It was seeing The Tempest immediately followed by the phrase "what was so
*undisposably* great about the Great Books" that caught my attention.
Tim


At 12:33 PM 2/13/03, Jon & Anne Weidler wrote:
>I am in no position to dispose of Shakespeare, and would not advocate
>such.  I am an American Lit teacher, and so have no frequent contact
>with the Bard.  Teaching Zane Grey in no way implies hostility to "the
>canon", particularly in that _Riders of the Purple Sage_ is quite
>frequently taught, and is an early landmark of the Western genre, much
>like _The Virginian_ by Owen Wister.  After finishing Grey, I've just
>completed teaching Sinclair Lewis's _Babbitt_, and am moving on next
>week to short stories by Hemingway.  At the end of my class sessions, I
>often teach small portions of _The Waste Land_, and am planning on
>teaching some poems from _Cathay_ and maybe some "Mauberly" (teaching
>difficult poems to non-English majors seems to work best when done
>gradually, in that the students have time to become familiar with
>something that appears at first impenetrably dense.)
>
>I am an advocate of the AmLit canon, and am a fan of Melville, Whitman,
>Thoreau, Twain, and of course, many modern poets.  On the other hand,
>the frequently overlooked writers (such as Finley Peter Dunne, whose
>"Mr. Dooley" columns were once widely read by the American public)
>often prove just as fascinating.  Everyone should read (one
>of)Frederick Douglass's autobiographies, but they should also read
>Martin Delany's _Blake_, which plays the role of Malcolm X to
>Douglass's Rev. King (sort of) despite being almost everywhere unheard
>of.  Just the same, people should read _The Scarlet Letter_ at some
>point -- it's a classic for a reason, even if the reason seems opaque
>when you're fifteen years old -- but they should also read George
>Lippard's _The Quaker City_.  I could keep giving examples of worthy
>books excluded from course reading lists, but I have a feeling my point
>is clear.
>
>-Jon
>
>On Thursday, February 13, 2003, at 10:44  AM, Tim Romano wrote:
>
>>Jon,
>>Am I misreading you when I infer from the following that you're
>>inclined to
>>"dispose of" Shakespeare (as you teach Zane Gray)?
>>Tim Romano
>>
>>
>>At 11:12 AM 2/13/03, Jon & Anne Weidler wrote:
>>>The "normal" (read white American) graduate students take
>>>classes side by side with their South Asian counterparts, and realize
>>>abruptly that some adjustments must be made to their own parochial
>>>(and
>>>often quite innocent, I feel I must add) preconceptions about global
>>>politics and migration and Caliban's structural role in  _The
>>>Tempest_.
>>>  This process responds to more than an intellectual desire to
>>>demonstrate adequate self-loathing, and very well might leave people
>>>asking , honestly, what was so undisposably great about the Great
>>>Books
>>>of the West.