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- Title
American Literature Time Machine: Toward a Democratic Canon in the Undergraduate Survey Course.
- Authors
Thompson, Todd; Tonti, Kaitlin
- Abstract
Students often enter American literature survey courses feeling removed from and uninspired by the texts that are chosen for them to read in syllabi and in the chronological approach of most literature anthologies. In this essay, Kait and Todd propose and lay out an alternative way to approach and teach a pre-1900 American Literature survey course: through a non-chronological progression based on students' choices of what texts and units to cover at which point in the semester. The essay interrogates the "myth of coverage" endemic to all survey courses and suggests ways to surface often-elided issues of canon-making and anthology creation. Todd and Kait discuss the possibilities (and practical drawbacks) of attempting to empower American literature students to play a more active role in their education and to make connections between early American culture and their own lives.
- Publication
Teaching American Literature, 2017, Vol 8, Issue 4, p14
- ISSN
2150-3974
- Publication type
Academic Journal