Speak Lightning

I'm having a really hard time finding a theoretical perspective. I'm really feeling the pressure of theory. I want to just be a New Critic, but they're kind of not too cool. But really, as fellow grad student Matthew & I have discussed, all the theory folks really care about close readings. They just want to be able to venture outside (or other places inside) the text to find them.

Maybe I'll start the New New Criticism. Look at whatever you want. Find answers and schema that unlock the text for you, so that you can find your meaning.

I really believe, along with Scholes, that we are teachers of reading. I read his letter to the MLA today and wish that I was going to be attending the Philadelphia convention to hear his keynote. While I don't know that our politics are the same, I feel inspired by his call to return to the basics of our profession, to equip our students with the tools they need to be better readers of, well, everything.

That's what I'm hoping to do, in some small way, with my project--to find out what our students need to do to be better readers of poetry. And can I convince them that it's cool to read?