Literary Theory?

literarymind (William J.) and I have a question about incorporating literary theory into an English based classroom.

What are some strategies for approaching literary theory in a high school classroom?

Posted by: Brittany P. and William J.

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Permalink Reply by Mary Hricko on September 10, 2007 at 3:01pm

I teach African American Lit and each week I introduce literary theory that corresponds to the contextual elements of the texts as well as the time periods we are reviewing--for example, when we discuss the 1930s, we go over Marxist Literary theory, when we talk about the Black Arts Movement, we go over African American Literary Criticism and Feminist Literary Criticism--however, I encourage students to explore the theories that reflect their views of the text (Reader Response, Historical, Biographical etc) as well.

It's always good to work with a few different texts and ask students: How would a Feminist critic interpret this text? How would a Structuralist interpret this text? to show the students firsthand how a book can generate so many interpretations...if the specific elements of the text are used to coincide with the critical view.