One of my grad school folklore professors taught us outdated schools of theory by having us apply them to modern pop culture. (My group did Buffy + solar mythology. It was *laughably* easy.) If I taught English, I'd be seriously tempted to do something akin to this with Shakespeare. (1/6) - ThreadSky

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swan-tower.wandering.shop.ap.brid.gy • 34 days ago

One of my grad school folklore professors taught us outdated schools of theory by having us apply them to modern pop culture. (My group did Buffy + solar mythology. It was *laughably* easy.)

If I taught English, I'd be seriously tempted to do something akin to this with Shakespeare. (1/6)

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swan-tower.wandering.shop.ap.brid.gy•34 days ago

The world does not need another student essay on ambition in Macbeth or whatever; the point of assigning those is to teach the students to find supporting details, assemble an argument, and so forth, right?

So let them do that with RIDICULOUS arguments. (2/6)

swan-tower.wandering.shop.ap.brid.gy•34 days ago

Shakespeare was a crypto-Buddhist. Macbeth encodes the secrets of alchemy. Romeo and Juliet predicts the U.S. Civil War. Things that cannot POSSIBLY be true . . . but the challenge is, muster evidence and a good argument in favor of them anyway. (3/6)

swan-tower.wandering.shop.ap.brid.gy•34 days ago

(4/6) Basically, every essay should feel like it ends with this guy:

swan-tower.wandering.shop.ap.brid.gy•34 days ago

I feel like the sheer outrageousness would help make it more fun -- to grade as well as to write! -- and it still teaches them about close reading and paper-writing. (I mean, hell, I learned to assemble textual evidence for my argument from Wheel of Time fan communities . . .) (5/6)

swan-tower.wandering.shop.ap.brid.gy•34 days ago

. . . and, while you're at it, you might teach them some critical thinking, too. That just because somebody has assembled a neat-sounding argument, doesn't mean that what they're saying holds actual water. (6/6)

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