Teaching World Literature

This is an exciting, and unsettling, time to be teaching world literature, writes David Damrosch. Because the range of works taught in world literature courses has expanded enormously, both historically and geographically, the task of selection—and of teacher preparation—has grown more challenging. Teachers of this field must grapple with such issues as coverage, cultural difference, and the role of translation in the classroom. Should one emphasize masterpieces or traditions, concepts or themes? How does one avoid making a work bear the burden of representing an entire tradition? To what extent should anthologies be used? Can a course be global in scope and yet focus on a few works, authors, moments? This collection of thirty-two essays in the MLA series Options for Teaching offers an array of solutions to these challenges, reflecting the wide variety of institutions, courses, and students described by the contributors. An annotated bibliography is provided, with a listing of useful Web sites.

How does one keep classic books alive for young people today and teach them that literature is instructional and delightful? How does the teacher foster a classroom environment that encourages student participation and promotes enjoyment so that teenagers learn to appreciate literary study? More specifically, how can literature teachers cover centuries of world literature with students who dont appreciate why they should read material written long ago about people and issues that appear to be irrelevant to life today in a language that seems esoteric? The author of this series of high school teaching guides addresses these issues. How to Teach World Literature: A Practical Teaching Guide provides a detailed resource for teachers or anyone interested in an in-depth study of the subject. This third book in the series covers world literature from the ancient Greeks and Romans to contemporary works. Included are suggestions for cultivating a love for literature, teaching techniques, detailed analyses of each work, questions for review and test questions with suggested responses, essay topics, audio-visual aids, classroom handouts, and recommended books that enhance teaching. The author emphasizes two basic reasons for teaching literature. It is instructional and delightful. This book provides a comprehensive methodology for teaching the subject that a teacher could apply to one years lesson plans without further investment in time. Other books in this series are titled How to Teach British Literature: A Practical Teaching Guide and How to Teach American Literature: A Practical Teaching Guide. How to Teach World Literature: A Practical Teaching Guide by Elizabeth McCallum Marlow is a thorough, traditional approach to teaching classic world literature. The authors emphases on reading and writing will aid teachers, novices, and veterans to build a solid curriculum. This volume includes many supplemental resources and student-centered activities. The guide is a valuable tool for teachers. Jane Ferguson M.Ed, Ed.S. High School English Teacher and College English Instructor Truett McConnell College, GA University of Georgia, Athens, GA Elizabeth McCallum Marlow has developed a quality comprehensive guide for the teaching community based on her thirty-five years of experience and her passion for literature. Teaching professionals will find her tried and true practices to be invaluable. Dr. Johnathan Arnold, MBA, M.Ed., D.Ed.Min Headmaster Covenant Christian Academy, Cumming, GA

In one volume, this edited collection provides both a theoretical and praxis-driven engagement with teaching world literature, focusing on various aspects of critical pedagogy. Included are nine praxis-driven essays by instructors who have taught world literature courses at the university level.

Jane Austen is a favorite with many students, whether they've read her novels or viewed popular film adaptations. But Persuasion, completed at the end of her life, can be challenging for students to approach. They are surprised to meet a heroine so subdued and self-sacrificing, and the novel's setting during the Napoleonic wars may be unfamiliar. This volume provides teachers with avenues to explore the depths and richness of the novel with both Austen fans and newcomers. Part 1, "Materials," suggests editions for classroom use, criticism, and multimedia resources. Part 2, "Approaches," presents strategies for teaching the literary, contextual, and philosophical dimensions of the novel. Essays address topics such as free indirect discourse and other narrative techniques; social class in Austen's England; the role of the navy during war and peacetime; key locations in the novel, including Lyme Regis and Bath; and health, illness, and the ethics of care.

Teaching Literature in Times of Crisis looks at the range of different crises currently affecting students - from climate change and systemic racism, to the global pandemic. Addressing the impact on students' ability and motivation to learn as well as their emotional wellbeing, this volume guides teachers toward strategies for introducing both canonical and contemporary literature in ways that demonstrate the future relevance of sophisticated and targeted literacy skills. These reading practices are invaluable for framing and critically examining the challenges associated with crisis in order to help cope with grief and as a means to impart the skills needed to deal with crisis, such as adaptability, flexibility, resilience, and resistance. Providing necessary background theory, alongside practical case studies, the book addresses: Reading practices for demonstrating how literature explores ethical issues in specific and concrete rather than abstract terms Making connections between disparate phenomena, and how literature mobilises affect in individual and collective human lives Supporting teachers in considering new, imaginative ways students can learn from literary content and form in online or remote learning environments as well as face to face Combining close and distant reading with creative and hands-on strategies, presenting the principles of a transitional pedagogy for a world in flux. This book introduces teachers to methods for reading and studying literature with the aim of strengthening and promoting resilience and resourcefulness in and out of the literature classroom and empower students as global citizens with local roles to play.

Literature teaching remains central to the teaching of English around the world. This edited text brings together expert global figures under the banner of the International Federation for the Teaching of English (IFTE). The book captures a state-of-the-art snapshot of leading trends in current literature teaching, as well as detailing predicted trends for the future. The expert scholar and leading teacher contributors, coming from a wide range of countries with fascinatingly diverse approaches to literature teaching, cover a range of central and fundamental topics: literature and diversity; digital literatures; pedagogy and reader response; mother tongues; the business of reading; publishers, adolescent fiction and censorship; assessing responses to literature; the changing definitions of literature and multimodal texts. The collection reviews the consistently important place of literature in the education of young people and provides international evidence of its enduring value and contribution to education, resisting the functionalist and narrowly nationalist perspectives of misguided government authorities. International Perspectives on the Teaching of Literature in Schools will be of value to researchers, PhD students, literature scholars, practitioners, teacher educators, teachers and all those in the extensive academic community interested in English and literacy around the world.

The prizewinning author of novels, nonfiction, and hybrid texts, Amitav Ghosh grew up in India and trained as an anthropologist. His works have been translated into over thirty languages. They cross and mix a number of genres, from science fiction to the historical novel, incorporating ethnohistory and travelogue and even recuperating dead languages. His subjects include climate change, postcolonial identities, translocation, migration, oceanic spaces, and the human interface with the environment. Part 1 of this volume discusses editions of Ghosh's works and the scholarship on Ghosh. The essays in part 2, "Approaches," present ideas for teaching his works through considerations of postcolonial feminism, historicity in the novels, environmentalism, language, sociopolitical conflict, genre, intersectional reading, and the ethics of colonized subjecthood. Guidance for teaching Ghosh in different contexts, such as general education, world literature, or single-author classes, is provided.