Outlines and discusses historical and contemporary theory concerned with the definition and consideration of simile. Provides an overview of the views of the most prominent critics and theorists with regard to simile. Compares how the literal and the figurative types of simile diverge. (HB)

Questions the persistence of the concept of organizing scholarship and instruction along national or chronological lines. Proposes a radically new system by which English studies might be organized. Suggests developing "contact zones" which bring diverse texts into dialog with one another. (HB)

The series editor of the "Cambridge School Shakespeare" describes how recent Shakespearean theatre productions, involving astonishing cultural transpositions of space and time, have influenced his views about teaching the bard in schools. To reach students, teachers in multicultural settings should replace the pedagogy of explication and…

Argues that the heritage of the past forms the substance of the present and literary criticism, especially the New Criticism, serves the central function of defending civilization as it is or may be. (RB)

Argues that the study of fantasy in literature courses at the secondary level makes students "less susceptible to the dishonesty propagated in much of the printed word." (RB)

Analyzes the growth, development, and change that occurred in Wallace Stevens' poetry, basing the argument on poems selected from different periods with special emphasis on "The Idea of Order at Key West." (RB)

Suggests using Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" as a way of overcoming students' initial fears of Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." (RB)

Suggests that the analysis of literature leads to an increased understanding of the environment in which we live. (RB)

Outlines eleven specific methods by which poetry can be taught so that the intrinsic questions are raised and the essential experience of the poem achieved. (RB)

Cautions teachers not to introduce an adult view of the world to students at too young an age. (RB)

Questions the practice of teaching literature which presents a negative view of man as seen in "Animal Farm" and "Lord of the Flies" unless teachers are careful to provide a balanced view. (RB)

Discusses the contradiction of teaching English literature, which has an elitist history, to students in a modern democratic society based on the postulate of universal education. (RB)

Examines the administrative and organizational implications that Cleanth Brooks methods of criticism hold for modern English departments. (RB)

Argues that enjoyment rather than instruction should be the basis for a critical evaluation of literature and that only a class-structuredsociety perceives a need to rank literature in a hierarchal order from high art to popular art. (RB)