This article excavates how style in writing was represented and taught in the under-investigated mid-twentieth century. I trace four editions of the textbook "Modern Rhetoric" (1949-1979), authored by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren; I detail how the book was surprisingly innovative for the time, despite its eventual re-entrenchment to a…

Extremists, whether formalists of the New Criticism or of the humanist-moralist tradition, are taken to task in this attempt to combine elements of both in a more pluralistic approach to literary criticism. An analysis of a Frost poem, "Stopping by Woods", is attempted as an illustration of a kind of criticism that seeks to clarify the parts of…

In a workshop intended to develop their ability to read drama perceptively," students studied conflicting interpretations of Shakespearean scenes, infomally staged the scenes, and discussed the appropriateness of the interpretations in the context of the entire play. (Author/RD)

In this article, the author talks about a critically acclaimed movie "Crash" and what it reveals pedagogically about the paradoxical legacies of the grand experiment in radical democracy. Written and directed by Paul Haggis, "Crash" inundates the viewer with a barrage of the most condescending racial and ethnic insults, which…

A recounting of how the author's graduate training failed with everything he considered important. (JH)

Poetics rather than poems would form the curriculum for an ideal poetry course. (JH)

The best literature dealing with the Holocaust assumes the worthwhileness and preciousness of human life. (JH)

Describes an approach which involves acknowledging what in Milton's poetry is alien to contemporary students; introducing students to Milton's culture, theology, myths, and aesthetics; and making connections between Milton and students. (DD)

Suggests an approach to the study of literature which aims at appreciation and rejects the notion that works have hidden meanings. (DD)

In the reaction against biographical and historical criticism, critics have dogmatically emphasized pure textual explication and have thus distorted or restricted responses to literature and art. To correct this improper emphasis, teachers, in addition to stressing the integrity of the art work, should treat individual creations as "different…