Rethinking the Teaching of English Literature  (The Case of Moroccan Universities)

Rachid Benfares

doi:10.34301/alsc.v6i1.38

Authors

Rachid Benfares Professor of English Literature & Culture Riad Yasmine 103, Rte Ain Chkef Fès, Morocco

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34301/alsc.v6i1.38

Abstract

This paper analyses the situation of English literature and its teaching in Moroccan universities. The gap between students and literature is widening. The malaise is obvious. Some students no longer know how to approach literary texts. They have no clear strategy for reading, understanding and criticising a text. Moreover, a sense of the literary activity is also missing. Why read novels, plays and poems? What is the purpose of it all? These questions continue to resonate in the minds of our students without finding the courage to address them with their teachers. In order to be in a position to identify the problem and propose realistic and practical solutions, it was necessary to organise two different surveys. While the first dealt with methodology, the second focused on motivation and the meaning of literary activities. The results show that the problem exists and that the need to rethink the teaching of literature becomes more than significant.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Rachid Benfares, Professor of English Literature & Culture Riad Yasmine 103, Rte Ain Chkef Fès, Morocco

References

Abrams, M. H., editor. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed, Norton, 1993.

Bassnett, Susan. Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction. Blackwell, 1993.

Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory. 3rd ed., [Nachdr.], Pearson Longman, 2006.

Blau, Sheridan D. The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and Their Readers. Heinemann, 2003.

Bloom, Harold, editor. Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. New ed, Bloom’s Literary Criticism, 2008.

---. How to Read and Why. Scribner, 2000.

Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. 2nd ed, University of Chicago Press, 1983.

Forster, E. M., and Edward Morgan Forster. Aspects of the Novel. Edited by Oliver Stallybrass, Repr. with a new introd., Further reading and Chronology, Penguin Books, 2005.

Fuss, Diana, and William A. Gleason, editors. The Pocket Instructor, Literature: 101 Exercises for the College Classroom. Princeton University Press, 2016.

---, editors. The Pocket Instructor, Literature: 101 Exercises for the College Classroom. Princeton University Press, 2016.

Graham, Nick and O’Reilly for Higher Education (Firm). Project Management for Dummies, 2nd UK Edition. 2015. Open WorldCat, https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view//9781119025740/?ar.

Grant, Robert M. Contemporary Strategy Analysis. 7th ed, John Wiley & Sons, 2010.

Green, Keith, and Jill LeBihan. Critical Theory and Practice: A Coursebook. Routledge, 1996.

Guerin, Wilfred L., editor. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 6th ed, Oxford University Press, 2011.

Hardy, Thomas, and Keith Wilson. The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character. Penguin Books, 2003.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Penguin Books, 1994.

Hornby, Albert Sydney. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Edited by Sally Wehmeier, New ed., 6. ed., 4. impr, Oxford Univ. Press [u.a.], 2003.

Leitch, Vincent B., editor. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 1st ed, Norton, 2001.

Marshall, Brenda K. Teaching the Postmodern: Fiction and Theory. Routledge, 1992.

McIntosh, Colin, and Cambridge University Press, editors. Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: With CD-ROM. Fourth edition, Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Repr, Wordsworth Classics, 1993.

Montgomery, Martin, editor. Ways of Reading: Advanced Reading Skills for Students of English Literature. 4th ed, Routledge, 2013.

Peck, John. How to Study a Novel. 2nd ed, Macmillan, 1995.

Pope, Rob. Studying English Literature and Language: An Introduction and Companion. 3rd ed, Routledge, 2012.

Ramsden, Paul. Learning to Teach in Higher Education. 2nd ed, RoutledgeFalmer, 2003.

Rogers, Pat, editor. An Outline of English Literature. 2nd ed, Oxford University Press, 1998.

Scrivener, Jim. Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching. 3. ed, Hueber, 2011.

---. Teaching English Grammar: What to Teach and How to Teach It. 1. publ., [Repr.], Hueber, 2012.

Short, Mick. Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays, and Prose. Longman, 1996.

Showalter, Elaine. Teaching Literature. Blackwell Pub, 2003.

Smith, Michael William, and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements: How to Teach What Really Matters about Character, Setting, Point of View, and Theme. Scholastic, 2010.

Stallknecht, Newton P., and Horst Frenz. Comparative Literature: Method and Perspective. Literary Licensing, 2012.

The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 2: The Romantic Period. The Victorian Age. The 20. Century. 6. ed, Norton, 1993.