Teaching Literature: Writers and Teachers Talking (Language/literature)

Teaching Literature is a challenging re-evaluation of the reasons behind why and how we teach literature. Judy Kravis, an experienced writer and university teacher asks fundamental questions of well known authors and teachers about their work and uncovers their perception of literature and its value to us as we approach the end of the 20th century. In a series of interviews with well known writers and teachers such as Edmund White, Hermione Lee, Andrei Codrescu, Grace Paley, Howard Barker and Anne Waldman, she probes their response to the value of literature for students and considers their different approaches as writers, teachers, academics, poets and performers. A consensus emerges from these interviews in which literature, and books are discussed as part of our relationship with the world - we know them in the same way as we know people, with warmth, familiarity and strangeness.