Suggests ways to respond to the changes in the teaching of college literature wrought by recent literary criticism and theory. (DD)

Muses on such topics as the importance of teaching students about the craft of poetry and of helping them see that life can turn into literature. (GT)

Presents an exchange between two English professors who offer opposing perspectives on the profession of English. Covers arguments on the understanding of theory, literary history, reading, curricular design, and pedagogy through the examination of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil." (MM)

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)

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)

Suggests ways to give literary theory its rightful place in literary study by teaching psychoanalytic, literary, and philosophical texts in a comparative perspective. (DD)

Discusses the idea of national literature, contemporary problems with its definition, and its history. Discusses various models of national literature. (PRA)

Argues that when a body of theory ceases to be in crisis and no longer has to struggle to define its enterprise, it is no longer theory. Discusses the status of theory in the field of English. (SRT)

Argues that (1) even the most radical critics of departmental structures are committed to the perpetuation of English departments and, therefore, will adopt, regardless of potential contradictions, the professional discourse that validates them and (2) that this will be done even though the Babel of contemporary critical discourse makes a…

Offers examples of ways that college and university departments of English can broaden students' capabilities as readers and critics. (AEA)

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)

Describes the focus of a freshman literature course: understanding literary meaning, analyzing literary form, and exploring literary value with each of the three one-quarter classes drawing on the resources of a major area within current literary studies, such as hermeneutics (meaning), poetics (form), and criticism (evaluation). (EL)