As one reads more deeply into this book, it becomes clear Prior is addressing high school teachers and professors of introductory English classes at least as much as students. She implicitly recognizes that too many academics drag students through lowest-common-denominator exercises in postmodern drudgery and indoctrination. They simply lack the experience with which to light up a classroom with excitement about language or debate about the moral issues raised by the world’s greatest writers.
Sunday, October 14, 2018
An important skill …
… On Reading 'On Reading Well'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
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"She implicitly recognizes that too many academics drag students through lowest-common-denominator exercises in postmodern drudgery and indoctrination."
ReplyDeleteDrudgery has been around since long before the term "postmodern" was coined. It speaks to the greatness of some of the writers anthologized in the high school texts that they managed to make their work felt through the conditions of high school classes.
I guess that must be so, though I don't myself remember feeling any drudgery in my high school English classes. Or my college classes for that matter. I do think that "literary theory" is of dubious worth.
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