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- Title
Teaching American Literature Inside the Box: A Narrative-Based Approach to Instruction.
- Authors
Irvine, Colin
- Abstract
In 1863, Gustav Freytag put forward his famous pyramid as a means of illustrating the outline of a typical plot. This relatively simple way of presenting literature's "shape" echoed Aristotle' ideas regarding the unity of action and, in so doing, reinforced the proposition that we can ascribe physical form to abstract constructs. Fast-forward nearly 150 years to a time when theorists agree with nearly complete consensus that narrative worlds are more complicated than either Aristotle's ideas or Freytag's pyramid would suggest, and we discover that old habits die hard. Though texts present readers with elastic, non-linear chronotopes, many secondary-level educators continue to address these works in conversation with students as though they are static, flat, and essentially similar to the real one readers occupy when not immersed in storyworlds. However, teachers can now draw upon the ideas of William Nelles, Marie-Laure Ryan, and others when developing methods to enable readers to explore important story/discourse distinctions. With the help of narrative concepts and visual re-presentations of discourse, we can offer students - especially those whose first language differs from that of the instructor - strategies for mapping a range of classic, surprisingly complex American literary texts and non-literary but highly involved issues and concepts. This essay thus presents the results of efforts to help students demonstrate and deepen their understanding of texts such as.
- Subjects
STUDY &; teaching of American literature; INSTRUCTIONAL innovations; TEACHING aids; FREYTAG, Gustav, 1816-1895; ARISTOTLE, 384-322 B.C.
- Publication
Teaching American Literature, 2014, Vol 7, Issue 1/2, p53
- ISSN
2150-3974
- Publication type
Essay