Several people have tried, unsuccessfully, to learn the facts about J. D. Salinger's life. The little information available from secondary sources about Salinger indicates that "The Catcher in the Rye" has autobiographical elements. Salinger's life parallels Holden's fictional adventures in that Salinger (1) was born and reared through…

There have been no critical studies of Cable's fiction treated for its own sake; and, without such studies, readers may not become aware of these stories or of their possible value. The absence of a critical position on Cable is due to the decline in his reputation as an artist when he became a writer of popular literature. Before 1925 Cable and…

This biography explores poet Robert Frost's techniques as a teacher from the early days of teaching at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire, to his acceptance of a chair at Harvard University and his subsequent associations with numerous other schools. Also examined are his educational practices and philosophy--particularly his life-long…

This guide provides the teacher with strategies to aid students in examining five representative plays by Bernard Shaw and in comparing his comedy with the comic art of Oscar Wilde, Richard Sheridan, Ben Jonson, and William Shakespeare. Performance objectives include isolating elements which pertain to the life and times of Shaw, delineating…

This book is designed as an introduction to Christopher Smart's poetry for the general reader, the college student, and the college teacher. The political, social, and literary background of eighteenth-century England is examined in the first part of this volume. The second part concerns itself with Smart's life and the factors affecting his…

The way in which analysis of a poem can increase the student's enjoyment of it is illustrated and discussed. The teacher is offered one short poem, written by a fifth grade student, which can be used as an exercise in poem analysis. It is believed that the poem analyzed, "The Ball," which is comprised of 11 words, is effective as an introduction…

The scope of this quinmester unit of instruction ranges from a cursory look at newspapers, magazines, and sources of biographic material to a development of skills which enable the student to make effective use of them. The focus of the course is primarily exploratory as the student moves through the various media, but he is made aware that not…

Traces the denigration of discursive prose back through the "New Criticism" to Romanticism and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who saw poetry as special and separate from other rhetoric. Notes that discursive prose can be just as creative and interesting as poetry. Urges composition teachers to shift their point of view accordingly. (RL)

Improvisational exercises can be used when teaching dramatic literature, but only when they reflect the universal issues of the play text being studied and when they lead students to a deeper understanding of the dramatic work. (RL)

Describes 155 studies dealing with bilingualism and bidialectalism; language and verbal learning; literature, humanities, and media; teacher education; and written and oral communication at all educational levels. (DD)

Discusses the connections between the study of literary texts, language, and composition and the impact of these connections on English instruction and English programs. (SRT)

Responds to Richard Ekman's criticism of poststructuralism and discusses three strands of a poststructuralist English curriculum. (EL)

Discusses the teaching of literature in an instrumentalist or bureaucratic culture. Gives examples of instrumentalist influence in the English department at the University of Iowa: changes in department offerings, the emergence of a new departmental coherence, and the concentration of literary theory in the program of comparative literature. (EL)

Shows how students can benefit from expressing their emotional responses to literature in writing. (EL)