Approaches to Teaching Voltaire's Candide
Editor(s): Renée Waldinger
Pages: x & 206 pp.
Published: 1987
ISBN: 9780873525046 (paperback)
ISBN: 9780873525039 (hardcover)
"A marvelous sourcebook of philosophies and approaches, materials, information, and teaching ideas which can be useful to an enormously wide audience--nonspecialists as well as dix-huitièmistes, graduate teaching assistants as well as senior professors."
Modern Language Journal
"The essays here provide an excellent stimulation for rethinking and rediscovering Candide."
L'Esprit Créateur
"Candide is probably the most frequently taught work of French literature," writes Renée Waldinger, yet "students are often misled by the apparent simplicity of the tale." The challenge for the teacher, then, is to guide student reading in a way that reveals the richness of the text and the depth of its comic aspect. Responding to this challenge, twenty-four experienced teachers of Candide offer their reflections on the tale, examine its humor, provide crucial historical and philosophical background information, review varying interpretations, and discuss specific teaching strategies.
The volume, like others in the MLA's Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, is divided into two parts. The first part, "Materials," surveys essential references, including critical and biographical studies and works on historical and intellectual contexts, and evaluates French and English language editions of Candide. In the second part, "Approaches," teachers describe how they present Voltaire's classic work, offering practical ideas for a variety of disciplines and on different levels, from freshman writing courses to graduate seminars.
Table of Contents
Approaches to Teaching Voltaire's Candide
PART 1: MATERIALS
Renée Waldinger
The Voltaire Project
French Editions
English Translations
Bibliographies
Biographies
Historical and Intellectual Background
Critical Studies
Audiovisual Aids
PART 2: APPROACHES
Introduction
Approaching the Text
The Modernity of Candide
Patrick Henry
Candide as a Literary Form
Clifton Cherpack
Interpolated Narrative in Voltaire's Candide
John C. O'Neal
Centering Candide
Frederick M. Keener
Voltaire's Candide: Distortion in the Age of Reason
Suzanne L. Pucci
The Voyage in Candide
Ruth Plaut Weinreb
Specific Approaches to Teaching Candide
Interpreting Candide: The Anvil of Controversy
Theodore E. D. Braun
A Three-Tiered Approach to Candide
Anthony R. Pugh
On Teaching the Ironical Satire of Candide
Cassandra Mabe
A Tale in Five Acts
Janet T. Letts
Candide in a World Literature Course
Mary Lee Archer
Candide in a History Survey Course
Jeremy Popkin
The Names in Candide
Paul Sawyer
Voltaire's Candide and Bernstein's Candide: Teaching through Comparison
Patricia Murphy
Using Candide in a Reading and Writing Course for Freshmen
Ann W. Engar
Adolescents Encounter Voltaire: Candide as an Eighth-Grade History Text
Ralph Engelman
Teaching the Humor in Candide
Candide as Comic Conte
James Andreas
The Comic Writing in Candide
Jean Sareil
Candide: The Dubious Wisdom of Satire
Herbert Josephs
Teaching the Backgrounds
Candide in the Context of Voltaire's Work
Otis Fellows
Some Aspects of the Philosophical Background of Candide
Richard A. Brooks
Intellectual Ideas Raised in Candide
Jean A. Perkins
Candide: Or, Comedy in Utopia
Oscar A. Haac
Candide as History: The Iberian-American Infrastructure
Paul Ilie
Works Cited
Index
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