Literature and Education – serie

Literature and Understanding investigates the cognitive gain from literature by focussing on a reader’s close analysis of a literary text. It examines the meaning of ‘literature’, outlines the most prominent positions in the literary cognitivism debate, explores the practice of close reading from a philosophical perspective, provides a fresh account of what we mean by ‘understanding’ and in so doing opens up a new area of research in the philosophy of literature.This book provides a different reply to the challenge that we can’t learn anything worthwhile from reading literary fiction. It makes the innovative case that reading literary fiction as literature rather than as fiction stimulates five relevant senses of understanding. The book uses examples of irony, metaphor, play with perspective and ambiguity to illustrate this contention. Before arguing that these five senses of understanding bridge the gap between our understanding of a literary text and our understanding of the world beyond that text.The book will be of great interest for researchers, scholars and post-graduate students in the fields of aesthetics, literary theory, literature in education and pedagogy.

This innovative book explores links between literature and videogames, and how designing and playing games can transform our understanding of literature. It shows how studying literature through the lens of videogames can provide new insights into narrative and creative engagement with the text. The book sets out theories of narrative aesthetics and multimodality in literature and videogames, alongside models of literacy needed for such cultural and creative engagement. It goes on to examine game adaptations of children’s literature; and a series of videogames made by students based on Beowulf and Macbeth. In each case, the book considers ways in which the original text has been transformed by the process of game design, and what fresh light this casts on the literary narrative. It also considers what kind of learning, creative production, and cultural engagement is apparent in the game designs and emphasises the importance of treating games as a narrative medium in their own right. With a unique approach to the aesthetics of narrative in literature and videogames, the book will be of great interest to researchers, academics, and post-graduate students in the fields of literature, pedagogy, and game studies.

While engaging with the current political-educational climate of England, this book offers a timely contribution to debates around questions of knowledge in relation to education and school-level English by drawing together theories of individual and disciplinary knowledge.The book provides a philosophical conception of knowledge – as fundamentally embodied at the level of the individual, and a matter of cultural form at the level of shared or "common" knowledge – and an analysis of the implications of this for schooled English. The research draws from various related fields including literary criticism, philosophy (of knowledge and of symbolic form), and phenomenology. The book rethinks general notions of knowledge and lays out the problems that exist within knowledge and language systems in education, especially secondary and university levels. This highly relevant and informative book offers an insightful resource for academics, researchers, and post-graduate students in the fields of education studies, educational policy and politics, philosophy of education, and literature studies.

Literature and Understanding investigates the cognitive gain from literature by focussing on a reader’s close analysis of a literary text. It examines the meaning of ‘literature’, outlines the most prominent positions in the literary cognitivism debate, explores the practice of close reading from a philosophical perspective, provides a fresh account of what we mean by ‘understanding’ and in so doing opens up a new area of research in the philosophy of literature.This book provides a different reply to the challenge that we can’t learn anything worthwhile from reading literary fiction. It makes the innovative case that reading literary fiction as literature rather than as fiction stimulates five relevant senses of understanding. The book uses examples of irony, metaphor, play with perspective and ambiguity to illustrate this contention. Before arguing that these five senses of understanding bridge the gap between our understanding of a literary text and our understanding of the world beyond that text.The book will be of great interest for researchers, scholars and post-graduate students in the fields of aesthetics, literary theory, literature in education and pedagogy.

This book offers a pivotal re-evaluation of English teaching one century on from The Newbolt Report of 1921, responding to this seminal work and exploring its impact on issues and contemporary aims of English teaching today.Bringing together a range of experts in English higher education, the book provides a twenty-first century inflection on the enduring issues highlighted by Newbolt’s original report. It examines topics including the demands of assessment, the narrowing of the literary curriculum, the impact of education reform, targets related to social mobility, class and widening participation, as well as broader questions about the function of literature and the arts in education. Chapters also consider issues surrounding the promotion of community cohesion, diversity and how technological advances might reshape literary education.This unique re-evaluation of the achievements and findings of the Newbolt Commission will be essential reading for those researching English education and the history of education.

This book offers a pivotal re-evaluation of English teaching one century on from The Newbolt Report of 1921, responding to this seminal work and exploring its impact on issues and contemporary aims of English teaching today.Bringing together a range of experts in English higher education, the book provides a twenty-first century inflection on the enduring issues highlighted by Newbolt’s original report. It examines topics including the demands of assessment, the narrowing of the literary curriculum, the impact of education reform, targets related to social mobility, class and widening participation, as well as broader questions about the function of literature and the arts in education. Chapters also consider issues surrounding the promotion of community cohesion, diversity and how technological advances might reshape literary education.This unique re-evaluation of the achievements and findings of the Newbolt Commission will be essential reading for those researching English education and the history of education.

