Hi, John,
I'll send you a syllabus off-list. There is an essay-length description
of the course in the (inexpensive paperback) book I mentioned: Integrating
Literature and Writing Instruction: First-Year English, Humanities Core
Courses, Seminars, ed. by me and Christine R. Farris (MLA 2007). There
really are some good ideas from many other campuses large, small,
sectarian, public in this collection.
Best,
Judith
_________________________
Judith H. Anderson
Chancellor's Professor
Department of English
Indiana University
1020 E. Kirkwood Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47405-7103
On Wed, 11 Feb 2009, John Webster wrote:
> Thanks, Judith, for so thoughtful and suggestive a post. I, too, have found
> myself teaching an intro to theory. I, too, have found that setting a
> historical frame for doing so has been very effective. I've also found that
> students LOVE this course. They find it very very difficult, but for many
> it's the first time/place in which they can work on articulating for
> themselves why they are lit majors in the first place--and how they can
> explain to themselves, their parents and their friends why it isn't a waste
> of their time to take a course like "The Elizabethan Age" (just to take a
> random example!), on one hand, or why postcolonial studies is not a betrayal
> of all the study of literature holds dear on the other.
> I will contemplate your Metaphor course. Great idea. Do you have materials
> you could send me (or direct me to a website) on it? What a great way to
> link literary reading to all sorts of more widely defined cultural reading.
> John
>
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