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)

Argues that the individual literary work should be the first and last concern in the study of literature at the graduate level. (RB)

Discusses teaching a college class in English Renaissance nondramatic literature. (AEA)

Discusses a fundamental desire of many literature teachers: "teaching out," meaning the hope of imparting to students the fact that words and forms and images have a peculiar power to explain and move. Describes a variety of possible ways by which English teachers might succeed at "teaching out," including community education…

Suggests that the English profession should take another look at children's literature as an important area for further study. (RB)

Urges that Black authors be included in the standard English curriculum at every level. (AEA)

Presents personal testimony regarding the function of literature in a student's personal life. (GT)

Takes a new look at the importance and the oddity of John Donne's "The Exstasie" through a feminist critical perspective. Discusses certain major elements in the poem: the situation, the the persons, and the images that carry key meanings. (EL)

Discusses teaching J. Austen's "Emma" in light of the issue of happiness in order to make the novel more interesting to students who do not like Emma, the character. Suggests that the multiplicity of questions raised by Austen will provide sufficient material for discussion. (SRT)

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)

Presents autobiographical reminiscences about the author's experiences with poetry as a child, a student, and a poet, and as a Black American. (GT)

Contemplates how Northrop Frye, a serious man, displayed great confidence that there is a group of those who have seriously studied literature who know that this study is coherent and progressive and who have a sense of the unity of the subject. Suspects that many do not know or no longer know this sense unity of the subject and have to posit it…

Describes teaching literature to non-English majors (primarily working adults) at Golden Gate University. Discusses how the authors create a classroom environment in which students are given permission to engage in literary works in the context of their own lives as well as to consider texts historically and stylistically. (RS)

Poses the theory that Yeats' poems can be viewed as a "book" that tells a story, the narrating persona being a fictive projection of Yeats the poet. (JC)

Shows how teaching "The Bluest Eye" not only helps students learn about the time period of the novel and its relevant issues and techniques, but also helps them to understand themselves. Shows how it can fit into contemporary literature classes, introductory courses to fiction or literature, or into women's literature classes. (EL)