Canons and Contexts

by Lauter, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780195068320
• ISBN10: 0195068327
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-03-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This collection of essays places issues central to literary study, particularly the question of the canon, in the context of institutional practices in American colleges and universities. Lauter addresses such crucial concerns as what students should read and study, how standards of "quality" are defined and changed, the limits of theoretical discourse, and the ways race, gender, and class shape not only teaching, curricula, and research priorities, but collegiate personnel actions as well. The book examines critically the variety of recent proposals for "reforming" higher education, and it calls into question many practices, like employing large numbers of part-timers, now popular with college managers. Offering concrete examples of a "comparative" method for teaching literary texts, and specific instances about "integrating" curricula, Canons and Contexts proposes realistic ideas for creating varied, spirited, and democratic classrooms and colleges.

Author Biography

Paul Lauter is Allan K. and Gwendolyn Miles Smith Professor of Literature at Trinity College and coordinating editor of the new Heath Anthology of American Literature.

Table of Contents

The Canon and the Literary Profession
Society and the Profession, 1958-83	p. 3
Race and Gender in the Shaping of the American Literary Canon: A Case Study from the Twenties	p. 22
The Literatures of America--A Comparative Discipline	p. 48
Reconstructing American Literature--Curricular Issues	p. 97
Teaching Nineteenth-Century American Woman Writers	p. 114
The Two Criticisms--or, Structure, Lingo, and Power in the Discourse of Academic Humanists	p. 133
Canon Theory and Emergent Practice	p. 154
The University and The Republic
Retrenchment--What the Managers Are Doing	p. 175
A Scandalous Misuse of Faculty--Adjuncts	p. 198
Beyond Consciousness Raising--Changing Institutions	p. 210
University Reform--Threat or Opportunity	p. 225
Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth	p. 243
Whose Culture? Whose Literacy?	p. 256
The Book of Bloom and the Discourse of Difference	p. 272
Index	p. 287
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