Teaching World Literature Research Articles

:Approaches to Teaching Teresa of Ávila and the Spanish Mystics. Approaches to Teaching World Literature

:<i>Approaches to Teaching Teresa of Ávila and the Spanish Mystics. Approaches to Teaching World Literature</i>

Approaches to Teaching Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Other Works (review)

Reviewed by: Approaches to Teaching Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Other Works Cynthia A. Cavanaugh John Lowe , ed. Approaches to Teaching Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Other Works. New York: MLA, 2009. 207p. This Modern Language Association volume, Approaches to Teaching Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Other Works provides insights for teaching the works of Zora Neale Hurston, an "iconic figure on a par with Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, and F. Scott Fitzgerald" (1) according to the volume's editor, John Lowe. Hurston's works—including novels, nonfiction, plays, and short stories—occupy the attention of Lowe and fifteen other Hurston scholars in this volume [End Page 112] with a central focus on Their Eyes Were Watching God. This volume, within the Approaches to Teaching World Literature Series, is presented in two main parts. "Part One: Materials" follows the volume's preface. Here the volume's editor presents the editions and anthologies where Hurston's published work may be found. "The Instructor's Library" includes a list of books and critical articles that almost any instructor who teaches Hurston would desire to consult as useful information for research and teaching. Appearing after "Part One: Materials" comes "Part Two: Approaches." An introduction at the beginning of the "Approaches" section describes the salient aspects of each article in adequate detail, and those descriptions will not be repeated here. Instead, the value of a few that offer interesting or novel approaches to the literature will be examined. The articles in the volume discuss the following works by Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God; Jonah's Gourd Vine; Moses, Man of the Mountain; Seraph on the Suwane; Mules and Men; Tell My Horse; Dust Tracks on a Road; "The Gilded Six-Bits"; The First One; Color Struck; and Mule Bone. Many of the articles do provide detailed teaching approaches, and a notable effort has commenced to encourage the teaching of Hurston's other works particularly in connection to Their Eyes. Scholarly articles about Their Eyes have appeared over the years in journals and other publications, yet not many have focused on its presentation in the undergraduate classroom. The well-structured article, "Teaching Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Process of Canon Formation," by Genevieve West describes an interesting and broad approach to this novel. Her approach to teaching Their Eyes "uses book reviews to trace the ways in which cultural changes have influenced responses to the novel and Hurston's place in the canon" (21). She asks her students to read reviews that concern Their Eyes and some of Hurston's other works from before she wrote this novel in order to introduce students to the politics of popular and scholarly interest (22-24). Her approach is too detailed to describe in a review, but West enables the students to understand and follow the fall of Hurston's reputation with the literary critics as the nation moved toward the social crisis of the Depression and toward an interest in the literature of social protest. As a supplement to the reviews, some lectures and articles regarding the rise of protest literature, the Black Arts movement, the feminist movement, and the rise of black studies programs may help students to appreciate Hurston's literary marginalization and her eventual recovery away from the margins and into the center of the canon. Such an approach would appear to require a great amount of effort to assemble the materials and to coordinate the lectures and discussions. However, West maintains that most of the reviews may be taken from [End Page 113] a single volume: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and K.A. Appiah's Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present (22). Conducting an analysis of the reviews and recognizing the values held by the critics could give the students an excellent understanding of how literature serves the needs and desires of special interest groups in our society. Their Eyes is reputed to be a masterwork, and most of the articles in this volume focus upon giving instructors insights to this novel. However, the editor, John Lowe, states in his introduction that other works by Hurston "need to be...

:Approaches to Teaching "Lazarillo de Tormes" and the Picaresque Tradition. Approaches to Teaching World Literature

:<i>Approaches to Teaching "Lazarillo de Tormes" and the Picaresque Tradition. Approaches to Teaching World Literature</i>

Approaches to Teaching Gunter Grass's 'The Tin Drum'. Ed. Monika Shafi. New York: The Modern Language Association of America (Approaches to Teaching World Literature), 2008. xvi + 258 pp. $19.75. ISBN 978-0-87352-812-2

Journal Article Approaches to Teaching Günter Grass's ‘The Tin Drum’. Ed. Monika Shafi. New York: The Modern Language Association of America (Approaches to Teaching World Literature), 2008. xvi + 258 pp. $19.75. ISBN 978–0–87352–812–2 Get access Forum for Modern Language Studies, Volume 47, Issue 1, January 2011, Page 104, https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqq046 Published: 01 January 2011

How to Read World Literature , and: Teaching World Literature , and: The Longman Anthology of World Literature (review)

