First Day of Class

The holidays are finally over and it's back to work. Today was my first day with my Literary Interpretation class. The class meets at 8 am and my biggest worry was wondering if anyone would actually show up. Out of the 17 scheduled, only 12 showed up and one of them informed me she would be transferring to another class. I like small classes, but I want to have enough students to really dig in with.

I'm not really sure how they took the "focus" of the course. Some of them seemed excited to be exploring contemporary themes, along with the classics. Others seemed to raise a few eyebrows. I suppose it is a natural response. What does Star Wars or "picture book" graphic novels have to do with "real" literature. I expect this apprehension will be one that I continually grapple with. I wonder if my enthusiasm for alternative literature sounded inviting or just odd. I noticed when I sent around the sign-up sheet for the individual discussion leading project, most students gravitated toward texts they were already familiar with. Everyone wanted to talk about Romeo and Juliet and Beowulf. Hardly anyone wanted to talk about Maus or American Born Chinese. Is it simply because they are unfamiliar with the texts? Of course it would be easier to talk about something you've already read--less work.

But less effort is not what I'm going for here. Even if they choose Romeo and Juliet, I want them to view it in a new way--one that their high school English teachers did not teach them when they were 14-year-old freshman. Looking ahead to all of the work I need to do to help them envision these texts and themes in a new way, I am not surprised that so many teachers choose to teach texts in old ways. It's easier. It's....less work. But if I want my students to identify Marxist theory in Beowulf or apply Queer theory to Oranges are not the Only Fruit, I'm going to have to do a lot of work.

I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty...I'm simply afraid of being ineffective at conveying these ideas. I'm no expert in literary theory. I'm not an expert in teaching classical texts or even in the art of the graphic novel. I have ideas---that's all. I wonder if they will be enough.

I'm excited to build this class, to see where it goes, but the problem is, I have no idea what's at the end of the yellow brick road.