Webb Chapter 4

The youth violence "crisis," as it is termed in this chapter of Literature and Lives is an issue that is prevalent in the public school system (especially urban districts) today. I like that Webb uses his selected texts, like Native Son, to facilitate discussion of this difficult topic. Using violence as a common thread among students, I feel, can actually have a positive influence on an English classroom, rather than a negative one (if used correctly, of course). In Jonathan Kozol's Shame of the Nation, he too uses personal experiences concerning violence and texts that involve violence to build a common understanding between students that would, under normal circumstances, not be able to easily find common ground. Since violence is such a universal theme in our world, more importantly in the world of our students, using it to promote discussion about controversial topics and to build relationships between your students seems like an effective strategy. This could also work to build the relationship between you (the teacher) and your students who might not assume that you share a common bond. On page 59 Webb writes that, "[m]ulticultural studies, like women's studies, has recovered lost literary voices, helped connect literature to cultural and social movements, and helped establish a theoretical base for understanding minority - and majority - cultural traditions." Adding to the English classroom's literature "canon," multicultural texts can include "rediscovered" and new authors that wouldn't have become so influential through the use of other literary theories. As important or significant as other theories may be, I think it is interesting to note that the author says, "[a] primary issue for all of the multicultural textbooks is that their incorporation of multicultural literature often becomes an assimilation of new texts to old literary approaches," (page 60). Looking at a multicultural literary texts through the lens of a New Critic, for example, would only "isolate the literary work from its author and culture," (page 60). Similarly, "reader response approaches [would] fail to assist students to bridge social, cultural, and historical distances in works outside their own cultural experience," (page 60). Another important idea addressed in this chapter is the idea of Media Studies. We live today in a global society that finds it easier than ever to influence ideas and understandings on a world wide scale. Ignoring the impact that mass communication and mediated communication has on our students (and ourselves) is a detrimental mistake. Rather than ignoring this phenomenon, why don't the English teachers try to embrace it? Like Webb states himself on page 67 when he says, "perhaps the most effective way to address media studies is to integrate media study into literature and cultural study. Understanding film, popular culture, or the mass media is serious intellectual work; combining media and literary studies allows a wide range of creative and critical possibilities."