Book Description

Telling stories from secondary and college English classrooms, this book explores the new possibilities for teaching and learning generated by bringing together reader-response and cultural-studies approaches. The book connects William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and other canonical figures to multicultural writers, popular culture, film, testimonial, politics, history, and issues relevant to contemporary youth. Each chapter contains brief explications of literary scholarship and theory, and each is followed by extensive annotated bibliographies of multicultural literature, approachable scholarship and theory, and relevant Internet sites. Each chapter also contains descriptions of classroom units and activities focusing on a particular theme, such as genocide, homelessness, race, gender, youth violence, (post)colonialism, class relations, and censorship; and discussion of ways in which students often respond to such "hot-button" topics. Chapters in the book are: (1) A Course in Contemporary World Literature; (2) Teaching about Homelessness; (3) Genderizing the Curriculum: A Personal Journey; (4) Addressing the Youth Violence Crisis; (5) Shakespeare and the New Multicultural British and World Literatures; (6) "Huckleberry Finn" and the Issue of Race in Today's Classroom; (7) Testimonial, Autoethnography, and the Future of English; and (8) Conclusion. Contains approximately 350 references. Appendixes contain an email exchange between the author and a first year, inner-city teacher; a note to teachers on the truth of Rigoberta Menchu's testimonial; a brief account of philology; a 13-item annotated bibliography of readings in literary theory for English teachers; and lists of web sites exploring literary theory and cultural studies, supporting literature teaching, and for new teachers. (NKA)