Approaches to Teaching World Literature
There are 173 products in Approaches to Teaching World Literature
Approaches to Teaching Scott’s Waverley Novels
Scott’s Waverley novels, as his fiction is collectively known, are increasingly popular in the classroom, where they fit into courses that explore topics from Victorianism and nationalism to the rise of the publishing industry and the cult of the author. As the editors of this volume recognize, however, Scott’s fictions present unusual challenges to instructors. Students need guidance, for instance, in navigating Scott’s use of vernacular Scots and antique styles, sorting through his historical and geographical references, and distinguishing his multiple authorial personas. The essays in this volume are designed to help teachers negotiate these and other intriguing features of the Waverley novels. Part 1, “Materials,” guides instructors in selecting appropriate editions of the Waverley novels for classroom use. It also categorizes and lists background and critical studies of Scott’s novels and recommends additional readings for students, as well as multimedia instructional resources.
The essays in part 2 examine the novels’ relation to Scottish history, Scott’s use of language, and concepts of Romantic authorship; consider gender, legal, queer, and multicultural approaches; recommend strategies for teaching Scott alongside other authors such as Jane Austen; and offer detailed ideas for introducing individual novels to students—from imagining Ivanhoe in the context of nineteenth-century medievalism to reconsidering how the ethical issues raised in Old Mortality reflect on religion and violence in our own day.
Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare’s Hamlet
For centuries Hamlet has been a source of inspiration for readers and audiences. The play’s characters fascinated Romantic critics from Goethe to Coleridge, its themes interested psychoanalytic theorists from Freud to Lacan, and its ideas have engaged recent scholars of all schools. Teachers regard Shakespeare’s great tragedy as rewarding, challenging, and ideal for classroom instruction and performance.
This volume, like others in the MLA’s Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, is divided into two parts. The first part, “Materials,” culls from thousands of works on Hamlet those editions, anthologies, reference materials, films, and Web sites that will be of greatest help to teachers. The second part, “Approaches,” presents a wide array of techniques for presenting the play to students—textual approaches, performance strategies, comparative and postmodern methodologies. Unique to this Approaches volume are twenty short takes—exercises, syllabus additions, and tips for teaching Hamlet.
Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare’s King Lear
Perhaps Shakespeare’s greatest play, King Lear is likely the one most often taught at the undergraduate level, but many instructors agree that it may also be the most daunting to teach. A survey conducted for this collection of essays found several common difficulties teachers face in presenting the play: the inability of students to empathize with an old man, bewilderment caused by the pessimistic vision of the play and its ending, difficulty in conveying the universality of the play, and confusion over complex imagery. Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare’s King Lear suggests ways that teachers can meet these challenges and make King Lear engaging and accessible.
The volume, like others in the MLA’s Approaches to Teaching World Literature, is divided into two parts. The first part, “Materials,” surveys the editions of King Lear most used by instructors, lists recommended readings for students and teachers, and discusses audiovisual materials available for classroom use. In the second part, “Approaches,” sixteen teachers share ideas for teaching King Lear in different settings, from freshman survey courses to seminars devoted entirely to the play. The essays present overviews of the play from a variety of critical perspectives as well as describe specific approaches, such as focusing on theme and character, discussing dramatic and philosophical contexts, and analyzing the roles of the written text and of oral and visual performance.
Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare’s Othello
Investigating the paramount issues of race, gender, and sexuality in Othello; teaching the drama as an adventure play, as a tragedy and a comedy, as an antirevenge play; assessing the complex motivations of Iago; exploring the range of actors’ interpretations of Othello’s character over the centuries—these are only a few of the pedagogical strategies discussed in this volume.
Part 1, “Materials,” is designed to help instructors manage the wealth of resources available for teaching Othello. The editors carefully assess editions of Othello and of Shakespeare’s collected works; review the textual history of the play; survey studies that address gender and race as historical concepts; and examine visual representations of Othello, particularly film adaptations.
The essays in the second part, “Approaches,” are divided into six topical sections. The first group considers race in Othello, in the Renaissance, and in the contemporary classroom. The second section addresses male desire, the fluidity of gender roles, and competing male and female fantasies. The generic forces that shape Othello are examined in the third section. The final sections explore classroom strategies, survey performances of the play, and formulate innovative ways to teach the sources and analogs of Othello.
Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
Taught widely in high school and college, Romeo and Juliet may be Shakespeare’s most accessible work. Teenagers and young adults identify with the play’s interfamilial conflict, the love story, and the defiance of parental authority. Nevertheless, readers of all ages are often perplexed by the Bard’s poetic language, the “unrealism” of the characters’ eloquence, and the embedded sonnets. Essays in this book address these challenges and others and offer instructors imaginative strategies for dealing with them.
