Talks on Teaching Literature

A series of lectures offers practical guidance for teaching literature, insisting that instruction must respect the limits of language and principally aim to awaken students' imagination and emotions rather than merely transmit examinable facts. The text diagnoses common obstacles teachers encounter, recommends foundational and preliminary classroom exercises, and emphasizes the inspirational use of reading. It provides focused approaches to prose, the novel, and drama including a detailed study of Macbeth, and treats criticism, literary workmanship, biography, voluntary reading, and methods of assessment, illustrated by concrete classroom examples and pedagogical counsel.