James Joyce and Education is the first full-length study of education across the Joyce oeuvre. A new account of how the politics and aesthetics of the Joyce text is informed by historical contexts, it is the latest contribution to the growing contemporary debate about education, late modernism and literary innovation.This highly original account reads Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake in new and challenging ways. It produces the Joyce text as a complex and comic devotion to the representation of schooled education — an exemplification of the elitism that state schooling was historically designed to reproduce and a devastating undoing of the epistemologies it was designed to sustain. Chapters explore a range of themes, including Joyce and radical education, the impact of Nietzsche’s writing on Joyce and women and education.The book will appeal to researchers, scholars and postgraduate students in the fields of literature in education, pedagogy, Joyce scholarship and modernism.

This book presents an exploration of how Golden Age detective fiction encounters educational ideas, particularly those forged by the transformative educational policymaking of the interwar period.Charting the educational policy and provision of the era, and referring to works by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edmund Crispin and others, this book explores the educational capacity and agency of literary detectives, the learning spaces of the genre and the kinds of knowledge that are made available to inquirers both inside and outside the text. It is argued that the genre explores a range of contemporaneous propositions on the balance between academic curriculum and practicum, length of school life and the value of lifelong learning. This book’s closing chapter considers the continuing pedagogic value for contemporary classrooms of engaging with the genre as a rich discursive and imaginative space for exploring educational ideas.Framing Golden Age detective fiction as a genre profoundly concerned with learning, this book will be highly relevant reading for academics, postgraduate students and scholars involved in the fields of English language arts, twentieth-century literature and the theories of learning more broadly. Those interested in detective fiction and interdisciplinary literary studies will also find the volume of interest.

This book presents an exploration of how Golden Age detective fiction encounters educational ideas, particularly those forged by the transformative educational policymaking of the interwar period.Charting the educational policy and provision of the era, and referring to works by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edmund Crispin and others, this book explores the educational capacity and agency of literary detectives, the learning spaces of the genre and the kinds of knowledge that are made available to inquirers both inside and outside the text. It is argued that the genre explores a range of contemporaneous propositions on the balance between academic curriculum and practicum, length of school life and the value of lifelong learning. This book’s closing chapter considers the continuing pedagogic value for contemporary classrooms of engaging with the genre as a rich discursive and imaginative space for exploring educational ideas.Framing Golden Age detective fiction as a genre profoundly concerned with learning, this book will be highly relevant reading for academics, postgraduate students and scholars involved in the fields of English language arts, twentieth-century literature and the theories of learning more broadly. Those interested in detective fiction and interdisciplinary literary studies will also find the volume of interest.

James Joyce and Education is the first full-length study of education across the Joyce oeuvre. A new account of how the politics and aesthetics of the Joyce text is informed by historical contexts, it is the latest contribution to the growing contemporary debate about education, late modernism and literary innovation.This highly original account reads Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake in new and challenging ways. It produces the Joyce text as a complex and comic devotion to the representation of schooled education — an exemplification of the elitism that state schooling was historically designed to reproduce and a devastating undoing of the epistemologies it was designed to sustain. Chapters explore a range of themes, including Joyce and radical education, the impact of Nietzsche’s writing on Joyce and women and education.The book will appeal to researchers, scholars and postgraduate students in the fields of literature in education, pedagogy, Joyce scholarship and modernism.

George Orwell and Education uses Orwell’s life and works to address current educational questions. His early life, political awakening and artistic development are key elements in the book’s presentation of Orwell himself as a learner, and as someone whose ideas continue to speak to contemporary debates about human interdependency.The focus of the book is on critical issues in education, including the idea of universality, the status of young people and the nature of learning. Orwell’s efforts to conceptualise, and artistically realise his own experience, create a platform for exploring current educational issues in their philosophical and political contexts. This book will encourage a reimagining of, and stimulate debate about an idea of education that is less individualistic, pays greater attention to human mutuality, is politically engaged and ultimately more sustainable. The book will appeal to researchers, scholars and post-graduate students in the fields of literature in education, pedagogy, educational philosophy, literary theory, citizenship and youth and community.

This innovative book explores links between literature and videogames, and how designing and playing games can transform our understanding of literature. It shows how studying literature through the lens of videogames can provide new insights into narrative and creative engagement with the text. The book sets out theories of narrative aesthetics and multimodality in literature and videogames, alongside models of literacy needed for such cultural and creative engagement. It goes on to examine game adaptations of children’s literature; and a series of videogames made by students based on Beowulf and Macbeth. In each case, the book considers ways in which the original text has been transformed by the process of game design, and what fresh light this casts on the literary narrative. It also considers what kind of learning, creative production, and cultural engagement is apparent in the game designs and emphasises the importance of treating games as a narrative medium in their own right. With a unique approach to the aesthetics of narrative in literature and videogames, the book will be of great interest to researchers, academics, and post-graduate students in the fields of literature, pedagogy, and game studies.