Reviewed by: How to Read World Literature, and: Teaching World Literature, and: The Longman Anthology of World Literature John M. Kopper (bio) How to Read World Literature. By David Damrosch. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 147 pp. Paper $24.95. Teaching World Literature. Edited by David Damrosch. New York: Modern Language Association, 2009. 440 pp. Paper $22.00. The Longman Anthology of World Literature. 2nd ed. 6 vols. Edited by David Damrosch and David L. Pike. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Paper $300.00. In Borges's story "The Aleph," the narrator's account of what he saw at/ in the mysterious Aleph appears to echo the book project of one of the characters, an undertaking that "covers" entire hectares of the Australian landscape. If the aleph stands for the totality of literature, then today's rich and expanding bibliography of works about that immensity, along with the increasingly massive anthologies that seek to encircle it, show that we have lost our fear of the unbounded object that we study. In his Teaching World Literature, How to Read World Literature, and the six-volume second edition of the Longman Anthology of World Literature, coedited with David Pike, David Damrosch has more than created a classroom Australia. He has produced a pedagogy. The vastness of the debate entered into by Damrosch, his coeditors and contributors leaves the instructor of literature with many [End Page 399] teaching tools, some uncertainty, and a few intriguing questions about today's pedagogical imperatives. Teaching World Literature contains thirty-two essays by scholars who have taught world literature courses. Damrosch gathers them in sections that steer the reader to the specific: "Issues and Definitions," "Program Strategies," "Teaching Strategies," and "Courses." Beleaguered by the fall-off of Americans' interest in reading books of any sort, an instructor turns instinctively to the second section, a justification for world literature courses that is less theoretical than tactical and tied to the floating policies and intellectual engagements of different campus communities. Summarizing the authors' approaches, Damrosch notes that "from Goethe's time onward, definitions of world literature have oscillated among three basic paradigms: as classics, as masterpieces, and as windows on the world" (3). Thomas Beebee recasts these as Friedrich Nietzsche's three archetypes of historical writing: the antiquarian, the monumental, and the critical in his contribution to the volume (276). In Teaching World Literature it is the "critical" study of literature that predominates and receives validation. Kathleen Komar, for example, describes how the particular cultural and ethnic environment of the UCLA student population has not only guided her teaching aims but to a great degree inflected class discussion of texts. The fortunes of history turned Kleist's "Michael Kohlhaas" and Büchner's Woyzeck, read in her class in 1992 during the LA riots, into narratives that spoke to the city outside the window, where "the very legal and political systems that are supposed to uphold justice and equality become polluted and corrupt" (107). In How to Read World Literature, Damrosch responds to his title's question by asking us to "read around in anthologies" or take a favorite author and travel back to her or his favorite authors (125-26). "This book is organized around a set of skills that we need to develop—or recover and hone—in order to read world literature with understanding and enjoyment" (4). "Skills" is the organizing principle of the volume. The first chapter's subheadings—"The World of the Text," "The Author's Role," "Modes of Reading," and "What is a Novel?"—reflect Damrosch's overarching concern with context. "The fundamental difference between the poet's role in the Chinese and English traditions... involves ways of reading as much as poetic practice" (20). While failing to answer its own question, the terse chapter on "What is a Novel?" shows that an informed understanding of Murasaki's The Tale of Genji requires knowledge not only of Japanese culture but of literature's place in that culture. To appraise the violation of a cultural norm, our students need to know the norm. [End Page 400] A chapter on translation in How to Read gives a dizzying list of the variables that affect...

