Teaching Tainted Lit : Popular American Fiction in Today's Classroom / edited by Janet G. Casey.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Casey, Janet Galligani, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature and society--United States.

Literature and society.

Popular literature--United States--History and criticism.

Popular literature.

American fiction--History and criticism.

American fiction.

American literature--Study and teaching.

American literature.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (247 p.)

Place of Publication:

Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Popular American fiction has now secured a routine position in the higher education classroom despite its historic status as culturally suspect. This newfound respect and inclusion have almost certainly changed the pedagogical landscape, and Teaching Tainted Lit explores that altered terrain. If the academy has historically ignored, or even sneered at, the popular, then its new accommodation within the framework of college English is noteworthy: surely the popular introduces both pleasures and problems that did not exist when faculty exclusively taught literature from an established "high" canon. How, then, does the assumption that the popular matters affect teaching strategies, classroom climates, and both personal and institutional notions about what it means to study literature?The essays in this collection presume that the popular is here to stay and that its instructive implications are not merely noteworthy, but richly nuanced and deeply compelling. They address a broad variety of issues concerning canonicity, literature, genre, and the classroom, as its contributors teach everything from Stephen King and Lady Gaga to nineteenth-century dime novels and the 1852 best-seller Uncle Tom's Cabin.It is no secret that teaching popular texts fuels controversies about the value of cultural studies, the alleged relaxation of aesthetic standards, and the possible "dumbing down" of Americans. By implicitly and explicitly addressing such contentious issues, these essays invite a broader conversation about the place of the popular not only in higher education but in the reading lives of all Americans.

Contents:

Contents; Introduction: Reading, Pedagogy, and Tainted Lit - Janet G. Casey; Nineteenth-Century Popular Texts and Canon Considerations; "You Will Observe . . .": Letting Lippard Teach - Melissa Gniadek; "Canons of Nineteenth-Century American Literature": How to Use Literature Circles to Teach Popular, Underrepresented, and Canonical Literary Traditions - Randi Lynn Tanglen; Gender, Romance, and Resisting Readers; "One Would Die Rather Than Speak... about Such Subjects": Exploring Class, Gender, and Hegemony in Anya Seton's Dragonwyck - Kathleen M. Therrien

Sneaking It In at the End: Teaching Popular Romance in the Liberal Arts Classroom - Antonia LosanoRace, Region, and Genre in Popular Texts; Chick Lit and Southern Studies - Jolene Hubbs; "A Right to Be Hostile": Black Cultural Traffic in the Classroom - Richard Schur; Gothic, Then and Now; Teaching Bad Romance: Poe's Women, the Gothic, and Lady Gaga - Derek McGrath; Crossing the Barrier: An Active-Text Approach to Teaching Pet Sematary - Alissa Burger; Teaching the Popular through Visual Culture

The Literature of Attractions: Teaching the Popular Fiction of the 1890s through Early Cinema - Michael DevineThomas Chalmers Harbaugh's Dime Novel Westerns and Video Game Narratives - Lisa Long; Appendix: Supplement to Tanglen Essay; Notes; Works Cited; Contributors; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781609383749

1609383745

OCLC:

921122553