Thomas Hardy has received great acclaim as a poet and novelist, but his short stories have remained largely ignored with regard to the usual short story "canon." Early reviews of Hardy's stories were mixed, but after his death the tide of critical opinion tended to turn against Hardy's stories. A significant historical factor was the…

Offering a poetics for myth in 20th century fiction, this book argues that the nature of myth is to inspire interpretation, that every myth carries with it an intertextual body of theories regarding its meaning and yet remains capable of evoking new meaning. The book further argues that myth, when used in fiction, functions like a language, with…

A sophomore-level course surveying world literature through the seventeenth century emphasizes the theme of heroes and heroic codes using western classics and the "Tale of Genji," a fictional account of an idealized Japanese courtier and gentleman written in the tenth century AD by the court lady Murasaki Shikubu, and often considered to…

Black feminist novelists continue to take issue with males who try to theorize about their artistic creations. Male attitudes toward black women's novels have been characterized as either apathetic, chauvinistic, or paternalistic. Black feminist writers should heed the call for collective racial progress and collective theoretical progress. The…

An extension of conversations that originally took place at summer institutes devoted to literary theory (sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English), this book presents diverse critical perspectives on current topics of literature, such as post-structuralism, cultural criticism, reader-response theory, and issues of gender and…

Discusses William Beatty Warner's "Reading Clarissa: The Struggles of Interpretation," a study of Samuel Richardson's role as eighteenth-century critic and interpreter of his own novels. Examines the treatment of character by both Richardson and Warner, focusing on Richardson's humanist interpretation and Warner's anti-humanist…

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)

Discusses how the imagination not only helps one to create fantasy worlds, but makes one's self what he or she is. (HOD)

Discusses several levels of mystery fiction for children and explains how these narratives extend and shape the literary reading habits of the young. (HOD)

Proposes ways of blending the study of literature and the teaching of writing. Suggests assignments that involve writing or rewriting literature, writing about literature, and writing in response to literature. (MM)

Anthologists and editors prepare the way for poetry readers, selecting works that reward close reading and assisting interpretation through annotation. But on the Internet people can return to poetry in its native state--one set of words among many others competing for appreciation--and read with fresh eyes. The learning objectives of this lesson…

This annotated bibliography contains 42 titles of teenager-selected favorite books, all of them published or reprinted between 1986 and 2000. Along with the bibliography is a 13-step rubric for evaluating adolescent literature. (NKA)

Introduces a student-composed diagram as a means of discussing obstacles and resistances to teaching literature, such as assumptions about what a text is and whether it should be analyzed at all. Discusses a possible structure for the introductory literature course. (TB)

Examines Black men's negative responses and White women's positive responses to works by Black women writers. Suggests that by trying to understand how and why the works by Black women writers affect readers, readers can begin to strip away their own ethnocentrism, racism, and sexism. (MM)

Defines the term "cultural model" as the set of assumptions a particular group has, or the kinds of goals a group strives for, or the attitudes that shape how one cultural group reacts to another group. Shows how cultural models shape student responses to Richard Pick's short story "I Go Along." Suggests writing assignments that reflect on…