A passionate, wry, and personal book about how the greatest works of literature illuminate our lives Why do we read literature? For Arnold Weinstein, the answer is clear: literature allows us to become someone else. Literature changes us by giving us intimate access to an astonishing variety of other lives, experiences, and places across the ages. Reflecting on a lifetime of reading, teaching, and writing, The Lives of Literature explores, with passion, humor, and whirring intellect, a professor’s life, the thrills and traps of teaching, and, most of all, the power of literature to lead us to a deeper understanding of ourselves and the worlds we inhabit. As an identical twin, Weinstein experienced early the dislocation of being mistaken for another person—and of feeling that he might be someone other than he had thought. In vivid readings elucidating the classics of authors ranging from Sophocles to James Joyce and Toni Morrison, he explores what we learn by identifying with their protagonists, including those who, undone by wreckage and loss, discover that all their beliefs are illusions. Weinstein masterfully argues that literature’s knowing differs entirely from what one ends up knowing when studying mathematics or physics or even history: by entering these characters’ lives, readers acquire a unique form of knowledge—and come to understand its cost. In The Lives of Literature, a master writer and teacher shares his love of the books that he has taught and been taught by, showing us that literature matters because we never stop discovering who we are.

Telling stories from secondary and college English classrooms, this book explores the new possibilities for teaching and learning generated by bringing together reader-response and cultural-studies approaches. The book connects William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and other canonical figures to multicultural writers, popular culture, film, testimonial, politics, history, and issues relevant to contemporary youth. Each chapter contains brief explications of literary scholarship and theory, and each is followed by extensive annotated bibliographies of multicultural literature, approachable scholarship and theory, and relevant Internet sites. Each chapter also contains descriptions of classroom units and activities focusing on a particular theme, such as genocide, homelessness, race, gender, youth violence, (post)colonialism, class relations, and censorship; and discussion of ways in which students often respond to such "hot-button" topics. Chapters in the book are: (1) A Course in Contemporary World Literature; (2) Teaching about Homelessness; (3) Genderizing the Curriculum: A Personal Journey; (4) Addressing the Youth Violence Crisis; (5) Shakespeare and the New Multicultural British and World Literatures; (6) "Huckleberry Finn" and the Issue of Race in Today's Classroom; (7) Testimonial, Autoethnography, and the Future of English; and (8) Conclusion. Contains approximately 350 references. Appendixes contain an email exchange between the author and a first year, inner-city teacher; a note to teachers on the truth of Rigoberta Menchu's testimonial; a brief account of philology; a 13-item annotated bibliography of readings in literary theory for English teachers; and lists of web sites exploring literary theory and cultural studies, supporting literature teaching, and for new teachers. (NKA)

This book recreates in written form seventeen of the most popular, frankly personal and engaging lectures on literature given by the award-winning teacher Richard Jacobs, who has been working with students for over forty years. This is a book written for students, whether starting their studies or more experienced, and also for all lovers of literature. At its heart is the conviction that reading, thinking about, and writing or talking about literature involves us all personally: texts talk to us intimately and urgently, inviting us to talk back, intervening in and changing our lives. These lectures discuss, in an open but richly informed way, a wide range of texts that are regularly studied and enjoyed. They model what it means to be excited about reading and studying literature, and how the study of literature can be life-changing - perhaps even with the effect of changing the lives of readers of this eloquent and remarkable book.

Literature for Life, as both its title and content suggests, forges a close relationship between students' reading and life experiences--the texts used are accessible, grounded, relatable, and meaningful. There's enough range to suit instructors of many backgrounds, experiences, and strengths and to encourage instructors to better teaching and students to better learning. Literature for Life is available as a package with Kennedy and Gioia's The Literature Collection: An eText: ISBN-0321904281. Click here to watch a four-minute walkthrough of The Literature Collection: http: //media.pearsoncmg.com/long/kennedy_collection_demo/KC2Ccamproj.html. MyLiteratureLab, a dynamic online tool with engaging multimedia resources for students and time-saving features like auto-graded quizzes and exercises to support instructors, can be packaged with Literature for Life. MyLiteratureLab delivers proven results in helping individual students succeed. It provides engaging experiences that personalize, stimulate, and measure learning for each student. And, it comes from a trusted partner with educational expertise and a deep commitment to helping students, instructors, and departments achieve their goals.

Philosophy and practices of an alternative sentencing program