Those Big, Fat, Introductory Courses

Abstract

W HAT are the proper goals of an introductory course in literature? Well, what are the contexts in which an introductory course in literature is given? If consideration is limited to post-primary courses, courses for people who have mastered the mechanical and symbolical elements of reading, it is convenient to distinguish at least three contexts differing from one another in terms of the institutions offering the courses and the students enrolling in them. Although students enrolled in the ordinary sequence of formal schooling will by the time they enter high school ordinarily have had considerable acquaintance with literature, both formally (official exposure to literature in school books) and informally (exposure to literature outside the schoolroom, whether or not school-motivated: comic books, newspapers, television, radio, movies, plays, magazines, books), they will be required to have some official contact with literature in high school. Whether high school is for them presumably terminal education or a preparation for college, they are usually expected to take from two to four years of English courses. The first two years, all that are taken by most terminal students, are devoted half to composition or rhetoric or grammar and half to literature, variously conceived and taught. There is still more variety in the last two years, which, especially in larger schools, offer the student as alternatives to two more years of composition and literature such electives as play production, public speaking, journalism, and, occasionally, creative writing. In most high schools these elective English courses, conceived to be practical courses not suitable