LITERATURE: MIRROR AND LAMP, Literature as a tool for critical adolescents
Submitted by:
Henk de Lange
Abstract:
PROPOSAL FOR ABSTRACT IAIMTE 2012
Henk de Lange (H.de.Lange@Windesheim.nl)
Wipstrikkerallee 120
8023 DM Zwolle
Netherlands
0031384545497
LITERATURE: MIRROR AND LAMP
Literature as a tool for critical adolescents
In his study ˜Becoming a reader" J.A. Appleyard argues that there is a regular sequence of attitudes, we go through as we mature, which affect how we experience fiction. In his view young adolescents are the critical seekers of truth. Fictional characters and patrons may give a voice to the feeling and thinking about the world of sound and fury young people are eager to conquer. It is this category of readers, in age varying from 17 to 21, that is the focus of my research in one of the lectorates in Windesheim Vocational University, Zwolle, Netherlands. For four years I have been developing consciousness raising techniques for undergraduates who, as part of a minor called philosophy of life, learn to use (world) literature as ˜mirror and lamp" for the construction of their personal and vocational life. Since their major study is not literature, their study being economics, health, history and so on, they are not particularly interested in literature. For this reason techniques I have been experimenting with could apply mutatis mutandis to students of secondary education in their final stage. I want to demonstrate a close to life model for analysing literature developed, revised and evaluated by my students. In this model I distinguish an inward movement and an outward movement, the latter concentrating on identification, emotion and katalepsis, the former concentrating on empathy and new insights. In addition I pay attention to the effects of clarifying literature by means of amplification techniques and archetypal structuring of literary texts.
Note: For financial reasons participation and registration depends of whether my abstract is accepted. As soon as my abstract will be accepted, Windesheim Vocational University will take care of the registration fees.