Over the course of the last week or so, I have been
developing a syllabus around the question “what is literature for?” Oddly
enough, this would have been an easy enough endeavor for me—I wrote my
undergraduate thesis on essentially the same question—except that I wasn’t
simply designing a theory course. Instead, the syllabus is designed as an
introductory literature course for community college.
How can I take up a debate that has gone on since Plato
first threw the poets out of his imagined republic (with the notable exception
of Homer) first, in the short length of a semester-long course, and second,
with students who might not care or who have many other concerns like work and
family filling their thoughts? In other words, how can I show that the study of
literature can be personally impactful and socially relevant? [...]