Teaching World Literature by David Damrosch

818 Reviews contribution to Irish studies but also as a model for futuremusico-literary criti cism. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Matthew Paul Carlson Teaching World Literature. Ed. byDavid Damrosch. (Options forTeaching) New York: Modern Language Association of America. 2009. viii+432 pp. $40 (pbk$22). ISBN 978-1-60329-033-3 (pbk 978-1-60329-034-0). This collection comprises thirty-two essays by different authors, in fiveparts: Is sues and Definitions', 'Program Strategies', 'Teaching Strategies', 'Courses' (show ing what an exemplary syllabus in world literaturemight be), and 'Resources', including bibliographies. David Damrosch begins by asking 'What literature? Whose world? How has literature been understood in itsmyriad manifestations over time and across space?' (p. 3). He refers to Goethe's idea of 'world litera ture' as classics, masterpieces, and windows on theworld (p. 3), and agrees with JohnPizer (The Idea ofWorld Literature (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006)) that, even ifonly primary texts are studied, 'world literature courses should include direct discussion of thehistory of the termWeltliteratur (p. 3), first used by Goethe. He also discusses national literatures and literature in translation, maintaining that the study ofworld literaturemust be seen 'not in competition but in symbiosis with the study of national and regional traditions' (p. 9). The essays inPart 1are themost theoretical, discussing what literature should be taught and what world we refer to inworld-literature courses. Sarah Lawall argues 'if"West" refers to something more than geography [. . .] then the excluded "rest" becomes even more problematic' (p. 17). She compares, as many contributors do, anthologies ofworld literature, noting that our understanding of texts is shaped by Western frameworks, such as 'Renaissance', 'Enlightenment', and 'Romanticism', even if the volume (such as theNorton Anthology ofWorld Literature (New York: Norton, 2002)) deals with literature in China or Japan (p. 27). Lawall maintains that translation is a challenge for aworld-literature anthology because of differing linguistic and cultural traditions, the difficultyof locating accurate translation, and even the issue of getting translation right.Other problems include how genre is changed in translation and how, for example, songs of African oral performance or the dialect of a Greek comedy should be translated. These important issues, pinpointed in one paragraph, could have been developed further.On translation, Lawrence Venuti applies Derrida's idea of iterability, that themeaning of any sign can change, and argues that if translation partakes of iterability, it is actually a recontextualizing process. He engages with the question of what happens when a narrative from the global periphery is translated into a core language such as English using English-language stylistic analogues (p. 94). He suggests a possible destabilizing power in doing so.While translation is an issue inworld literature, surprisingly, none of the contributors refers to Benjamin's ideas on translation in 'The Task of the Translator (in Illuminations (London: Fontana, 1968), pp. 70 82). Vilashini Cooppan uses The Arabian Nights to discuss the ethical obligations MLR, 105.3, 2010 819 of world literature by referring to such postcolonial critics as Spivak and Homi Bhabha: the 'world' is an issue, or in Spivak's term, 'the arrogance of ambition' which mimes the imperial certitudes of the West's recognition of itself through its others (p. 37). Cooppan suggests a reading technique for someone who does not read The Arabian Nights inArabic: to consult versions throughout the history of translating the work and remind ourselves that the aim of reading world litera ture is to 'decolonize' the hegemony ofWestern schemas (p. 40). Zhang Longxi demonstrates how themetaphor of life-as-a-journey can be compared in itsuses by Plato and theChinese philosopher Zhuangzi. He argues that 'philosophy, religion, history, and literature are notmutually exclusive' (p. 65), and thatwhat is appealing 'is not just linguistic ingenuity [. . .]but the attractiveness of its thematic content, the idea thatmanifests itself in felicitous language and exquisite poetic expres sions' (p. 65). Following this,Zhang argues, 'sometimes we may find Shakespeare closer in spirit to the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming than to his fellow countryman' (p. 70). Thus the aim of studyingworld literature is 'to acquire a broad perspective for discerning thematic affinities and patterns of literary imagination beyond the gaps of languages and cultures' (p. 71...

How to Read World LiteratureTeaching World LiteratureThe Longman Anthology of World Literature

Book Review| January 01 2010 How to Read World LiteratureTeaching World LiteratureThe Longman Anthology of World Literature How to Read World Literature. By Damrosch, DavidWest Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 147 pp. Paper $24.95.Teaching World Literature. Edited by Damrosch, DavidNew York: Modern Language Association, 2009. 440 pp. Paper $22.00.The Longman Anthology of World Literature. 2nd ed. 6 vols. Edited by Damrosch, David and Pike, David L.New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Paper $300.00. John M. Kopper John M. Kopper Dartmouth College Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Comparative Literature Studies (2010) 47 (3): 399–408. https://doi.org/10.5325/complitstudies.47.3.0399 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation John M. Kopper; How to Read World LiteratureTeaching World LiteratureThe Longman Anthology of World Literature. Comparative Literature Studies 1 January 2010; 47 (3): 399–408. doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/complitstudies.47.3.0399 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectivePenn State University PressComparative Literature Studies Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 2010 by The Pennsylvania State University. All rights reserved.2010The Pennsylvania State University Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

PETER C. HERMAN (ed.). Approaches to Teaching: Milton's Shorter Poetry and Prose. (Approaches to Teaching World Literature).

PETER C. HERMAN (ed.). Approaches to Teaching: Milton's Shorter Poetry and Prose. (Approaches to Teaching World Literature).

