Monday, April 4, 2011

Literary Classics in the Modern Age

By Annette Cinelli Trossello, Project Manager

My summer reading lists and the books I was assigned to read in class in high school were mostly classic novels or plays by white males. I read (and enjoyed!) Romeo and Juliet, The Scarlet Letter, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, Catch-22, and Macbeth , to name a few. High school students today are reading a wider variety of books. Though the classics are still taught, many curricula are incorporating more contemporary, women, and minority authors. For the most part, this is a good thing, as students are being exposed to a broader range of literature and this could very well lead to an increased interest in reading.

An English teacher friend of mine notes that while the best curriculum is a mix of both contemporary and classic novels, the contemporary material that is being taught should have value. It shouldn't be taught just because it is different from the classics. There must be something in the piece that is worthy of being taught. A controversial line of books that some students and teachers are using is Spark Notes No Fear Shakespeare.

These books put the traditional language of the Shakespeare play side-by-side with modern English, what the website describes as "the kind of English people actually speak today." This begs the question, what is more important when reading Romeo and Juliet, or any literature with an antiquated vocabulary or difficult dialect, the meaning or the language? If the students reading the No Fear version of Romeo and Juliet are able to correctly understand that "wherefore art thou, Romeo?" means "why are you a Montague?" and not "where are you Romeo?" does it matter if they don't read Shakespeare's language? Using the No Fear Shakespeare version of Romeo and Juliet could provide an interesting topic for a classroom discussion. Is No Fear Chaucer or No Fear Twain a series that might also be beneficial?

The No Fear Shakespeare series has received mixed reviews, while some readers felt it helped in gaining a deeper understanding of Shakespeare (the meaning), teachers who reviewed the texts worried that students would just read the "translated" version and miss out on some of the most beautiful and eloquent descriptions in the Western canon (the language). Raising even more eyebrows is the No Fear Shakespeare graphic novels, which include only the modernized language. While perhaps intriguing as an addition to the standard Romeo and Juliet or the No Fear Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet, on its own it loses much of what makes a Shakespeare play a Shakespeare Play.

No matter what literature your program requires, there's no need to fear when you're working with PSG. We can help you create lessons that are in tune with current educational standards, methodologies, and strategies. We have the know-how, as well as a love of the written word, to make your work sparkle.

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