Teachers have to decide what poems should be taught and how they should be presented. The teacher ought to choose poems which he himself likes and which he expects that his students will like. Once chosen, the poem needs to be taught as a "meaningful whole" with emphasis on its unique structure and shape and on the significance of the parts in…

The wisdom of introducing college freshmen to poetry through destructive literary criticism--a negative assessment of Joyce Kilmer's "Trees" is the example here--is questioned. The underlying assumption that a student's taste may be formed by explaining literary standards to him, illustrated by examples of poor poetry, is subjected to…

College English teachers today, in responding to black writers' demands for a forum, frequently resemble the old carpetbaggers, in that their teaching of black literature or composition reveals little or no background knowledge of the subject, with the course often being only a smoke screen for an informal study in something else. Such…

This course guide is intended to help teachers introduce students to poetry as a form of writing and to help them master poetic effects. Performance objectives include interpreting specific selections of poetry, identifying the artistic devices of an author, and classifying the poetry according to type. "Course Content" provides a…

This book presents fourteen of R. B. Heilman's essays on the teaching of English and the profession of the humanities. Discussed are administrative ways and means, pedagogical shibboleths and heresies, uses and abuses of literacy, cliches of style, moot issues of history and criticism, and the nature of the humanities and their continuing…

This book is designed as an introduction to John Wolcot's works for the general reader, the college student, and the college teacher. Wolcot, whose pen name was Peter Pindar, wrote topical satire on public personalities of the eighteenth century, and his methods of criticism are the motif which guides each chapter and which unites all the satires…

Designed for use by the general reader, the college student, and the teacher, this book analyzes the life and literary career of Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw), emphasizing his literary ventures and artistic talents. The analysis reveals Billings' talents as a subtle humorist, homespun philosopher, and artist of the essay. Chapters include…

This study discusses the literary excellence of the King James Version of the Bible, in order to encourage its use in college literature classes. Separate chapters present a brief history of the literary treatment of the Bible, a summary of the variety of literary genres contained in the Bible, a demonstration of structural features basic to…

An annotated bibliography of 45 critical and reference works dealing with science fiction. (DD)

Discusses worthwhile objectives for English teaching and proposes a simple formula: English classes should be classes for reading literature that really is literature and for writing about it in a way that attempts to be literature. (GW)

Explains the difficulties encountered in keeping the emphasis in a women's literature course on literary analysis rather than consciousness raising. (MKM)

Notes how important it is that any critical writing assignments should take into account the individual reading, and that the teacher's role is to steer discussion that stems from a class of individual readings. Explores some of the aspects of Jane Austen's novel "Emma" to which students readily respond. (HTH)

Presents a brief overview of previous psychoanalytically based theories of Shakespeare's plays, particularly "Hamlet," and defends the notion of introducing undergraduates to psychoanalytically based criticism because of the insights it may give students into their own lives. (JC)

Argues that literature instruction should enable readers to find the connections between their experience and the literary work. Explains how discussions can be guided to focus on students' reactions, perceptions, and associations with a text. (MM)

Proposes a study of "Citizen Kane" in high school using a somewhat simplified version of post-modern literary critical theory. Chooses this film because of its familiarity and accessibility and because the ambiguity and indeterminacy of its text allow room for exploration by students. (NKA)