One Window

New in theMLA series Options forTeaching TEACHING WORLD LITERATURE Edited byDavid Damrosch "The volume is a tour de force. An extraordinarily insightful, engaging, and comprehensive book that richly addresses the monumentally challenging problem of designing and teaching courses inworld literature ?Allen Webb Western Michigan University Now available ivni & 432pp. Cloth 978-1-60329-033-3 $44.00 IPaper 978-1-60329-034-0 $22.00 Modern Language Association MLA 646 576-5161 Fax 646 576-5160 www.mla.org One Window Forough Farokhzad One window forseeing One window forhearing One window that looks like the round opening of awell Which ends at theheart of theearth And opens intoa vast space of gentle, blue, rippling color One window thatevery night fillsup the small hands of loneliness With theboundless scent of the stars Only fromhere is itpossible to invite the sun To come and play among theexiled geranium flowers One window is enough for me I come from the land ofdolls From beneath theshade ofpaper trees From a garden ina picture book From thedry seasons containing thebarren experiences of friendshipand love From theunpaved roads of innocence From thegrowing yearswhen the faded lettersof the alphabet hung Behind the tubercular school desks From the moment thatchildren could write The word "stone" on theblackboard And the swallows flew ina great rush off thebranches of theold tree I come frominbetween the roots of carnivorous plants And my mind Is still filled with the frighteningsound of thebutterfly That with a pin Has been crucified inside of a book POETRY When my faith was hanging by the thinrope of justice And all over thecity The lights were tearing me topieces They coveredmy pure childlike vision With thedark blindfold of law And from my frighteneddreams Fountains ofblood spilled from my temples When my lifeno longermeant anything Other than the ticktockof a clock I realized, Imust, Imust, Imust Love madly One window is enough for me One window forthe moment of realization, revelation, contemplation The walnut seedling has now gotten tall enough To explain to itsyoung leaves about the meaning of awall Ask the mirror The name of your Savior If theground shaking beneath your feet Isnot lonelier thanyou? The prophets brought prophesies ofdestruction With them intoour century These ceaseless explosions The poisonous mushroom clouds Aren't these the echo of thoseholy verses? Oh friend,oh brother,oh of likeblood When you reach the moon Write down thehistory of thegenocide of flowers Dreams always fall fromtheheight of their inexperience And die I smell a four-leafclover Itgrows over thegravestone of old thoughts Is that woman lying in thegrave Buried in the white cloth ofher own expectation and innocence My youth? Will I climb the stairsofmy own curiosity again And reachGod who strollsupstairs on the roofof the house? Ihave a feeling that timehas slipped by Ihave a feeling thatonemoment ismy share in thepages ofhistory Ihave a feeling that the tabletopmarks the falsedistance Between my hair and thehands of thisgrieving stranger Talk to me Tell me whether theperson who gives you thegiftof life Whether they want anything else fromyou Other than foryou to feelalive? Say something to me I am standing here under the shelterof thewindow I am linked to the sun Translation from the Persian By Meetra A Sofia Forough Farokhzad (1935-67) isone of Iran'smost famous poets and filmmakers; she has been called "Persia's best poet since the classical period of the fifteenth century" (Massud Farzan, Books Abroad, Autumn 1968). Farokhzad was not only a polemical figure during her lifetime, but since her untimely death ina car accident at the age of thirty-two, her poetry has come to symbolize a powerful anthem for freedom. Though herwork was banned in Iran formany years, Farokhzad's five books of poetry have sold over a million copies worldwide. Editorial note: From If I Were God, copyright ? 2008 by Meetra A. Sofia. For more on Farokhzad's poetry, see Books Abroad 42:4 (Autumn 1968),539-41, andWLT663 (Summer1992),421-27. Meetra A. Sofia isa writer, artist, poet, translator, and filmmaker who livesoutside ofWashington, DC. She isthe first to have translated much of Farokhzad's poetry, letters, and writing into English as part of her forthcoming book entitled If I Were God...

Approaches to Teaching Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Ed. Sue Lonoff and Terri A. Hasseler (Approaches to Teaching World Literature).

Approaches to Teaching Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Ed. Sue Lonoff and Terri A. Hasseler (Approaches to Teaching World Literature).

Approaches to Teaching Early Modern Spanish Drama. Ed. Laura R. Bass & Margaret R. Greer. New York: The Modern Language Association of America (Approaches to Teaching World Literature), 2006. xiii + 281 pp. $37.50 (hardback); $19.75 (paperback). ISBN 0–87352–994–4/995–2

Journal Article Approaches to Teaching Early Modern Spanish Drama. Ed. Laura R. Bass & Margaret R. Greer. New York: The Modern Language Association of America (Approaches to Teaching World Literature), 2006. xiii + 281 pp. $37.50 (hardback); $19.75 (paperback). ISBN 0–87352–994–4/995–2 Get access Forum for Modern Language Studies, Volume 43, Issue 3, JULY 2007, Page 317, https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqm013 Published: 01 January 2007

Approaches to Teaching Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, ed. by Maximillian E. Novak and Carl Fisher

