasing about genre fiction: the creative process of reading. Genre novels are written to a formula--and often called formula fiction. Critics say they are written to make money and to make money only. According to C. S. Lewis, they "rot the mind." If looked at from the standpoint of rhetoric, however, the critic may see something besides junk and formula. It must be understood that the value or worth of a piece of fiction is a slippery and subjective matter, depending on the reader's orientation and reading habits. Further, those who read popular fiction are not a separate category of readers; they are the same group that reads canonical works. The truth is that "we" are the readers that C. S. Lewis and others are complaining about. To understand a popular genre, the reader must not read one or two books from that genre but hundreds. Immersed in the genre, the reader finds himself/herself reading for difference, not similarity; reading for form and the variations in that form. This interest in variation may explain why genre readers see complexity while critics do not. For the genre reader, genre reading is, like hypertext, intertexual, multivocal; the authority shifts from author, to genre, to the reader; the texts have no fixed beginnings or ends, as they can be read in any order. (Contains 16 references.) (TB)

This essay explores the concept of reader stance as defined by L. Rosenblatt (1978, 1994) as a useful framework from which to view the relative imbalance between the efferent and aesthetic reading of literature, particularly among schoolage adolescents. It then examines how 4 theoretical models and perspectives offer considerable explanatory insight into the process and virtue of adopting an aesthetic reading stance. According to the essay, schema theory provides a foundation for viewing the comprehension process in general, and aesthetic reading in particular, as a process that depends on the unique personal experience and world knowledge of the individual reader. Second, dual coding theory is featured for its explanation of the connection between imagery and affect, offering a powerful explanation of the way imagery serves aesthetic functions. Third, the model of attitude influence provides a thorough description of the ways in which an aesthetic reading can significantly impact both a reader's intention to read or continue reading, as well as attitude toward reading in general. Finally, the essay finds that the R. Ruddell and N. Unrau model (1994) accounts for the motivational value of reader stance, while also accounting for the teacher's instructional stance and its relationship to the conceptions of text, task, and the source of authority within the meaning negotiation process of the classroom. The essay suggests, in conclusion, implications for research and practice that reflect an evolving appreciation of the role of an aesthetic stance in reading and responding to literature. Contains 32 references. (TB)

In modern authorship, the writer is believed to be capable of working alone, autonomously, without being influenced by others. If the writer is a "true" author, he or she is also believed to be producing an "original" text and is accorded ownership of the text. These apparently neutral, natural moves actually participate in a hierarchy of authorship. At the one extreme is the true author, recognized by "his" autonomy and originality. At the other extreme is the plagiarist. This hierarchy, furthermore, is implicated in a set of gender-based assumptions that lead to disturbing conclusions about feminine authorship. Harold Bloom's "The Anxiety of Influence" and Thomas Mallon's "Stolen Words: Forays into the Origins and Ravages of Plagiarism," demonstrate the terms of these conclusions. Both Bloom and Mallon assert that all writing is influenced, none autonomous. Both, further, discuss writing with sexual metaphors that indicate a lack of appreciation for collaboration and other female inclinations. Robinson Shipherd was specific in linking originality to the masculine body, plagiarism to the female. Other 20th century writers, like Sigmund Freud, depict women as an obstruction to creativity. Meltzer finds that for Freud, men must acknowledge the feminine as the "passive and unproductive" elements in their work or they themselves will become feminized. Consider, also, William Perry's well-known explanation of exam-taking: rote obedient learning is associated with the female, while a subtle grasp of the abstract is associated with male learning. (Contains 19 references.) (TB)

As a writer and critic, Kenneth Burke defies convenient pigeonholing. Even if just one segment of Burke's public writings is considered, the 40-plus critical essays of the post-Libbie (his Muse and secretary), post-LSA ("Language as Symbolic Action") era, the difficulty of categorizing him remains. The earlier periods of his life are more or less defined by decade, which presents a rather hollow version of Burke. The search for an understanding of this post-Libbie period must strive for a suitable strategy for appreciating the full complexity of Burke's work. Burke said language not only enables but requires situations to be approached strategically. So as a means of reviewing the works of this period, a list of strategies for classifying them is helpful. First, the scholar might take the lead of other Burkean commentators and identify the distinctive nature of the late essays. James Chesebro (1993), for instance, identifies 1968 as the year that Burke finally gave up the "comedic posture" and got into the serious business of ontological inquiry. Second, the scholar could treat the final essays as Burke's attempt to finalize his system. Third, the scholar might list and characterize Burke's co-hagglers of the period, from Wellek, Jameson, and Howell to Vitanza, and Lentricchia and Booth. Fourth, the scholar might compare the situatedness of these essays with the situatedness of earlier works. Fifth, the scholar might account for the temporal progression among the essays or a sub-group within the essays. (Contains 26 references.) (TB)

An examination of the Ancient Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone shows how much can be learned about the culture in which it was produced and circulated. The reader can make a number of inferences about the relative positions and roles of men and women in ancient Greek society and what traits were considered positive in each. Six modern versions of the myth written for children offer the same opportunities to the critic. Unfortunately, the inferences to be made are disturbing. All of these modern versions give Zeus more credit for caring about the human race and for solving the problem at hand than he receives in the Homeric hymn. Furthermore, all the children's versions portray Demeter and Persephone as basically one dimensional characters, whereas the Homeric version portrays them as multi-dimensional. According to the modern versions, women are intelligent and mean or are kind but incapable of thinking for themselves. These versions teach children that women are to be subservient. They imply that while being a mother is an important role for women, it is not a role that requires strength. Women who show anger, they suggest, do themselves a disservice. Whereas the Homeric hymn showed the goddesses as well-rounded--having good qualities and bad qualities, children's versions of the myth severely limit the goddesses. Greek society devalued women in general, but 20th centure retellings for children devalue women even more than the original. (TB)

One way of making connections among various authors in a survey course is to emphasize recurring themes, images, and tropes; the instructor can point out how they are transformed by a constantly changing ethos and set of historical circumstances. A case in point is the second part of a British survey, typically going from William Blake or William Wordsworth through the writers of the first few decades of the 20th century. Wordsworth is so central to the evolution of poetry during these years that several of his major themes and images can provide reference points for students as the course progresses. These Wordsworthian features either recur or are implicitly rejected in much of the literature that follows him. Some examples are his concepts of the unity of nature and humankind, and of nature as an essentially benevolent teacher and nurturer. Students may be introduced to some of the Wordsworth's basic attitudes towards nature in a few of his more approachable poems from "Lyrical Ballads," such as "Lines Written in Early Spring,""Expostulations and Reply," and "The Tables Turned." He elaborates on his ideas in more difficult works, such as "Tintern Abbey," the "Immortality" ode, and "It is a Beauteous Evening." Once students become comfortable with Wordsworth, the course may go on to present contrasts through the poetry of Robert Browning ("Childe Roland") and Christina Rossetti ("Cobwebs") and through the fiction of Emily Bronte ("Wuthering Heights"), Thomas Hardy ("Return of the Native" and "Tess of the d'Urbervilles"), and Charles Dickens ("Hard Times"). (TB)