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Approaches to Teaching the Works of Samuel Johnson
Editor(s): David R. Anderson, Gwin J. Kolb
Pages: xi & 152 pp.
Published: 1993
ISBN: 9780873527224 (paperback)
ISBN: 9780873527217 (hardcover)
The works of Samuel Johnson--in particular, the famous Dictionary and the Lives of the Poets--have long held a central place in the English curriculum. This volume from the MLA derives its rationale from a different source, however: reports from experienced teachers of Johnson that students truly enjoy reading him. Johnson's writings can speak directly to students' concerns about identity and vocation, the role of authority, the relations between the sexes, and the challenge of trying to live according to one's own ideas. Approaches to Teaching the Works of Samuel Johnson shows the ways successful teachers have used these topics to enliven classroom discussion.
Like other books in the MLA's Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, this one is divided into two parts. The first part, "Materials," weighs the merits of various anthologies of Johnson's works and evaluates the relevant scholarly and critical resources. In the second part, "Approaches," sixteen contributors offer thematic teaching strategies for use in courses ranging from composition to women's studies; explore methods of teaching Johnson's works to nonmajors, particularly in survey courses of British literature or Western civilization; and focus on teaching specific works, both the familiar ones and those that are less well known, including Johnson's letters, the Soame Jenyns review, and A Journey to the Western Islands.
Table of Contents
Approaches to Teaching the Works of Samuel Johnson
PART 1: MATERIALS
Classroom Texts: The Teacher, the Anthology, and the Canon
David R. Anderson
Scholarly and Critical Resources
Gwin J. Kolb
General Studies and Collections of Discrete Essays
Works on Specific Topics
Miscellaneous Publications
Biographies
Background Studies
Scholarly Editions
Literary Histories
Bibliographies
Nonprinted Materials
PART 2: APPROACHES
General Approaches
Samuel Johnson and Gender
Catherine N. Parke
Resisting Authority; or, Johnson and the Wizard of Oz
James G. Basker
On Teaching Johnson and Lockean Empiricism
Timothy Erwin
Style and Values: Imitating Samuel Johnson
William Kupersmith
Reading Johnson Psychoanalytically
Gloria Sybil Gross
Teaching Johnson to Nonmajors
Johnson in the British Literature Survey Course
Raymond-Jean Frontain
Johnson in a Western Civilization Course
Ann Engar
Teaching Specific Works
Samuel Johnson's View of America: A Moral Judgment, Based on Conscience, Not Compromise
Brenda Ameter
Hearing Epistolick Voices: Teaching Johnson's Letters
Bruce Redford
Teaching the Dictionary
Allen Reddick
The Jenyns Review: "Leibnitian Reasoning" on Trial
Thomas F. Bonnell
Teaching A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Thomas Jemielity
Johnson and the Limits of Biography: Teaching the Life of Savage
Charles H. Hinnant
Teaching the Lives of the Poets
Lawrence Lipking
Rasselas in an Eighteenth-Century Novels Course
Melvyn New
Teaching Johnson's Critical Writing
Stephen Fix
Works Cited
Index
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