/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.7017101]

I'm teaching an Essay Writing course---any suggestions for essays to put on the syllabus that will keep college students engaged while also having some depth to them?

[« Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ » No.7017157]

[Anonymous No.7017160]

>>7017157

Any particular essay I mean.

[Anonymous No.7017166]

Always start with Montaigne. I'd personally recommend Of Cannibals for the clear development in style that it demonstrates, in conjunction with the innovative ways he manages to frame discussions on colonialism, the Other, the liminal nature of his historical period and this odd undercurrent of
>born in le wrong generation
sentiment that would interest your students thematically.
Hope dat helps mayne, praise zyzz

[Anonymous No.7017185]

>>7017166

I was planning on Montaigne, but I haven't read that one. My only concern is, whether kids these days will be into it.

[Anonymous No.7017190]

>>7017101

Dialogue between a Dying man and a Priest

[Anonymous No.7017217]

>>7017101

Chesterton is always a good option. Any essay will do, they are all great, short, and entertraining.

Also, you can never go wrong with Emerson and Thoreau.

Now, if your course aims to teach your students how to write academic essays instead of literary essays, then you should focus on form above all else.

[Anonymous No.7017234]

THE INSTRUCTOR

I
The teacher or lecturer is a danger. He very seldom recognizes his nature or his position. The lecturer is a man who must talk for an hour.
The lecturer's first problem is to have enough words to fill forty or sixty minutes. The professor is paid for his time, his results are almost impossible to estimate. The man who really knows can tell all that is transmissible in a very few words.

II

No teacher has ever failed from ignorance.
Teachers fail because they cannot 'handle the class'. Real education must ultimately be limited to men who INSIST on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding.

III

You can prove nothing by analogy. The analogy is either range-finding or fumble. Written down as a lurch toward proof, or at worst elaborated in that aim, it leads mainly to useless argument, BUT a man whose wit teems with analogies will often 'twig' that something is wrong long before he knows why.

———––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

· The inexperienced teacher, fearing his own ignorance, is afraid to admit it.

· If the teacher is slow of wit, he may well be terrified by students whose minds move more quickly than his own, but he would be better advised to use the lively pupil for scout work, to exploit the quicker eye or subtler ear as look-out or listening post.

· There is no man who knows so much about, let us say, a passage between lines 100 to 200 of the sixth book of the Odyssey that he can't learn something by re-reading it WITH his students, not merely TO his students.

· I believe the ideal teacher would approach any master piece that he was presenting to his class almost as if he had never seen it before.

>>7017185

If you think it is of value, can't you demonstrate its value?

Anyway, my 2 cents:

I am college student (not studying literature) but I enjoyed (bits of) E Unibus Pluram (bits because I haven't read all of it, I just liked the style or mode of articulation)

I also liked 'Agenbite of Outwit' http://projects.chass.utoronto.ca/mcluhan-studies/v1_iss2/1_2art6.htm
Completely different style.

I also liked Pierre Bourdieu (picrelated)

[Anonymous No.7018296]

>>7017101
It's hard to beat a stylistically-focused foray into A Modest Proposal; while somewhat lacking in
>le lit factor
it can also function as an example of "overdoing it" in some respects.

One potential danger is that it's likely they've read it at some point already.