We set out to investigate Miller's curious assertion--curious for a deconstructionist committed to a critique of the old metaphysics of presence--that literary works preexist their being written down. We find a basis for this sense of the preexistence of the literary work in Miller's insights about the performative dynamics of reading and writing.…

Remembering Sappho, from a pedagogical perspective, usually means that teachers bring recovered women's rhetorics into the classroom, prompting students to come to know women as rhetorical agents by analyzing the rhetorical strategies they used to make their voices heard. Teaching women's rhetorics in this way works toward the ultimate goal of…

Traditionally, we English faculty have warned our students against simply identifying with a literary work's characters. For us, such attachments constitute "reading badly." But we engage in identifications, too, including ones with the work's author. A consideration of critical responses to "Benito Cereno" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" enables us to…

In this article, the author argues that Emerson repudiated the formalism of nineteenth century belletristic, mechanistic, reason-centered, American rhetoric influenced by Hugh Blair. Instead Emerson promoted a rhetoric with imagination at its center, which calls for civic duty. (Contains 33 notes.)

A short story of a teacher, a student and the ghost of William Blake. (RY)

Analyzes how people create or discover meaning through language and how imaginative literature helps them to do this. (DD)

Narrates the experiences that the author encountered growing up in his native South Africa. Maintains the omnipresence of poetry and the need to educate the imagination to see and hear poetry everywhere. Considers ways of salvaging the imagination. (HB)

A paper presented at Opening General Session of annual convention of National Council of Teachers of English (60th, Atlanta, November 26, 1970); appears also in English Journal," vol. 60, no. 2 (February 1971), pp. 189-98, and in Elementary English," vol. 48, no. 4 (April 1971), pp. 170-78. (Editor/SW)

Asserts that the act of visualizing is of vital importance in interpreting Wallace Stevens' poetry. Examines Stevens' use of "riddling" (using metaphors to create poetic riddles) as a literary device in several of his poems. (MM)

The anti-curriculum in English must be anti-formal, anti-traditional, anti-rigid. It must, on the other hand, be pro-human, pro-imagination, pro-creation. (Author)

Successful fantasies may either force us to look freshly at everyday things or expand our capacity to believe.

Creative writing assignments are described which prepare students better to apprehend and appreciate Shakespeare's art.

Cites research indicating that while students react more strongly to visual presentations, they recall more details when reading. Offers explanations for the differences. (MM)