Although modern readers often find the interpretation of medieval literature difficult, they should be encouraged to use their imagination to resolve the dilemmas they encounter. Often, these are the same issues with which medieval audiences had to wrestle and which the poets intended to raise. W. Iser's and H. R. Jauss's principles of…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 31 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the rhetoric of confrontation in Northern Ireland; (2) rhetorical arguments in public health regulations; (3) epideictic discourse in the founding of the…

Radical feminist Andrea Dworkin has been instrumental in efforts to curtail pornography by defining it as a violation of women's civil rights and allowing individual women to sue the distributors for damages. Dworkin's position derives from the tension between "what should be" and "what is." Her conception of the difference…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the credibility of the sources of public information during the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant crisis; (2) the anticorporation rhetoric of New York reformer Samuel Seabury; (3)…

An analysis of four writers' portrayals of nineteenth and early twentieth century working class life reveals a progression of political thought about the treatment of people's struggles to effectively change society. In Dickens'"Hard Times" (1854), the protagonist is a martyr-saint who finds solace in subduing his anger and continuing to…

Prepared as part of the Turko-Danish Fairytale Project conducted to uncover universal, cross-cultural features in readers' response to literature, this paper reports on a pilot study to determine which three out of nine preselected fairy tales would elicit the most faceted, legitimate response from a population of Danish readers. After explaining…

Prepared as part of the Turko-Danish Fairytale Project conducted to uncover universal, cross-cultural features in readers' response to literature, this paper reports on a pilot study to determine which three out of nine preselected fairy tales would elicit the most faceted response from a population of Turkish readers. After explaining the…

A theory of interpretation developed from the composition scholar's reading and revision of literary theory can effectively serve as a core theory in writing across the curriculum programs. For example, recent composition theory, with its emphasis on close study of students' texts and the process of their writing, provides the writing teacher with…

This course, one of 16 sequential courses comprising phase one of a part-time Bachelor of Arts degree program in Australian Studies, uses literary authorship as an example of a highly individualized social role and shows how authorial attributions and modes of composition have changed over time. It is designed for independent study combined with…

This paper describes a freshman composition course that is taught through the use of sports literature. The first part of the paper considers the merits of a literature-based composition course, the value of a topic-oriented approach to writing, and the benefits of reading and writing about sports. The second section discusses sequential course…

Separate articles in this journal discuss the treatment of controversial themes in current adolescent novels; literature for teenagers that deals realistically with family life; teaching students to apply the concepts of transactional analysis to the study of literary characters; teaching students how to interpret poetry; and using comic-book…

Ghost stories are most appealing in early adolescence, from the ages of 11 to 14 years. They are a natural for use with gifted children because they depend entirely upon language for their effect. The high interest they hold for a young person because of their subject matter also makes them a possibility for reluctant readers. As a psychological…

Adapting the implications of schema theory to the practical endeavors of the community college literature classroom can be readily accomplished within the framework of guided reading activities that prepare students for critical reading and analysis of short stories. Guided readings focus on what prior knowledge/experience and what aspects of…

The central thesis of the paper is that there are beneficial outcomes derived from engagement in the process of creating instructional materials, quite apart from the benefits to those who use the materials later. Of the three stages in materials production--design, development, and dissemination--this paper highlights the development stage by…

This COMIT English module used most of the interrelated devices of sound, sonic pen, keyboard, slide, and terminal display in a lesson which, depending on the student's interest and ability, might last from four to ten hours and formed an integral part of a second year course in critical analysis. Four contexts were included in the subject of…