Graduate Courses in Literature and Pedagogy
FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS SEEKING AN ADVANCED DEGREE
Overview
Special Courses in Literature, Literary Theory and Pedagogy
Graduate Research Projects in Literature and Pedagogy
Graduate students in literature at Bar-Ilan have the option of devoting part of their graduate studies in English Literature to the interplay of literature and pedagogy,through courses specially designed with this focus.
These courses are open to all graduate students and are especially geared towards teachers of English in the Israeli school system, to help them rethink the meaning of literary education and its cultural influences and the nature of classroom interaction. Through these courses, teachers also have the opportunity to participate in a scholarly exchange with others who share their interests and challenges. Teachers may also wish to write a thesis in this area.
We in the Department of English Literature and Linguistics are very proud of our advanced students' research into the relations between literature, theory, and education. Some of our best M,A. and Ph.D. students have been teachers, who brought their insight and experience as educators to research projects exploring how literature and literary theory illuminate the art of teaching, and vice versa. Listed below are some of their achievements.
If you would like to inquire about the possibility of an advanced degree with a focus on literature and pedagogy, write to Prof. Susan Handelman,susan.handelman@biu.ac.il
Courses in Literature, Literary Theory and Pedagogy
Note that not all seminars are offered every year. To see which courses are offered in 2013-14, click here.
Critical Thought and the Teaching of Literature - Prof. Susan Handelman
The central question of this course is: How do all the recent changes in literary criticism and theory actually affect the way we teach and study literature? What difference does all this theory make, and how can/should we change our classroom practices in light of various theories? My primary aim is to help graduate students and teachers at all levels in their own struggles with teaching – from day-to-day practice to developing a philosophy of what one aims for in teaching, studying, and writing about literature.
Other important questions we'll tackle in this course are: What is it we really seek to accomplish for ourselves and our students? What are the politics and ethics in our practices of teaching, reading, and writing? What should an "English" course really be about? What kinds of new teaching practices can we create to enliven our classrooms?
Shakespeare in Performance - Prof. Susan Handelman
The goal of the course is to study Shakespeare through the lens of current advanced post-modern literary and performance theory, and to give students new tools with which to read, enjoy, understand and teach Shakespeare by getting the words “off the page.” The course aims to provide “visual literacy” in the analysis of staged and film versions.
Current post-modern literary theory understands all texts to be “performances,” i.e.,incomplete, until activated by a reader, interpreter, audience. Shakespeare, of course, wrote his plays to be performed and not read silently in libraries. Since the 1990s a convergence of post-modern theory with new pedagogical approaches to Shakespeare has revolutionized the field of Shakespeare studies.
This course will review the various post-modern theories of performance,(e.g. speech-act theory, gender as performance, reader-responses, anthropology etc.), stage history, and new pedagogical approaches. In addition, there will be analyses of filmed versions of Shakespeare, exercises in performing Shakespeare, and consideration of how all this affects of the teaching of Shakespeare today at all levels.
Teaching the Shoah Through Literature - Dr. Daniel Feldman
How do we use literature to teach the Holocaust? This course, specifically designed for current or future teachers of literature but open to all advanced students, addresses the network of unique pedagogical challenges associated with teaching texts about the Shoah. The course is part lecture and part pedagogical workshop: we will study seminal texts of Holocaust literature and read crucial commentary on the issues presented by Holocaust education.
Literature and Film in the Classroom- Dr. Yael Shapira
This course considers the mutually illuminating effect of literary texts and their cinematic adaptations as a tool for both studying and teaching literature. By considering literary works in relation to their film adaptations and placing them in the context of relevant theory and criticism, the course examines the following questions: how can film provide insight into literature? What is entailed in “reading” and evaluating an adaptation? How does studying adaptations contribute to our understanding of literature’s changing place in our cultural hierarchies? Does the presence of film in the literature classroom aid or hinder students’ appreciation of literary works?
Classes consist of close discussions of literary and theoretical works, in combination with joint viewing of segments from relevant films.
Graduate Research Projects in Literature and Pedagogy
Gender and Julius Caesar: Performance, Listening Rhetoric, and Pedagogy
Esther Schupak, Ph.D. thesis (submitted 2013)
“The Pulsation of an Artery”: Rediscovering Blake through Hypermedia
Sarah Schrire, Ph.D. Thesis, 2011
Teachers' Autobiographies: Crises in the Classroom of the Beginning Teacher
Ruth Cohen, M.A. Thesis, 2011
The Performance of Literary Texts: The Role of Cognition and Emotion in Promoting Inter-Communal Understanding
Lynn Timna, Ph.D thesis, 2008
Making Space for Hybridity in the Borderlands College Classroom
Michelle Kinsbursky, Ph.D. Thesis, in progress