134 cargues-Grant’s Tristram Shandy stimulates discussion, raises issues without forcing a narrow vision, and makes one turn to the book itself. Peter De Voogd Universiteit Utrecht Approaches to Teaching Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, ed. Maximillian E. Novak and Carl Fisher. New York: MLA, 2005. Pp. xxii ⫹ 243. $19.75. Approaches to Teaching Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is one of the best books to have appeared so far in the quartercentury -long series of ‘‘Approaches to Teaching World Literature’’ as pedagogical guides designed primarily for teachers of undergraduate students: ‘‘primarily ’’ because many of the approaches would work equally well with graduate students. Indeed, one of the most stimulating entries from the collection’s twenty-three contributors, Robert Markley ’s ‘‘Teaching the Crusoe Trilogy,’’ seems better suited for a graduate seminar than undergraduate courses in which few instructors would have the time to teach Defoe’s The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and The Serious Reflections, in addition to Robinson Crusoe. Given the range of suggestions , methods, and examples offered in this collection, one comes away from it convinced that Robinson Crusoe could easily be the focus of undergraduate and graduate seminars. In light of the vast amount of secondary material on Defoe, his oeuvre, and recent biographies of his life, Messrs. Novak and Fisher have concisely and fair-mindedly identified and described the ‘‘Materials,’’ including internet resources , available to teachers of Robinson Crusoe. Their ‘‘Approaches’’ are subdivided into often inevitably overlapping groups. The first, ‘‘Defoe and the History of English Narrative,’’ includes four essays that usefully contextualize Defoe’s most famous novel. Robert Maniquis’s ‘‘Teaching The Pilgrim ’s Progress and Robinson Crusoe; or, From Filthy Mire to the Glory of Things,’’ enables students to appreciate Defoe’s revolutionary treatment of ‘‘realistic ’’ detail. In ‘‘Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels: Some Pedagogical Frameworks,’’ Richard Braverman tells how he teaches the Travels with Crusoe to demonstrate competing early eighteenth-century assessments of exploration and colonialism. Roxanne Kent-Drury and Gordon Sayre introduce their students to parodic intertextuality through an investigation of the reception history of Crusoe (‘‘Robinson Crusoe’s Parodic Intertextuality’’). Invoking Max Weber and Ian Watt in ‘‘Weber, Watt, and Restraint: Robinson Crusoe and the Critical Tradition,’’ Manuel Schonhorn sees Defoe’s Crusoe as a transitional figure between earlier religious and modern economic conceptions of the hero. The next section, ‘‘Intellectual and Ideological Contexts,’’ comprises Geoffrey Sill’s comparative ‘‘Myths of Modern Individualism: Defoe, Franklin, and Whitman,’’ which argues for Defoe’s role in the development of the myth of the self-made man. The connections Mr. Sill draws among his three authors seem tenuous. Far more convincingly, Paula R. Backscheider compares and contrasts Crusoe in ‘‘Crusoe among the Travelers ’’ to contemporaneous travel narratives , including ones by women, to see Crusoe as a transitional figure between an older world of mysterious spiritual forces and a new world comprehensible through scientific investigation. George E. Haggerty’s excellent ‘‘Thank God It’s 135 Friday: The Construction of Masculinity in Robinson Crusoe’’ exposes the often comic effects of Crusoe’s ultimately successful attempts to assert his ‘‘masculine mastery’’ of people and places. In ‘‘Robinson Crusoe and EarlyEighteenth -Century Racial Ideology,’’ Roxann Wheeler largely recapitulates part of her argument in The Complexion of Race: Categories of Difference in Eighteenth-Century British Culture (2000) to use the figures of Xury and Friday to show her students that modern-day notions of race are historically contingent. Mr. Markley’s approach reveals how thin the resolution of contradictions in the first volume of the Crusoe trilogy remains. Close reading is the subject of Timothy C. Blackburn’s perceptive ‘‘Robinson Crusoe as Literary Art,’’ which opens the section on ‘‘Formal and Thematic Approaches.’’ John Barberet takes a more comparativist approach in his insightful ‘‘Messages in Bottles: A Comparative Formal Approach to Castaway Narratives,’’ contrasting castaway and utopian fictions to argue convincingly that Crusoe is more the former than the latter. Widening his approach even further than Barberet, in ‘‘A Semester on Crusoe’s Island’’ Matthew Wickman has his students read Crusoe in conjunction with essays by the cultural theorists Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, and François Lyotard to enable them to recognize the kinds of exchanges and...

Beyond Mirrored Worlds: Teaching World Literature to Challenge Students’ Perception of “Other”

Beyond Mirrored Worlds: Teaching World Literature to Challenge Students’ Perception of “Other”

Beyond Mirrored Worlds: Teaching World Literature to Challenge Students' Perception of "Other"

Beyond Mirrored Worlds: Teaching World Literature to Challenge Students' Perception of "Other"

Approaches to Teaching Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina' by Liza Knapp , Amy Mandelker (review)

