Appleman, Chapter 8 - Critical Encounters: Reading the World

This chapter really puts the rest of the text together. If I doubted the book or the use of literary theory in the secondary classroom to this point, The final chapter put those doubts to rest.

There are two points Appleman makes which are important to understanding the usefulness of literary theory: 1) using multiple literary theories gives students the ability to read a text in multiple ways, and 2) literary theories offer a way for students to "read" their world.

To the first point, I think it would be a mistake to teach only one literary theory in a secondary classroom. One theory would force students into a mold they would not necessarily fit. When we witness student resistance to feminism or Marxism, we shouldn't just dismiss it as narrow-mindedness. However, by teaching students multiple theories, they can see that certain theories work better to understand a certain text and that certain theories fit certain personalities and backgrounds. I keep remembering that teaching no theory is still teaching theory - in fact, it's probably New Criticism.

To the second point, if we're not preparing our students for the world beyond our classrooms, then we are only doing half our job. We need to give them tools for interpreting their world so they can interact with it in an intelligent manner. Literary theory seems to be an excellent tool for students to use.

The final exercise students did, where they brought in cultural artifacts from their worlds so the class could analyze them, was a perfect way to transfer a knowledge set from one mode (literary interpretation) to another mode (cultural studies).

I am happy with this text as a tool for future English teachers. If nothing else, it has some great examples of activities we could make use of in our classrooms.