Reviving the Thirties: The Case for Teaching Proletarian Fiction in the Undergraduate Literature Classroom
Janet Galligani Casey

Undergraduate literature courses tend to neglect American fiction of the 1930s, especially the proletarian novel. Disregard of this particular genre is often based on the assumption that it emphasized a crude Marxist realism opposed to aesthetic modernism. Various examples of the genre are, in fact, worth teaching, especially because they do not fall simply into either camp. Such texts include John Dos Passos’s USA trilogy and Fielding Burke’s novel Call Home the Heart.

Teaching Hometown Literature: A Pedagogy of Place
James M. Cahalan

The author analyzes his experiences teaching literature courses in which he encourages students to research works by people from their hometowns. He argues that relating literature to concepts of “home” makes English classes more accessible to students while also helping them reflect on important issues in ecocriticism.

A Woman’s Place is in the School: Rhetorics of Gendered Space in Nineteenth-Century America
Jessica Enoch

Nineteenth-century American leaders in education came to advocate a redesign of the schoolroom that resulted in its being seen as more the province of female teachers than of male ones. This discourse of reform serves as a case study of how space itself may be rhetorically “gendered.”

Reconsiderations: Donald Murray and the Pedagogy of Surprise
Bruce Ballenger

Toward the end of his life, Donald Murray felt that his approach to writing instruction was no longer appreciated by journals in his field. Nevertheless, his emphasis on encouraging students to surprise themselves through informal writing still has considerable value.

Review: Rhetorical Ideals and Disciplinary Realities
John Clifford

Reviewed is Disciplinary Identities: Rhetorical Paths of English, Speech, and Composition by Steven Mailloux.

Comment & Response: Two Comments on “Neurodiversity”
Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson & Jay Dolmage / Paul Heilker / Ann Jurecic