Robert,
I could not agree with you more about the primacy of the texts and the
sources! But we might not hold the majority view in this regard. On a
medieval list to which I subscribe, a professor emeritus, referring to a
compendious work of literary history, opined that you could find out
"everything you need to know" about any poem written during the period from
that reference work.  Yikes.
Tim Romano
 
 
 
Robert Kibler wrote:
[...]
 I see his point, but at the same time, think that working over specific
texts not only allows students to acquire a sense of the work, its times,
but that doing so also develops critical skills that will be important to
them wherever they go. Second hand information is just not that conducive to
the development of critical thought. [...]