One reading from this week that did stimulate and intrigue me beyond a superficial level was the excerpts from Appleman’s Critical Encounters in High School English. I saw a lot of my high school experience in these pages and didn’t fully realize just how strong my background in literary theory was until I read them. I knew that I had studied it and been taught to read beyond just the story being told but to look underneath all of that to what lies beneath.
There were so many things that my high school teacher, Arlis DeJaynes, taught me about literary theory – some of it I didn’t even consciously know I had absorbed until I took a look in retrospect. I had taken Brit Lit my junior year as an honors course (usually the seniors take this) and learned the beginnings of it through studying Beowulf, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Prince of Tides and many more. My true roots, though, grew deep in AP English my senior year when we tore apart piece by piece A Prayer for Owen Meany, Beloved, The Great Gatsby, A Doll’s House. The list goes on and on but these are the books that stick out in my mind, especially Beloved where I learned to look for the shadow and truly fell in love with what I was studying. I think studying these things and emphasizing them in the classroom is important and helps students in more than just their reading, comprehension, and analytical skills in English. It helps do so much more than that and I can definitely see it in myself as I’ve grown and looked back since my high school graduation just how much my thought process has grown, matured and deepened in parallel to my English courses and the skills I gain there. I am able to take those skills and apply them to my everyday life and let me tell you, it counts for a lot when making tough decisions and dealing with obstacles thrown in my way!
Kaylin
I agree that it can be a heady thing when you learn to see deeper into a text, when you begin to realize how much is beneath the surface to see and think about and appreciate. Yet for some, "tearing apart the text" is what changes English class from pleasurable to something more arcane and inscrutable, even tedious and painful (I always try to keep in mind what English class can be like for people who do NOT go on to become English majors).
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know *how* people carry more sophisticated ways of thinking about and reading texts with them in their everyday lives. I'd like to know if any of you do truly view the world through literary theory lenses, as Appleman advocates. I know that having those lenses absolutely helps me to see and comment on things that I would not see or think to name otherwise.
I think that literary theory can be a great tool if it is taught correctly. I always think about the stark difference between my sophomore honors English teacher, and my AP English teacher. My sophomore year I began hating English, my teacher would stand up in front of the class and tell us what approach to use to read the book and what THE interpretation was. My senior year I began to love English again, we made uses of the lenses in order to interpret in our own way.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what would have happened if I did not have the second experience, would I be an English minor? would I have read like I used to? I guess lit theory can be a wonderful device and a great way to look at the world in different ways, but it can also be a destructive tool in the hands of the wrong teacher.