Saturday, February 06, 2021
Teaching Literature
Roger Shattuck (1923-2005), "How to Rescue Literature," The New York Review of Books (April 17, 1980):
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And in the domain of teaching literature which concerns us here, I would also favor certain kinds of exercises—busy work even—that have fallen totally out of favor: word for word copying, dictation, reading aloud, summarizing (précis writing), memorizing, and translation. All of these activities enforce close attention to what a piece of writing is actually doing without requiring an elaborate theory of literature to begin with. Reciting aloud, in particular, impresses me as both a fruitful form of reading and a sturdy antidote to some of the abuses I have been discussing.Hat tip: Archie Goodwin.
