Approaches to Teaching Eliot’s Poetry and Plays
- Editor: Jewel Spears Brooker
- Pages: xii & 203 pp.
- Published: 1988
- ISBN: 9780873525145 (Paperback)
- ISBN: 9780873525138 (Hardcover)
“[T]his is a volume any teacher of Eliot will learn something from.”
—American Literary Scholarship
According to a survey of English teachers, most students are introduced to T. S. Eliot’s poetry during the first two years of college. Approaches to Teaching Eliot’s Poetry and Plays addresses the challenge of teaching these complex works to advanced high school students and undergraduates and presents a cross-section of views and experiences that both new and experienced instructors will find useful.
Like other books in the MLA’s Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, this volume is divided into two parts. Part 1, “Materials,” surveys editions, anthologies, bibliographies, music, films, and other instructional aids. Many of the essays in part 2, “Approaches,” focus on specific poems or plays, including “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “The Hollow Men,” Ash-Wednesday, The Waste Land, Four Quartets, Murder in the Cathedral, and The Cocktail Party. Several other essays examine issues in Eliot’s larger body of work, including his treatment of women, his debt to the Romantic tradition, and the influence of music on his poetry.
“Teachers of high school and college students are always looking for practical guides in teaching literature. Brooker’s collection has not only met but also surpassed this challenge of finding discussions and techniques that work to the advantage of both newcomer and long-time teacher of Eliot’s poetry and plays.”
—Yeats Eliot Review
Approaches to Teaching Eliot’s Poetry and Plays “is valuable for undergraduates, containing a great variety of general and specialized approaches to the major poems and plays.”
—Journal of Modern Literature
