Discusses the problem of criticizing students' interpretations of poetry. Argues that faulty interpretations should only be ignored for artistic reasons, but should be called mistakes for factual and experiential reasons. (MM)

Ruminates on and analyzes the author's experiences in teaching the first course in women's literature and feminist criticism at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Asserts that the course brought to consciousness the author's femininity, feminism, and a new understanding of feminist criticism. (MM)

Introduces a student-composed diagram as a means of discussing obstacles and resistances to teaching literature, such as assumptions about what a text is and whether it should be analyzed at all. Discusses a possible structure for the introductory literature course. (TB)

Considers the tension between deterministic social construction and individual autonomy of the subject in the act of reading literary texts. Develops a critical reading pedagogy that takes into account the balance between those two extremes of the dialectic of reading praxis. Illustrates the pedagogy with two concrete examples. (HB)

Advocates focusing literature instruction on the classroom community rather than the individual because through language, as through mathematics, concepts and worlds are fabricated. (CRH)

Presents a set of arguments defending a humanist model of reading as opposed to students responding as individuals to literary works. (CRH)

Uses reading responses of a ninth grade class and a teachers' study group to examine the social memberships and constituencies that reading and discussion disclose through the response process. Maintains that teachers should base reading lists on an understanding of their own and students' memberships rather than on some abstract notion of…

Describes the focus of a freshman literature course: understanding literary meaning, analyzing literary form, and exploring literary value with each of the three one-quarter classes drawing on the resources of a major area within current literary studies, such as hermeneutics (meaning), poetics (form), and criticism (evaluation). (EL)

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)