Viewing Literature as More Than "Intellectual Artifact"

"She saw her job as the teaching of skills and terms and techniques. The students wanted to address the moral dilemmas presented in the story. Their instincts and inclinations led them to talk about the intense pressure to succeed that comes to bear upon them […] But their teacher wanted to conduct a recitation on the three techniques of characterization.”

Probst, R. (1988). Dialogue with a text. English Journal, 77(1).

“Part of the problem of students’ dislike of classic literature may—I’m hedging here—lie in outmoded and uninspiring methods of teaching that literature, an overweening focus on literary history and biography, for example; hunts for obscure symbols; lit crit kinds of activities that tease out tensions and ironies but make the book an intellectual artifact and not a living, breathing, meaningful, powerful, and potentially life-changing force for its readers.”

Hipple, T. (1996 ). It’s the that, teacher. English Journal, 86(3).


The teacher Probst refers to in this quotation is almost certainly me. I became so caught up in teaching my students theme and figurative language that I think I sucked all the fun out of reading. My students certainly viewed our books as “intellectual artifacts” as opposed to a “living, breathing force” (Hipple, p.16, 1996). I think as a first year teacher without any curriculum guidance, I was so eager to be legitimate and teach my students tangible English concepts that I forgot the whole reason I went into teaching in the first place: to foster a love of reading. Without any real information about what my students were meant to learn, I latched onto the idea of literary terms and ran with it. But towards then end of the year, I had an empty feeling. What did it matter that my students were able to identify hyperbole?

The problem is I don’t feel as though my students have the “instinct or inclination” Probst mentions to always make personal connections with text in class discussion(Probst, p.33 , 1988). When I did try to discuss the issues characters face with the class in relation to their own lives it usually fell flat. There were few times when my class was engaged in a riveting discussion of a novel at all. Perhaps I am asking the wrong question, or not creating the right environment that would allow students to feel that emotional responses, rather than intellectual responses, are welcome. Sometime my “do now” prompts, which were almost always a personal question related to a theme in the text, would elicit so much argument and discussion I would become frustrated and shut down the discussion. I know students love talking about themselves, but arguing over what features you look for in a significant other without any connection to any discussion of literature made me uneasy. I need to find a way to have that energetic discussion in relation to the novel. Most importantly, I want to figure out how to make reading more a process of “making meaning about their own lives” and consideration of life and humanity rather than a means through which one learns literary elements. I loved English class because “of all the arts, literature is most immediately implicated with life itself” (as cited in Probst, p.34, 1998). If my students did was to recognize or sense this aspect of literature I would be thrilled.