Like letters in running water : a mythopoetics of curriculum / Mary Aswell Doll.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Doll, Mary Aswell.

Series:

Studies in curriculum theory

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature--Study and teaching.

Literature.

Myth in literature.

Education--Curricula--Philosophy.

Education.

Education--Curricula.

Physical Description:

xix, 253 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Mahwah, N.J. : L. Erlbaum Publishers, 2000.

Summary:

Like Letters in Runninq Water explores ways in which fiction (prose, drama, poetry, myth, fairytale) yields transformative insights for educational theory and practice. Through a series of intensely original, powerful essays drawing on curriculum theory, literary analysis, psychology, and feminist theory and practice, Doll seeks to confront a commonly held bias that reading literary fictions is "mere" entertainment (not a learning experience). She suggests that fiction has immense teaching power because it connects readers with their alliances within themselves and this connection attends to social, outer issues addressed by traditional pedagogies with greater, deeper awareness. Her elaboration in this book of the concept of currere -- the lived experience of curriculum -- through literature, drama, and myth is a major contribution to the field of curriculum theory.

Contents:

Preface: Yin and Yang vii

Introduction: Fiction as Food x

I Like Letters Carved in Rock

1 The Character of Wood or Brick 9

2 Cold Eyes, Steel Bits, and Metal Ovens: Havens of Hate 24

3 Bluebeard's Cellar: A Native Son's Underworld 45

4 "All Pulp Removed": Sexual Repression's Revenge 67

II Like Letters Written in Sand

5 Good Girls/Bad Girls 87

6 The Glass Coffin 98

7 The P(r)ose of Clothes 116

8 Light Daughter/Dark Goddess 131

III Like Letters Written in Running Water

9 The Suchness of Suffering 149

10 Circles, Loops, and the Wheel of Comedy 167

11 Spider Woman 189

12 Vegetative Fantasy and the Greening of Imagination 202.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 218-238) and indexes.

ISBN:

0805829849

0805829857

OCLC:

43095822