Like Letters in Running Water: A Mythopoetics of Curriculum (Studies in Curriculum Theory Series)

Like Letters in Running Water explores ways in which fiction (prose, drama, poetry, myth, fairytale) yields transformative insights for educational theory and practice. Through a series of intensely original, powerful essays drawing on curriculum theory, literary analysis, psychology, and feminist theory and practice, Doll seeks to confront a commonly held bias that reading literary fictions is "mere" entertainment (not a learning experience). She suggests that fiction has immense teaching power because it connects readers with their alliances within themselves and this connection attends to social, outer issues addressed by traditional pedagogies with greater, deeper awareness. Her elaboration in this book of the concept of currere —the lived experience of curriculum—through literature, drama, and myth is a major contribution to the field of curriculum theory. Cover......Page 1 Halftitle......Page 2 STUDIES IN CURRICULUM THEORY......Page 3 Title......Page 4 ISBN 0-8058-2985-7......Page 5 CONTENTS......Page 6 PREFACE......Page 8 INTRODUCTION......Page 11 I LIKE LETTERS CARVED IN ROCK......Page 21 1 The Character of Wood or Brick......Page 29 2 Cold Eyes, Steel Bits, and Metal Ovens: Havens of Hate......Page 44 3 Bluebeard's Cellar: A Native Son's Underworld......Page 65 4 "All Pulp Removed": Sexual Repression's Revenge......Page 87 II LIKE LETTERS WRITTEN IN SAND......Page 101 5 Good Girls/Bad Girls......Page 107 6 The Glass Coffin......Page 118 7 The P(r)ose of Clothes......Page 136 8 Light Daughter/Dark Goddess......Page 151 III LIKE LETTERS WRITTEN IN RUNNING WATER......Page 165 9 The Suchness of Suffering......Page 169 10 Circles, Loops, and the Wheel of Comedy......Page 187 11 Spider Woman......Page 209 12 Vegetative Fantasy and the Greening of Imagination......Page 222 REFERENCES......Page 238 AUTHOR INDEX......Page 259 SUBJECT INDEX......Page 272 Like Letters in Runninq Water explores ways in which fiction (prose, drama, poetry, myth, fairytale) yields transformative insights for educational theory and practice. Through a series of intensely original, powerful essays drawing on curriculum theory, literary analysis, psychology, and feminist theory and practice, Doll seeks to confront a commonly held bias that reading literary fictions is "mere" entertainment (not a learning experience). She suggests that fiction has immense teaching power because it connects readers with their alliances within themselves and this connection attends to social, outer issues addressed by traditional pedagogies with greater, deeper awareness. Her elaboration in this book of the concept of currere -- the lived experience of curriculum -- through literature, drama, and myth is a major contribution to the field of curriculum theory. Like Letters in Running Water explores ways in which fiction (prose, drama, poetry, myth, fairytale) yields transformative insights for educational theory and practice. Through a series of intensely original, powerful essays drawing on curriculum theory, literary analysis, psychology, and feminist theory and practice, Doll seeks to confront a commonly held bias that reading literary fictions is "mere" entertainment (not a learning experience). She suggests that fiction has immense teaching power because it connects readers with their alliances within themselves and this connection attends to social, outer issues addressed by traditional pedagogies with greater, deeper awareness. Her elaboration in this book of the concept of currere --the lived experience of curriculum--through literature, drama, and myth is a major contribution to the field of curriculum theory. "Like Letters in Running Water explores ways in which fiction (prose, drama, poetry, myth, fairytale) yields transformative insights for educational theory and practice. Through a series of intensely original, powerful essays drawing on curriculum theory, literary analysis, psychology, and feminist theory and practice, Mary Aswell Doll seeks to confront a commonly held bias that reading literary fictions is "mere" entertainment (not a learning experience). She suggests, on the contrary, that fiction has immense teaching power because it connects readers with what courses within themselves, and to connect with this coursing is to attend to social, outer issues, addressed by traditional pedagogies, with greater, deeper awareness Her elaboration in this book on the concept of currere - the lived experience of curriculum - through literature, drama, and myth is a major contribution to the field of curriculum theory."--Jacket An image runs throughout the writings of authors who depict either themselves or others as prisoners.