Entry 3: Inviting Other Theoretical Perspectives

Articles used:

• "A Lens of One's Own: Of Yellow Wallpaper and and Beautiful Little Fools" (ch. 5 of Critical Encounters in High School English)
• "Of Grave Diggers and Kings: Reading Literature Through the Marxist Lens, or, What's Class Got to Do With It?" (ch. 4 of Critical Encounters in High School English)
• "Introduction" from Critical Encounters in High School English
• "Responding to Literature" (ch. 5 of Bridging English)

Say:

The first three articles all discuss feminist theory and how it is slowly making its way into today's English classrooms.  Perhaps the most explicit as to its importance comes from the first article when the author talks about telling her students a story about her being at the airport and listening to an announcement about the carry-on policy.  She tells them about her shock and disbelief at the fact that the announcement states women are allowed a carry-on plus a purse while men are allowed a carry-on plus a briefcase or laptop bag.  Her disbelief came when she looked down at her laptop bag and seemed to realize that she was a woman who happened to not carry a purse.  These kinds of incidents are all too common and it has led to more integration of feminist literary theory in English classrooms.  The second article specifically references Marxist, theory, but ties in feminist theory as well.  The main rationale behind including Marxist and feminist theories in English classrooms, they say, is that "more secondary teachers have recognized the potential richness and utility of introducing cultural criticism to their students and encouraging them to view literature through political prisms such as Marxism or feminism."  The third article specifically references an activity that the author did while she was visiting a high school English class.  She brought in Ray-Ban sunglasses that had been specialized for driving in order to better see the traffic lights, etc.  She told the students to put these on and explain how their vision changed; one student exclaimed that the colors of her classmates' clothing became more vivid, and they soon understood the relation between these sunglasses and how reading a text from a different perspective can make the theme more vivid.  

Do:

I think the sunglasses idea is a great one, but instead of bringing in something expensive and valuable I would put up an excerpt from a popular song on the SmartBoard and leave out various lines and words.  I would show them numerous versions of the excerpt and ask students to compare/contrast how this changes the song's meaning.  Then I would ask them to write a brief response on how this can be applied to literature.