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This book argues for the importance of literature studies using the historical debate between the disinterested disciplines ("art for art's sake") and utilitarian or productive disciplines. Forgoing the traditional argument that literature is a unique spiritual resource, as well as the utilitarian thought that literary pedagogy promotes skills that are relevant to a post-industrial economy, Guiney suggests that literary pedagogy must enable mutual access between the classroom and the outside world. It must recognize the need for every human being to become a conscious producer of culture rather than a consumer, through an active process of literary reading and writing. Using the history of French curricular reforms as a case study for his analysis, Guiney provides a contextualized redefinition of literature's social value.
List of contents
Introduction.- Chapter 1. Aristocrats or Anarchists: Who Has Power over Lite.- Chapter 2. The Baccalauréat Exam and the French Canonical Literary Exercise.- Chapter 3. Inventing and Defending the General Education of Literature.- Chapter 4. Literature in French Schools after 1968.- Chapter 5. How (Not) to Teach: "Parroting" vs "Proximity" in Cinematic Representations of Literary Pedagogy.- Chapter 6. Harnessing the Neoliberal Beast.
About the author
M. Martin Guiney is Professor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Kenyon College, USA. He has published on literary pedagogy in France and the United States, as well as on twentieth-century literature and film.
Summary
This book argues for the importance of literature studies using the historical debate between the disinterested disciplines (“art for art’s sake”) and utilitarian or productive disciplines. Forgoing the traditional argument that literature is a unique spiritual resource, as well as the utilitarian thought that literary pedagogy promotes skills that are relevant to a post-industrial economy, Guiney suggests that literary pedagogy must enable mutual access between the classroom and the outside world. It must recognize the need for every human being to become a conscious producer of culture rather than a consumer, through an active process of literary reading and writing. Using the history of French curricular reforms as a case study for his analysis, Guiney provides a contextualized redefinition of literature’s social value.
