Reactions to Webb

I recommend that every Engl. 4800 student reads Webb's text at some point! Of each of the three texts that were assigned reading for English 4800 this semester, Webb's Literature and Lives was the most beneficial for me for several reasons. First, I'm really in favor of the Cultural-Studies approach he takes to teaching literature. Using societal conditions and realities such as homelessness, youth violence or prejudice to focus our teaching on are very important issues that are thematically unified by several texts as well as literary theories. Second, instead of introducing several literary theories silmultaneously as Appleman suggests, Webb does so by each theory's relation to a social justice issue. He doesn't necessarily suggest explictily teaching literary theory, but examining each text in relation to a social justice issue will nevertheless bring about relevant critical theories (but then again, multiple theories can be used on a single work, so I guess this is something I'm still unsure of...). Third, Webb integrates explanations of literary theories--as highlighted in gray boxes for easy identification--throughout his discussions of literary works to show connections between a text and a lens that would be useful to better understand that text. Finally, Webb provides backround information for most of the texts he references, so unlike Appleman, if I haven't read a text that is mentioned I am more able to see the connection between the text and a cultural issue or literary theory.