Suggestions

A good start will be to think of literature in perspective, i.e., its evolution throughout the ages. Most
of the knowledge on this aspect, which you have got by taking comparative literature and literary
theory courses, will help.

For instance, you may want to consider the issue of mimesis as addressed by Aristotle and Plato, in
literature/art imitating the real, respectively the unreal.

You may also want to trace the three phases in the development of fiction from heroic epic poem,
through romances, to the modern novel.

http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/postmodernism

Youd want to trace, in British Literature, the development of the modern novel (18 th century on), the
various directions in which it developed from Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, to
Victorian and then Edwardian novelists, to the modernist, experimental novelists (Joyce, Faulkner,
Virginia Woolf).

In dealing with modernist poetry, I have already mentioned the importance held by Ezra Pound
(imagism, vorticism), as well as his catalytic role. Address in detail, for instance, T.S. Eliots poem The
Waste Land (there exists in the university library a very fine, 80-page study of the poem).

Youd want to stress the relationship between modernism and postmodernism, and feature their
characteristics. There is plenty of information on that, stressing on both the common features and
the dissimilarities of the two literary directions (the Internet may help a lot, but exert a lot of
restraint too, be highly selective).

I have already stated in class the major characteristics of modernism (see also the files on Joyces
Ulysses).

Here are some links to postmodernism (addressed from a general philosophical perspective and a
narrower, literary one):

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/#1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_literature

(The online edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica features a most instructive entry on
postmodernism! Check it!)

As for the general topic of American myths, this is a sensitive issue. First and foremost, try to figure
out what myth stands for in literature (aspects dealt with in your Comparative literature classes).
Mind the difference between the Old myths (such as the Greek-Roman ones, or the Judeo-Christian
ones), and the new myths (Don Juan, Werther, the Byronic hero, etc.). What is applicable to the
Old World (Europe) would not fit the New World (America) and its literature. One needs to
emphasize the creative effort made by American writers in dealing with the American realities and
ideals (ethos) for a mythic point of view. Start with the 3 fundamental American values (freedom,
equality of opportunities, and prosperity) which inform the American Dream, and then see how the
prices needed to be paid for these values (self-reliance, competition, and hard work) get themselves
emphasized/mirrored by various American writers).

We have plentifully dealt with Joyces parody-ridden, modernist approach to Greek mythic hero
Odysseus.

Heres a link to the posterity of that myth in 21 century fiction:

http://books.google.ro/books?
id=p85CnRBC91MC&pg=PR4&lpg=PP1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

(Read through the first article: The Shadow of Ulysses beyond 2001!)

On Magical Realism:

Start from this: http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/resourcebank/definitions/index.html

For the types of narrators and narrative techniques in the 20 th-century fiction, Id suggest the
following webpages (but also, as in the case of all the literary terms, the Penguin Dictionary of
Literary Terms):

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=types%20of
%20narrators&source=web&cd=13&cad=rja&ved=0CDYQFjACOAo&url=http%3A%2F
%2Fwww.carrollwooddayschool.org%2Fuploaded%2Fdocuments%2FElementsofFiction6-4-
10.pdf&ei=CXzMUYXiBMSTOLa-
gOAL&usg=AFQjCNGNbeShzxILz3bth4hIzNi7McjgYw&bvm=bv.48340889,bs.1,d.ZWU

The Theatre of the Absurd issues were plentifully addressed in Thursdays meeting! See also the
respective files sent to you!

On Laurence Sternes The Life and Opinions of TristramShandy:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=tristram
%20shandy&source=web&cd=45&ved=0CEAQFjAEOCg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theroundtable.ro
%2FCurrent%2FLiterary
%2FOana_Ivan_Tristram_Shandy_An_Original_and_Profound_English_Novel_of_the_Eighteenth_Ce
ntury.pdf&ei=AJHMUYb-Jc3GPcu4gegL&usg=AFQjCNHktUNsoiDmYty0XU7BrfLSpEiwSw

On humour in Sternes novel:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=tristram
%20shandy&source=web&cd=58&ved=0CFYQFjAHODI&url=http%3A%2F
%2Fdigitalcommons.mcmaster.ca%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D5959%26context
%3Dopendissertations&ei=zJHMUf7nMIaNOP6vgMAE&usg=AFQjCNFgGc7qkY00zcIn-NMpy-
iHqFmSJg

On philosophical issues in Sternes novel:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=tristram
%20shandy&source=web&cd=61&ved=0CCgQFjAAODw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.hil.unb.ca
%2Findex.php%2FIFR%2Farticle%2Fdownload
%2F13479%2F14562&ei=fZPMUdmRLcrdPbDIgIAC&usg=AFQjCNEnCJhfkVgGVIiTx7ADXtUaxw-lyQ

As for the methodology of teaching literature, Id say you have already plentiful of suggestions given.
Whatever you are asked to address theoretically is implicitly asked of you in view of teaching your
students: how to understand, analyze, and appreciate literature; how to use literary terms and
literary concepts; how to read literature in various (historical, social, religious, political, literary
contexts); how to enhance the students cultural awareness (as to American cultural values and their
getting mirrored in literature), etc.

Think about these being goals of literature classes you may want or you may have to teach (be they
optional courses only)! Think about effective strategies to teach literature, and think first and
foremost that, even when you teach literature, you still teach mainly English language.

Try to act creatively, to stir the students interest in literary issues, and consider interactive,
computer-based, Internet-supported classes. Let students discover a lot of the issues, untangle
apparent literary mysteries and debunk paradoxes, false myths/problems. Approach the teaching of
such classes heuristically. Make a goal of having the students involved in the class they are taught.

I think that, based on thorough, resourceful preparation of a literature class taught to your students,
any literary topics can be addressed in a manner that it makes sense to them. Dont oversimplify
issues, yet dont make them too complex either. First and foremost, let literature never be felt as
alien to the students or as further alienating them. Make teaching of literature a means for students
to learn more about human nature/condition, about themselves!

Start with general aesthetic values, and then go to their specific representations! Emphasize literary
directions, genres, and get students trained in handling correctly the literary terminology.