304 Reviews poetry. This threat to the traditional printed poem requires the corrective of leesbevordering based on a Romantic notion of literature and delivered by those who 'act froma cultural ideal and use a relatively superior tone' (p. 109) and who neglect digital culture. But Vaessens also notes that the reading programme itself has a democratic aspect in that it actively seeks a broad audience. While the papers discussed above represent the strong trend towards analysis of the literary field in the Netherlands, other contributors address the theme of time in the culture of the Low Countries from the perspectives of colonial and postcolonial studies, medieval studies, and linguistics. Natasha Tinsley approaches a Surinamese woman writer from the perspective of decolonizing queer theory, while Orlanda Lie looks at 'The Concept of Time in the Medieval World View'. Jan Noordegraaf ar? gues that Dutch eighteenth-century linguistics, an aspect of Dutch learning that has been largely ignored, marks the beginning of a historical and empirical dimension to linguistic philosophy and a sense of the possibility of change over time and therefore of what Willemyns refers to as 'language planning'. Other contributions from lin? guists focus on time as expressed through the use of tenses (Wim Klooster, Robert S. Kirsner), adverbials (Thomas F. Shannon and Michael P. Coffey), and particles (Kirsner). Readers ofJanus at the Millennium will gain a sense of the state of Dutch Studies in the world through a wide range of articles on the language, literature, history,and society of the Low Countries which are generally of a high quality. Scholars in the field will undoubtedly extend their knowledge and understanding of the Netherlands and Belgium and encounter new approaches to their subject. University College London Jane Fenoulhet Approaches to Teaching Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina'. Ed. by Liza Knapp and Amy Mandelker . (Approaches to Teaching World Literature) New York: The Modern Language Association of America. 2003. x + 229 pp. ?22.55 (pbk ?9.75). ISBN 0-87352-904-9 (pbk 0-87352-905-7). This book is to be very warmly welcomed. While covering some fairlyfamiliar ma? terial and approaches in a form which will be accessible to undergraduates and the general reader, it also offersspirited and innovative discussions of key aspects of what is perhaps the most important of Russian novels. As such, it accords well with the overall aims of the series of which it forms a part: 'The series is intended to serve non-specialists as well as specialists, inexperienced as well as experienced teachers, graduate students who wish to learn effectiveways of teaching as well as senior professors who wish to compare their own approaches with the approaches of colleagues in other schools' (p. vii). In these terms it should become an indispensable part ofthe preparatory materials of all teachers of nineteenth-century Russian literature. This specific volume was prepared by soliciting responses to a questionnaire from those who actually teach the novel, although the precise mechanism by which the contributions came to be written is not fully explained. After a series of five intro? ductory sections written by the two editors, there are twenty-one short essays divided into three unequal sections, 'Anna Karenina in Tolstoy's Life, Thought and Times', 'Anna Karenina in the Literary Traditions of Russia and the West', and 'Classroom Approaches to Anna Karenina'. All the essays have much to offer,while many belie the ostensible purpose of the volume to become, in effect,outstanding short articles. The contributors are almost all from the USA, including most of the 'stars' of that particular firmament. Although it is not altogether clear why the two editors chose to hive offtheir own five introductory pieces, each of these contributions is a model of clarity and pro? vides an excellent overture to the thematics and problematics of the volume. Amy MLR, ioi.i, 2006 305 Mandelker's 'Teaching Anna Karenina' points to the challenges and difficulties of teaching this novel in the twenty-firstcentury: 'Those of us who teach the novel regularly find that it persistently detonates heated classroom debates of issues that continue to be topical: sex and sexuality, gender roles, social constriction of indivi? dual self-expression and fulfilment' and so on...

Approaches to Teaching the Works of D. H. Lawrence. Ed. M. Elizabeth Sargent and Garry Watson (Approaches to Teaching World Literature, 70).

Approaches to Teaching the Works of D. H. Lawrence. Ed. M. Elizabeth Sargent and Garry Watson (Approaches to Teaching World Literature, 70).

Vytoki i hiniezis biełaruskaha ramantyzmu XIX stahodździa by K. I. Lećka (review)

