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Personal Reflections on Teaching Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Extract

In An Essay Titled “The Future of Criticism,” Edward W. Said Made a Remark That I First Took to Be a Platitude: “Criticism exists only because critics practice it. It is neither an institution nor, strictly speaking, a discipline” (165). On further thought, I began to see the strength of this assertion and the implication that practices cultivate continuity and certain ways of seeing. People are in many ways products of their historical and cultural contexts. For example, while I initially resisted starting my reflections on teaching literature by discussing how I was taught the subject in my early years, I know that my story will be incomplete if I do not at least devote a paragraph or two to that experience.

Type
correspondents at large
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2016

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References

Works Cited

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Said, Edward W.The Future of Criticism.” “Reflections on Exileand Other Literary and Cultural Essays, Granta Books, 2001, pp. 165–72.Google Scholar
Zirimu, Pio, and Bukenya, Austin. “Oracy as a Skill and as a Tool for African Development.” 1977. Colloquium on Black Civilization and Education, Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, Lagos. Address.Google Scholar