Lesson 9: The Importance of Literature
-reading should not be the only reason we read is to consume information, but we should be reading because it gives something back to us as the reader
-K-12 education: the role that literature will play in helping to shape the habit of mind for our children, perhaps even a disposition of their soul towards literature itself
Why study literature?
-As teachers, we need to ask students why are we doing this?
-Why reader Homer, Virgil, Chaucer,
-there is something human in all these ages and cultures
-when you open a book, it is a conversation between the author and reader
-encounter the ideas that have shaped civilizations, theological ideas, philosophical ideas, and that sense of wonder
-literature can open to learning something of themselves
****we read literature to enter the world of the writers like Homer, Shakespeare, and Dostoevsky
-we read it to be able to engage in their own moral or maybe even their immoral imagination
-we try to encounter what it is they’re wrestling with, with regards to the human soul, to the interaction between human person and human person, to relationships of the divine and the human
-we play by their rules in this universe
-we may not like their rules and the universe which they present to us
-we learn by them: poetic techniques
-we learn how they craft their stories
-this brings us into such intimacy with these authors
-it transforms the literature when you learn how these poets, how these novelists, how these playwrights craft their stories
-you are no longer just encountering a world in Homer and Dostoevsky, Shakespear, in Julian of Norwich
-you are just not encountering a world, but you are encountering a human person
-not just the author, but the literature takes on a face, so the literature itself has almost a personality as it tries to express itself to you
-the beauty: a piece of literature is somewhat like a river as it is always changing, always moving, always something new in the bends like a river
-it expands to more than just a world or universe, but it’s like a human person that you enter into a relationship with it as it changes along with you
Ex. the Odysseus I met when I was 20 is very different from the Odysseus I met when I was 40
-literature changes, why?, because we change so we become close to this or that piece of literature
-we need to dig deeper than just the big ideas
Ex. AI pulls up the big ideas when you google Shakespeare
Ex. do we just learn big ideas to make for great classroom debates to just discuss those big ideas
How to study literature? (what is our approach to literature)
The negative way:
-these are foundational, but as secondary
-don’t study literature to see the work as a historical or cultural artifact
-we don’t study Homer to learn something about ancient Greece
-we don’t study Shakespeare simply to learn something about Renaissance England
-we don’t study Dostoevsky to learn something about 19th century Russia
-we gain insights into these historical time periods and these cultures
-one can learn something about that piece of literature through studying 19th century Russia
-literature should not be isolated in a vacuum
-there is nothing wrong with learning from culture or its historical setting
-these should not be the primary reason we study literature because it is not simply an object of history or object of culture
Step1:
-not a historical/cultural artifact
Step 2:
-don’t approach literature as a foundational way or fundamental approach
***Our primary reason for studying literature is not to reflect on our own culture or get students to reflect on themselves or their own lives
-literature doesn’t become relevant if it’s all about me
-today: what can I learn about myself, what can I learn about my own contemporary culture in reading Shakespear’s Merchant of Venice
-mistake: teachers go to the historical or cultural answer to justify reading literature because it provides immediate significance like a wellspring of information about ancient Greece
-mistake: teachers point to learning about yourselves, like relating it to your own lives; a fight scene to the students own family fights Ex. King Lear teaches about sibling rivalry, family hatred, jealousy, etc…
-learning about yourself in literature is the cause for reading literature not the primary reason for reading literature
Step 3:
-we do not read literature for a fundamental reason of a moral lesson from a piece of literature
-we do not read Homer’s Odyssey as if it were a fable
-literature is not there to instruct us on how to live that good life
-literature does touch on moral and ethical decisions you may make on a day-to-day basis are informed by pieces of literature
-literature doesn’t not pull out of you a personal or contemporary cultural reflection
How to teach students to read literature:
-important to define those big ideas for students, but the focus/attention should be the way the literature presents and wrestles with the ideas
-we have to ask questions about recurring images, repetitions of lines
-we need to ask about the details in a poem, a text, and why it is arranged in this way
-we have to respect these works by engaging in the particulars and in the specifics
-Poet: the wonder comes in the craft of the composer
-if a piece of literature moves you then you enter into the wonder, the importance of literature,
-***A real human person with a real human brain and a real human soul produced this, wrestled with him or herself in producing this and it is there in that work that what we want to encounter, that kind of poetic vision of the author
****Question: How do these authors move us so? Not because of the big ideas
-but, because of the use of the language which they use to express whatever it is those characters are going through
-it is difficult to relate to a historical time period, or to relate it to themselves and their own experience
-we need to teach students to be actively silent and pensive
-to read a passage and then reread it and meditate upon it
-we want to create in our students a habit of always thinking that there is something more
-ask the question: What is the author doing here?
-teach students how to read through texts
-read works seriously and deliberately because you are entering a world of wonder
-wonder = habit of the mind and the disposition of the soul
-reading a book should not just be to finish a book report
-reading takes listening and contemplation
-remind students that I am the teacher, but I am going to get out of the way of the piece of literature
-assignments and assessment should teach students to wrestle with Homer
-thinking through literature takes patience on the part of students
-contemplating literature takes hard work
-it takes training students to sit in the silence and allow the piece of literature to speak not being spoonfeed knowledge by the teacher
-text: as students push into the literature; the literature pushes back like a conversation or a relationship
-there are very few black and white characters in literature
-we can’t dictate what a piece of literature will give to each of us
Teacher:
-must also wrestle with the texts
-dedicate yourself to rereading the texts with your students
-keep literature fresh so wrestle with it immediately
-if these are real human persons, turns out you have to talk to them, and allow them to talk back to you
-how do you explain to students that there is a habit of thoughtfulness, habit of meditation if as teachers we are not doing the same
-we need to model for them what a careful reader looks like
-they aren’t going to know who to read literature until you teach them those skills
-then you can go into why we study literature
-if we aren’t modeling for them they will not grow as students
Ex. Big Ideas:
-homecoming in the Odyssey
-homecoming in the Wind in the Willows
-now let us enter into the world of wonder
-work through it with each of these characters
Odyssey:
-Poetic level the author reunites the two characters
-they both weep-Odyssey was gone for 20 years-weeps over the lost time
Wind in the Willows:
-Mole and rat are returning home
-mole finds his old home
-mole reflects on his home-the home was missing him
-loyalty to his friend rat-left his home again to be with rat
-book about friendship and loyalty