720 SEER, 82, 3, 2004 Lecka,K. I. Vytoki i hiniezis bietaruskaha ramantyzmu XIXstahodzdzia. Hrodzienski DziarzauinyUniviersitet, Hrodna, 2003. 37I pp. Notes. Bibliography. Priceunknown. THE Romantic movement, to whose originsthis monograph is devoted, came to Belarus at a time when the tsaristgovernment had placed an almost total ban on publishing in the Belarusian language. Thus, much of the material discussed was either in Polish or published clandestinely and/or outside the country. False places of publication and dating were common, as was the confiscation of literaryworks.Partlyfor this reason, BelarusianRomanticism has been relativelylittleresearchedhithertoand the word 'romantic'hasbeen more frequentlyused with reference to the end ratherthan the beginning of the nineteenth century. The same, of course, is not uncommon with writers like Gor'kiiand Korolenko in Russian literature,and is taken for granted in thediscussionofnineteenth-centurymusic.KsienafontLecka'scomprehensive study is the firstmonograph ever to be devoted to BelarusianRomanticism. As such, thisgroundbreakingworkis to be warmlywelcomed. Afteran Introductionoutliningearlierworkand the reasonsforthe subject's relative neglect, the book falls into six main parts: theoretical aspects and methodological principlesof studyingBelarusiannineteenth-centuryRomanticism ; the preconditions for the rise of the Romantic movement in Europe; the folkloricoriginsand birthof Belarusiannineteenth-centuryRomanticism; its religious sources; the roots of nineteenth-century Romanticism in Old Belarusianliterature;and the roots of Romanticism in Belarusianeighteenthcenturyliterature .Most interestingfor Westernreaders,undoubtedly,will be the thirdto the sixth sections. Of the latter, section three contains five subdivisions:the first shoots of Romantic thinking;popular fairytales;legends and stories;folkloricballads; and popular lyrical songs. The fourth section is divided in two: the biblical origins of BelarusianRomanticism and problems of theirreception in fiction; and Belarusianspiritualpoetry in the light of Romantic aestheticsand poetics. Section fivehas threeparts:generic Romantic tendencies;a typologicalaspect of Belarusianliteratureof the Middle Ages (eleventh-fifteenth centuries);and consonant Romantic moods in Belarusianliterature of the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries. The last section is divided in two: the baroque and the formation of Romantic aesthetics and poetics; and the Enlightenment as a genetic forerunnerof the Romantic movement in the nineteenth century. This is a densely written and very thoroughly researched study with a bibliography containing nearly six hundred items. Dr Lecka shows an extensive knowledge of Belarusian written folk materials, prose and verse alike, which he is able to bring to bear on the main nineteenth-century Belarusian literary texts (an ever-expanding corpus, due to the political conditions referredto at the startof this notice), and the book is all the more valuable for the quantityof hithertolittle-knownor lost texts that he bringsto his argument.The authoralso showsan easy command of religiousmaterials, from the Psalms, the Gospels and other books of the Bible to popular chapbooksand similarreligioustextswidespreadin the Belarusianterritories, particularlythose of the Suprasl'-Hrodna region during the eighteenth and REVIEWS 72I nineteenth centuries. The section on the Middle Ages is also rich in detailed examples, from the earliest sermons and other homiletic writings to the religious polemics which brought discord to this period but also produced a number of textsthat arefascinatingnot only as historicalevidence, but also as literature. This pioneering book makes a very considerable contribution to our knowledge of Belarusian literature of the Romantic period, and of the folkloric,religious and other sourcesfor it, as well as offeringa new typology of Slav Romanticism in general. The annotation is economical rather than optimally convenient, referringas it does to the items from the bibliography by number alone. This may partlybe due to constraintsof space, as also may the regrettable absence of an index. None the less, Dr Lecka must be congratulatedon a monographthatisbound to become a fundamentalsource for the furtherstudyof Belarusianliteraturein the nineteenth century. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies ARNOLD MCMILLIN University College London Knapp, L. and Mandelker, A. (eds). Approaches to TeachingTolstoy'sAnna Karenina'. Approaches to Teaching World Literature. The Modern LanguageAssociationofAmerica,New York,2003. ix + 226 pp. Illustrations . Figures.Tables. Notes. Bibliography.Index. $I8.50 (paperback). THIScollection of essays is the latest in a serieswhose stated aim is 'to collect [.. .] differentpoints of view on teaching a specificliterarywork [... .] widely taught at undergraduate level' (p. vii). The volume consists of twenty-six essayswritten by leading American specialistsin Russian literature,and was prepared by 'solicitingresponsesto a questionnairefrom facultymembers at various [North American] institutions'(p. ix). Since this questionnaireplayed such a significantpart in the book's...

Approaches to Teaching Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina' by L. Knapp A. Mandelker (review)