This volume captures the diverse ways in which Shakespeare interacts with educational theory and practice. It explores the depiction of learning and education in the plays, the role of Shakespeare as pedagogue, and ways in which the teaching of Shakespeare can facilitate discussion of some of the urgent questions of modern times. The book offers a wide range of perspectives – historical, theoretical, theatrical. The Renaissance humanist learning underpinning Shakespeare’s own work is explored in essays that consider how the complexity of Shakespeare’s drama challenges early-modern pedagogical orthodoxies. From close analysis of individual, solitary reflection on Shakespeare’s writing, the book moves outward to engage with contemporary social issues around inclusivity, society, and the planet, demonstrating the many educational contexts in which Shakespeare is currently appropriated. Engaging with current questions of the value of literary study, the book testifies to the potentialities of an empowering Shakespearean pedagogy. Bringing together voices from a variety of institutions and from a wide range of educational perspectives, this volume will be essential reading for academics, researchers and post-graduate students of Shakespeare, literature in education, pedagogy and literary theory.

This volume captures the diverse ways in which Shakespeare interacts with educational theory and practice. It explores the depiction of learning and education in the plays, the role of Shakespeare as pedagogue, and ways in which the teaching of Shakespeare can facilitate discussion of some of the urgent questions of modern times. The book offers a wide range of perspectives – historical, theoretical, theatrical. The Renaissance humanist learning underpinning Shakespeare’s own work is explored in essays that consider how the complexity of Shakespeare’s drama challenges early-modern pedagogical orthodoxies. From close analysis of individual, solitary reflection on Shakespeare’s writing, the book moves outward to engage with contemporary social issues around inclusivity, society, and the planet, demonstrating the many educational contexts in which Shakespeare is currently appropriated. Engaging with current questions of the value of literary study, the book testifies to the potentialities of an empowering Shakespearean pedagogy. Bringing together voices from a variety of institutions and from a wide range of educational perspectives, this volume will be essential reading for academics, researchers and post-graduate students of Shakespeare, literature in education, pedagogy and literary theory.

George Orwell and Education uses Orwell’s life and works to address current educational questions. His early life, political awakening and artistic development are key elements in the book’s presentation of Orwell himself as a learner, and as someone whose ideas continue to speak to contemporary debates about human interdependency.The focus of the book is on critical issues in education, including the idea of universality, the status of young people and the nature of learning. Orwell’s efforts to conceptualise, and artistically realise his own experience, create a platform for exploring current educational issues in their philosophical and political contexts. This book will encourage a reimagining of, and stimulate debate about an idea of education that is less individualistic, pays greater attention to human mutuality, is politically engaged and ultimately more sustainable. The book will appeal to researchers, scholars and post-graduate students in the fields of literature in education, pedagogy, educational philosophy, literary theory, citizenship and youth and community.

While engaging with the current political-educational climate of England, this book offers a timely contribution to debates around questions of knowledge in relation to education and school-level English by drawing together theories of individual and disciplinary knowledge.The book provides a philosophical conception of knowledge – as fundamentally embodied at the level of the individual, and a matter of cultural form at the level of shared or "common" knowledge – and an analysis of the implications of this for schooled English. The research draws from various related fields including literary criticism, philosophy (of knowledge and of symbolic form), and phenomenology. The book rethinks general notions of knowledge and lays out the problems that exist within knowledge and language systems in education, especially secondary and university levels. This highly relevant and informative book offers an insightful resource for academics, researchers, and post-graduate students in the fields of education studies, educational policy and politics, philosophy of education, and literature studies.

This book brings together the works of the nineteenth and twentieth century writers Henry David Thoreau and Anna Shepherd. Finding in their work a common approach of poetic forms of writing that enact kinds of environmental activism, the book re-positions them in the context of current environmental crises by offering an original resource for supporting poetic environmental activism in educational contexts.Bringing together scholarship from North America and Europe, the book draws on Thoreau and Shepherd’s literary and philosophical sources to support a conceptual understanding of education’s role in how we think about, understand, and tackle the climate crisis. Chapters trace the idea of poetic environmental activism in Thoreau and Shepherd, applying literary and environmental thought to educational practice and contexts. The book is timely in taking a scholarly approach that explores educational engagements with climate change and focuses on education for environmental sustainability.Advocating for engagement with the climate emergency through the lens of poetic environmental activism, this volume will appeal to postgraduate students, researchers, and scholars involved with sustainability education, philosophy of education, poetic inquiry, and literary theory for environmental action.