Discusses problems resulting from the canonization of some American literary works and suggests that "fighting with canons" can be a way of perceiving and protecting differences. (EL)

Reviews "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by E. Speare to show how the full narrative power of the novel derives from the author's successful integration of two separate narrative genres: historical fiction and the folktale. (EL)

Reviews Robert Newton Peck's "A Day No Pigs Would Die," pointing out the values of a courageous display of duty to others and to tasks at hand, and a vision that appreciates the natural order of life. (EL)

Presents a rationale for teaching "Catch-22" in the 1980s. (DF)

Suggests that the theme of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is an oxymoron linking the two apparently contradictory ideas of death and sexual love. (RBW)

Considers the importance of textual studies to literature study, the expanded canon of contemporary criticism, and the anti-intuitive bias of contemporary literary theory. (CRH)

Outlines a procedure that increases students' understanding of an assigned novel as it encourages them to write poetry. Suggests that students create lists of about 10 words or phrases that they felt helped create a successful opening to the novel and build on these words to create tone poems. (MM)

Although there is abundant theoretical matter concerning the critical role that various interpretive communities play in making meanings of literary texts, most scholars do not take up the matter of the composition of these interpretive groups in their university classrooms. How may the interpretive strategies of groups of students change over the…

Urges caution in adopting the literary response model developed by the Center for Psychological Study of the Arts. (See also CS 700 446) (RB)

Illustrates how a linguistic analysis of Hemingway's prose style can be appealing to a student by being precise instead of vague and being a procedure. (MM)

Author argues that the examination of old strains in new ballads should be the starting point in teaching the Tudor-Stuart period in literature and discusses various approaches to teaching the ballad. (MM)

Considers the quest for meaning to be the primary function of the rhetorical critic--meaning that goes from the text outward and that is interpreted by the reader. (RB)

Argues that Holden Caulfield was the comedian Lenny Bruce in this satire of life and literature. (RB)