Carey-Webb, A. (2001). Literature and Lives: A Response-Based, Cultural Studies Approach to Teaching English. Chap. 1

The genesis of Webb's integration of reader response and cultural studies is the primary focus of chapter 1. He admits he basically stumbled across the idea when he began teaching a unit concerning the Holocaust in his Contemporary World Literature course. Interestingly enough, Webb states that his teaching began to move away from a narrow emphasis on literature to one with broader cultural and historical significances. What I found most helpful, however, from this chapter was the mutualism, per se, that existed between the two literary theories. Webb acknowledges that reader response can be a little ignorant of the text and what literature means when it is the only theory used. Similarly, employing cultural studies alone may tend to lineate student thought. But if cultural studies is used to fuel reader response, I feel as if the benefits could be innumerable for both the teacher and students. Instead of trying to find some character to directly relate to, they are supplemented with a cultural context which extends the text to include film, etc. to base their connections on. When students are asked to examine issues and cultures which are unfamiliar to them, they are inevitably raising their global awareness. Consequently, they are less likely to hold preconceived notions about a particular group of people or things. If we as teachers don't take the time to examine diversity, we are implicitly perpetuating prejudice. For these reasons alone, cultural studies seems like a valid approach.