Instructors and students of literature should look to George McDonald Fraser's "Flashman: From the Flashman Papers, 1839-1842" for a clever critique of 19th-century notions of character, virtue, and moral teleology. Written to criticize Thomas Hughes's famous 19th-century novel, "Tom Brown's School Days," Fraser's 20th-century…

Part of a three-program set, this computer software program is designed to support the teaching of literary criticism in the English classroom through a focus on characterization. It aids teachers in the search for literary meaning by providing questions from different reading positions. The program is easy to operate and requires little prior…

Part of a three-program set, this computer software provides a comprehensive range of generic questions on plot in literature. The program is comprised of: 150 questions sorted into 14 categories; supporting ideological commentary classifying question types; and a user-friendly program enabling worksheet production. It is underpinned by a Critical…

Part of a three-program set, this computer software program is designed to aid teachers in the search for literary meaning by providing questions from different reading positions. The program provides 150 questions in 3 forms--a generic version of each question (without reference to any particular work), an example question (showing how the…

An advanced placement literature course for high school seniors that stresses the development of the techniques of literary and artistic criticism is described in this paper. Also set forth in the paper are the philosophy underlying the course, the course objectives, textbooks and other required materials, the method of evaluation, the teacher's…

Senior English students, in spite of themselves, respond to Dickens both critically and emotionally. Impressed by Dickens'"artistry of style," they nonetheless disagree with each other over whether his characters are believable and whether the exaggeration of character traits is an effective device. The deepest level of understanding…

Recommends, for teaching English in the upper grades, Malamud's "The Assistant," which deals with the life of a minority group in New York during the Great Depression, and which emphasizes the importance of neighborliness and mutual helpfulness. (IFS/WGA)

Noting that women authors are still underrepresented and females are often stereotyped, these guidelines, prepared by the National Council of Teachers of English Committee on Women in the Profession, urge all English Departments to integrate literature by and about women into the curriculum. The guidelines discuss why balancing the curriculum…

Deals with the interrelated topics of the development of reading competency by ESL students, the use of literature in the ESL classroom, and the varieties of literature available in English but drawn from other cultures. Explores a small selection of stories representing non-native English literature. (RS)

This paper describes the Shakespeare Project, an interactive videodisk computer program developed at Stanford University which permits students to study, design, and enjoy theater. The prototype consists of three basic programs, which are described in detail: (1) a videodisk-based "tutorial" called "Page to Stage," that teaches…

This developmental study offers a definitive strategy for successfully teaching such representative classics as Hamlet, A Tale of Two Cities, Silas Marner, and My Last Duchess to students who are reading as much as three years below grade level but who are nevertheless normally intelligent. The study provides evidence tending to support the…

This study was concerned with the attitudes and practices of high school English teachers regarding the use of contemporary literature in their classrooms. Data were obtained from the completed questionnaires of 58 randomly selected New Jersey English teachers. It was determined that 95% of the teachers favor using contemporary works, that the…

Offers a technique for describing classroom content during a literature subject period of the day. (NKA)

This casebook of materials about William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" will enrich students' understanding of the historical context of the play and encourage interpretations of its cultural meaning. Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" reflects perennial cultural concerns about order and freedom, particularly as they clash in the…

This book, a new series in literary criticism and English studies, presents 24 essays. Essays in the book are: "Melville and the Question of Camoes" (George Monteiro); "Calvin Daniel Yost, Jr." (Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV); "'The Haystack in the Floods': An Uncharacteristic Preraphaelite Poem" (Veronica M. S.…