E-Book Overview
Margins in the Classroom was first published in 1994. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.For today's teacher of literature, facing a minefield of politics and theory, this book arrives as a much needed guide through the multiplying cultural anxieties of the college classroom. Margins in the Classroom brings together established scholars and emerging voices from diverse backgrounds to show how politics and theory can and do affect the most pressing problems confronting the contemporary teacher of literature. The essays in this volume go beyond questioning and examining existing practices to suggest fresh approaches to teaching the expanding literary canon within the context of the politics of the educational institution. Grounded in literary criticism, psychoanalysis, feminist theory, political economy, sociology, and philosophy, these essays apply new theoretical models to the traditional canon, identify new bodies of literature, and show how theory can be used to analyze these new literatures. Focusing on the politics of teaching and theory in the classroom, the authors explore the present practice and future implications of changing textual analysis, literary theory, and pedagogy. Their essays address the politics of literature as it affects the classroom, the design of courses, and the creation of new courses. They mold theory to the variety of classroom populations and materials the teacher of literature encounters today. The resulting volume bridges the differences between the languages of the classroom instructor and the contemporary theorist. Margins in the Classroom is unique in both the breadth and the depth of its concern over the disturbing, if electric, impact of changes in criticism, theory, and pedagogy in college literature classes as we approach the next century of academic instruction. Kostas Myrsiades is professor of comparative literature, and Linda S. Myrsiades is professor of English, both at West Chester University. Kostas Myrsiades is editor of College Literature, where Linda S. Myrsiades is an associate editor.
E-Book Content
MARGINS IN THE CLASSROOM PEDAGOGY AND CULTURAL PRACTICE Edited by Henry Giroux and Roger Simon Recognizing that pedagogy begins with the affirmation of differences as a precondition for extending the possibilities of democratic life, the series analyzes the diverse democratic and ideological struggles of people across a wide range of economic, social, and political spheres. 2. Margins in the Classroom: Teaching Literature, Kostas Myrsiades and Linda S. Myrsiades, editors 1. The End of Education: Toward Posthumanism, William V. Spanos MARGINS IN THE CLASSROOM TEACHING LITERATURE KOSTAS MYRSIADES AND LINDA S. MYRSIADES, EDITORS PEDAGOGY ANO CULTURAI. PRACTICE V O L U M E 2 University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London Copyright 1994 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota Earlier versions of these chapters appeared in College Literature 17.2/3 Gune-October 1990) and 18.2 (June 1991). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 2037 University Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis, MN 55455-3092 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Margins in the classroom : teaching literature / Kostas Myrsiades and Linda S. Myrsiades, editors. p. cm. —(Pedagogy and cultural practice ; v. 2) "Earlier versions of these chapters appeared in Co