REVIEWS 72I nineteenth centuries. The section on the Middle Ages is also rich in detailed examples, from the earliest sermons and other homiletic writings to the religious polemics which brought discord to this period but also produced a number of textsthat arefascinatingnot only as historicalevidence, but also as literature. This pioneering book makes a very considerable contribution to our knowledge of Belarusian literature of the Romantic period, and of the folkloric,religious and other sourcesfor it, as well as offeringa new typology of Slav Romanticism in general. The annotation is economical rather than optimally convenient, referringas it does to the items from the bibliography by number alone. This may partlybe due to constraintsof space, as also may the regrettable absence of an index. None the less, Dr Lecka must be congratulatedon a monographthatisbound to become a fundamentalsource for the furtherstudyof Belarusianliteraturein the nineteenth century. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies ARNOLD MCMILLIN University College London Knapp, L. and Mandelker, A. (eds). Approaches to TeachingTolstoy'sAnna Karenina'. Approaches to Teaching World Literature. The Modern LanguageAssociationofAmerica,New York,2003. ix + 226 pp. Illustrations . Figures.Tables. Notes. Bibliography.Index. $I8.50 (paperback). THIScollection of essays is the latest in a serieswhose stated aim is 'to collect [.. .] differentpoints of view on teaching a specificliterarywork [... .] widely taught at undergraduate level' (p. vii). The volume consists of twenty-six essayswritten by leading American specialistsin Russian literature,and was prepared by 'solicitingresponsesto a questionnairefrom facultymembers at various [North American] institutions'(p. ix). Since this questionnaireplayed such a significantpart in the book's genesis it is a pity that it was not included as an appendix.An introductorysection, containingessaysby the editorsAmy Mandelker and Liza Knapp, is followed by a valuable and informative 'materials'section, with essayson Russian editionsand Englishtranslationsof the novel (Knapp), and on recommended readings(Mandelker).The articles in the main partof the volume cover a wide range of topics. WilliamM. Todd III examines the teaching of the novel through the history of its serial publications. Gary Saul Morson explores how the novel's ideas, in particular those arisingfrom the chapters devoted to Levin as landowner, can be most fruitfullyconveyed to the student, thereby making sense of the whole. Gary R. Jahn discussesAnnaKarenina in the light of Tolstoi's crisis. Harriet Murav looks at the legal questions arising from the novel. We then move on to chapters on sexuality and the woman question (Helena Goscilo), agrarian issues(MaryHelen Kashuba and Manucher Dareshuri),'Tolstoy'sAntiphilosophical Philosophy' (Donna Orwin), the perennial issue of 'Tolstoy versus Dostoevsky' (Caryl Emerson), AnnaKarenina as a 'novel of adultery' (Judith Armstrong), the act, and art, of reading the novel (David A. Sloane), the relationshipbetween the novel and various theatricalgenres, such as opera, tragedy and farce (Julie A. Buckler), and the work's concluding part eight 722 SEER, 82, 3, 2004 (Svetlana Evdokimova). The chapters in the final sub-section ('Classroom Approaches to AnnaKarenina') focus on the novel's opening (Kate Holland), a close reading of Anna's return journey to St Petersburg (Robert Louis Jackson),Anna'sdreams(ThomasBarran),moraleducation (GinaKovarsky), aesthetic vision (Justin Weir), interpretations of the novel through film (Andrea Lanoux), the use of reader-responsejournals in teaching the novel (Jason Merrill),the explorationofAnnaKarenina throughthe creationof 'mind maps', including two fascinatingexamples of such maps (MaryLaurita),and, finally,a discussionof Tolstoi's'labyrinthof linkages'(LizaKnapp). So many points of view, so many different voices. Heterogeneity in a volume of this sortcan cut both ways of course.It can lead to an impressionof arbitrarinessand lackof overallcoordination. But it can also lend the whole a ratheradventurous, exploratoryfeel. There is much to stimulatethe interest here and, in the main body of the volume at least, there is hardly a chapter that does not have something worthwhile to contribute. The essaysby Todd, Morson, Emerson, Evdokimova, Jackson, and Laurita are particularly rewardingin this respect. The vast majorityof essaysconcentrate on the text, treating Tolstoi himself uncritically.A notable exception is Helena Goscilo's challenging essay which, despite its daunting title ('Motif-Mesh as Matrix: Body, Sexuality, Adultery, and the Woman Question'), strikes like an invigorating cold shower. Her final comment is Lawrentian in its defiant iconoclasm: 'In questions of gender AnnaKarenina combines structuralrigor with conceptual rigor mortis' (p. 89). In some ways...

“Broadly Representative”? The MLA's Approaches to Teaching World Literature Series

Research Article| January 01 2003 “Broadly Representative”? The MLA's Approaches to Teaching World Literature Series Sheree Meyer Sheree Meyer Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Pedagogy (2003) 3 (1): 21–52. https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-3-1-21 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Sheree Meyer; “Broadly Representative”? The MLA's Approaches to Teaching World Literature Series. Pedagogy 1 January 2003; 3 (1): 21–52. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-3-1-21 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsPedagogy Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2003 Duke University Press2003 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Articles You do not currently have access to this content.

Teaching World Literature: Preparing Global Citizens

teachers must be responsible for raising global citizens, students who are not only familiar with but also respectful of other cultures. The earlier students can see beyond physical differences and become aware of the contributions of other cultures, the more tolerant they will become. An important component of any culture is its literature. By teaching world literature, we can help build a better informed, more tolerant global community. Our school district first introduced a true world literature course a decade ago. When the district moved ninth graders from the middle school to the high school, administrators and teachers sought ways to ease the transition. Prior to the arrival of the ninth graders, all high school English courses were offered to students of all grade levels, and the mix of sophomores, juniors, and seniors benefited most students. However, parents, teachers, and administrators did not feel that this structure was appropriate for ninth graders.