Ross Dabney, J. Butt & K. Tillotson, and others think that Dickens revised the role of Edith in the original plan of "Dombey and Son" upon the advice of a friend. I tend to believe that Dickens's swerve from his course was prompted by two motives, his relish for grand scenes, and his endeavour to engage the reader's sympathies for a…

In this article the authors re-examine Sir Thomas More's classic book "Utopia" as a potential source of ideas and concepts for examining, understanding and imagining contemporary education. Too often the concept utopia is used to criticize an idea, perspective or image as offering a simplistic solution to a complex problem, or, at its…

"The plague" narrates the stories of a group of men whose lives interconnect around the experience of exile during the event of a plague. This article selects and summarizes themes from each of their stories. The purpose of these selections is to present an interpretation of Camus' narratives that can be juxtaposed to an analysis,…

This is the second of two articles that are connected in a reading of "The plague" by Albert Camus. The other article is a determined narration of the events of a tragedy that befalls a city on the coast of Algeria. That article resists analysis beyond the decisions that are made regarding text to use, and of course interpretations to…

This article focuses on a typical law and literature jurisprudence seminar and the use of literary texts in this type of class to foster the development of "ethical sentiments" in future legal practitioners. While the majority of jurisprudence courses within a standard law curriculum tend to use political theory, philosophical, or socio-cultural…

When readers of contemporary adolescent literature are encouraged to participate in conversations about what is considered canonical literature, the literary value of adolescent reading expands past narrowly defined borders. Several recent adolescent novels provide access to the classics and may generate interest among middle school students in…

Nineteenth-century literature offers insights into the history and sociology of play in American life. Louisa May Alcott's novel "Little Women" contains especially rich period depictions of childhood games and amusements and provides some of the earliest scenes of American girls at play. The author discusses the various depictions of…

States that "Little Women" has appeared in many guises and many media; explores what the process of reworking has done to the story and its impact on readers' literary experiences. Looks at some of the fictional worlds created by the different films and subsequent novelizations; turns to the kinds of packaged texts produced by the…

Although young adult literature is often recommended as a reading bridge to the classics, Stallworth insists that the genre deserves a prominent place in the middle school canon in its own right. She describes several examples from middle school classrooms of how young adult novels can enhance tweens' "life literacy" by both helping them develop…