The first part, “Materials,” reviews the most widely used anthologies of Shakespeare’s plays and the many available editions of Romeo and Juliet, as well as background materials for the instructor and recommendations for student reading. The second part, “Approaches,” presents practical ideas for the classroom. A final section describes scenarios for teaching the play through dramatic technique and for using Romeo and Juliet’s many adaptations, including the popular Zeffirelli and Luhrmann films.
Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew
The impetus for this Approaches to Teaching volume on The Taming of the Shrew grew from the editors’ desire to discover why a play notorious for its controversial exploration of conflicts between men and women and the challenges of marriage is enduringly popular in the classroom, in the performing arts, and in scholarship. The result is a volume that offers practical advice to teachers on editions and teaching resources in part 1, “Materials,” while illuminating how the play’s subtle and complex arguments regarding not just marriage but a host of other subjects—modes of early modern education, the uses of clever rhetoric, intergenerational and class politics, the power of theater—are being brought to life in college classrooms. The essays in part 2, “Approaches,” are written by English and theater instructors who have taught in a variety of academic settings and cover topics including early modern homilies and music, Hollywood versions of The Taming of the Shrew, and student performances.
Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Other Late Romances
This collection of essays, the second Approaches volume devoted to Shakespeare (the first discussed King Lear), covers four of the Bard’s later plays: The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, and Pericles. Developed from a survey of ninety-three faculty members who teach these romances, the volume presents both practical and imaginative approaches to presenting the works in the classroom.
Like other books in the MLA’s Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, this one is divided into two parts. The first part, “Materials,” evaluates editions of the plays, recommends readings for students and teachers, and suggests aids to teaching. In the second part, “Approaches,” the first five essays treat the late romances as a group, connecting them with Shakespeare’s tragedies and with political discourse of the period, examining the father-daughter theme and viewing them as family romance, and defining the dramaturgy of the late romances. The remaining thirteen essays focus on specific plays and explain how to use performance, audiovisual aids, and various historical and critical approaches to enhance the plays’ presentation.
Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare’s English History Plays
Shakespeare’s history plays make up nearly a third of his corpus and feature iconic characters like Falstaff, the young Prince Hal, and Richard III—as well as unforgettable scenes like the storming of Harfleur. But these plays also present challenges for teachers, who need to help students understand shifting dynastic feuds, manifold concepts of political power, and early modern ideas of the body politic, kingship, and nationhood.
Part 1 of this volume, “Materials,” introduces instructors to the many available editions of the plays, the wealth of contextual and critical writings available, and other resources. Part 2, “Approaches,” contains essays on topics as various as masculinity and gender, using the plays in the composition classroom, and teaching the plays through Shakespeare’s own sources, film, television, and the Web. The essays help instructors teach works that are poetically and emotionally rich as well as fascinating in how they depict Shakespeare’s vision of his nation’s past and present.
Approaches to Teaching Shelley’s Frankenstein
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is both a literary work very much rooted in its age and a cultural artifact that transcends period. “Undeniably one of the great and influential works of the English Romantic period,” writes the editor, Stephen C. Behrendt, the novel provides “an excellent vehicle for introducing students to the complexities of Romantic art and thought.” At the same time, as this volume demonstrates, Frankenstein is often studied in college and secondary school courses focusing not on Romanticism but on science fiction, Gothic fiction, women’s literature, or film and popular culture.
The book, like others in the MLA’s Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, is divided into two parts. The first part, “Materials,” reviews editions of Frankenstein, discusses reference and critical works and recommended reading for students, and lists selected film versions of the novel. In the second part, “Approaches,” instructors present classroom strategies for teaching the novel. The essays are divided into four groupings: general issues (e.g., choosing a text, gender and pedagogy, language and style), contexts of study (e.g., biography, Romanticism), course contexts (e.g., science fiction, women’s studies, composition), and Frankenstein and film.
Approaches to Teaching Shelley’s Poetry
Shelley’s poetry, admits Steven E. Jones in the Keats-Shelley Journal, has proved “difficult to study and to teach well.” The essays in Approaches to Teaching Shelley’s Poetry confront the problem of introducing Shelley in the classroom and propose a variety of techniques for engaging students with Shelley’s extraordinary stylistic and conceptual variety.
Like other books in the MLA’s Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, this one is divided into two parts. The first part, “Materials,” evaluates teacher and reference editions of Shelley’s works and surveys secondary readings for both students and instructors. The second part, “Approaches,” contains thirty-two concise and practical essays on teaching the poetry. Six essays discuss pedagogical issues, including teaching Shelley to sophomores and in writing-across-the-curriculum courses. The longest section of the book comprises eighteen essays on presenting individual texts, from reading Adonais as pastoral elegy to teaching Alastor and Prometheus Unbound alongside Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Essays on specific literary and historical contexts and on critical perspectives, including a feminist reading of Shelley’s works and strategies for teaching Shelley with other Romantic poets, complete the volume.
