Page 54 - E-book 2012-13 final draft
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Enlightening Teaching & Research
means of making the experience of the characters in the literary the narrator and Robert did in the story. While one student draws,
text come alive to my students. I will discuss one example here to the other has to try to guess what he/she is drawing and then
illustrate. In my Fiction class I teach a short story called “Cathedral” they switch roles and do it again. I ask students to think about and
written by the American writer Raymond Carver. In brief, the story register their thoughts, feelings and emotions throughout this
is about a blind man called Robert who is visiting the narrator and activity. Common ideas that emerge from the discussion following
his wife for a day. The story is told from the perspective of the the activity, include a sense of loss of control, the importance of
protagonist who is a man full of prejudices and biases and Robert is working collaboratively, a strong desire for the partner to be able to
his wife’s friend. The narrator is anxious about the visit and is unable guess the right answer, frustration, difficulty, a feeling of bonding
to conceal his prejudices when he meets Robert. Carver carefully and mutual interdependence, the need to focus and concentrate
delineates Robert and the narrator as contrasting characters – the very hard. By the end of this activity some of the students even
narrator we learn, has no friends, doesn’t have a good relationship describe it as a “spiritual” experience. This simple activity allows
with his wife and behaves in an unkind way with Robert. Robert, students to experience firsthand a number of complex things. They
on the other hand, has lived a full life, travelled the world with his come to realize that vision is not about physical sight, but about
wife who died recently and whom he loved very much. He has a perception, empathy and imagination. The life experiences of
strong connection with the narrator’s wife who used to work for people who are less able than us can teach us valuable things and
him reading him newspaper stories. Toward the end of the story, opening up ourselves to new experiences, without prejudice and
Robert and the narrator are watching a TV programme on cathedrals pre-judgment, can yield unexpected rewards. Although Carver’s
and the narrator decides to try to explain to Robert what cathedrals narrator has absolutely nothing in common with my students, this
look like. Robert suggests that the narrator should close his eyes activity puts them, even if only for a few minutes, in the shoes of the
and draw the cathedral while Robert will put his own hand on the narrator and they realize immediately what he means when he says
narrator’s hand and try to follow the movement of the pencil. The “It was really something.” It also allows them to reflect upon if not
exercise achieves much more for the narrator than for Robert. The purge themselves of any prejudices or misconceptions they might
former has a transformative and deeply spiritual experience as he have had about different kinds of disabilities and disabled people.
realizes through the act of drawing as if blind, that one does not All this happens not through didactic instruction but in a natural and
need eyes, but rather vision, in order to see the world. Carver ends experiential way. Above all, the students realize that difference is not
the story seemingly abruptly with the curt and inarticulate line “It’s necessarily threatening or divisive but that understanding difference
really something” uttered by the narrator. helps us to deal with it in compassionate ways.
On the first reading of this story students have a lot of The teaching of literature and the unique learning
difficulty grasping the implications of this ending and aren’t at all experiences it offers are under threat; we live at a time when the
sure what to do with it. Once we have discussed other aspects of Humanities are in a state of crisis around the world. The economic
the story – the characterizations, the contrast between Robert and downturn of the past few years which has affected so many
the narrator, etc., I make them form pairs with another student, countries has left the Humanities woefully underfunded. In such a
close their eyes and try to draw something in the same way that climate, one might ask so why does literature matter? People have
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means of making the experience of the characters in the literary the narrator and Robert did in the story. While one student draws,
text come alive to my students. I will discuss one example here to the other has to try to guess what he/she is drawing and then
illustrate. In my Fiction class I teach a short story called “Cathedral” they switch roles and do it again. I ask students to think about and
written by the American writer Raymond Carver. In brief, the story register their thoughts, feelings and emotions throughout this
is about a blind man called Robert who is visiting the narrator and activity. Common ideas that emerge from the discussion following
his wife for a day. The story is told from the perspective of the the activity, include a sense of loss of control, the importance of
protagonist who is a man full of prejudices and biases and Robert is working collaboratively, a strong desire for the partner to be able to
his wife’s friend. The narrator is anxious about the visit and is unable guess the right answer, frustration, difficulty, a feeling of bonding
to conceal his prejudices when he meets Robert. Carver carefully and mutual interdependence, the need to focus and concentrate
delineates Robert and the narrator as contrasting characters – the very hard. By the end of this activity some of the students even
narrator we learn, has no friends, doesn’t have a good relationship describe it as a “spiritual” experience. This simple activity allows
with his wife and behaves in an unkind way with Robert. Robert, students to experience firsthand a number of complex things. They
on the other hand, has lived a full life, travelled the world with his come to realize that vision is not about physical sight, but about
wife who died recently and whom he loved very much. He has a perception, empathy and imagination. The life experiences of
strong connection with the narrator’s wife who used to work for people who are less able than us can teach us valuable things and
him reading him newspaper stories. Toward the end of the story, opening up ourselves to new experiences, without prejudice and
Robert and the narrator are watching a TV programme on cathedrals pre-judgment, can yield unexpected rewards. Although Carver’s
and the narrator decides to try to explain to Robert what cathedrals narrator has absolutely nothing in common with my students, this
look like. Robert suggests that the narrator should close his eyes activity puts them, even if only for a few minutes, in the shoes of the
and draw the cathedral while Robert will put his own hand on the narrator and they realize immediately what he means when he says
narrator’s hand and try to follow the movement of the pencil. The “It was really something.” It also allows them to reflect upon if not
exercise achieves much more for the narrator than for Robert. The purge themselves of any prejudices or misconceptions they might
former has a transformative and deeply spiritual experience as he have had about different kinds of disabilities and disabled people.
realizes through the act of drawing as if blind, that one does not All this happens not through didactic instruction but in a natural and
need eyes, but rather vision, in order to see the world. Carver ends experiential way. Above all, the students realize that difference is not
the story seemingly abruptly with the curt and inarticulate line “It’s necessarily threatening or divisive but that understanding difference
really something” uttered by the narrator. helps us to deal with it in compassionate ways.
On the first reading of this story students have a lot of The teaching of literature and the unique learning
difficulty grasping the implications of this ending and aren’t at all experiences it offers are under threat; we live at a time when the
sure what to do with it. Once we have discussed other aspects of Humanities are in a state of crisis around the world. The economic
the story – the characterizations, the contrast between Robert and downturn of the past few years which has affected so many
the narrator, etc., I make them form pairs with another student, countries has left the Humanities woefully underfunded. In such a
close their eyes and try to draw something in the same way that climate, one might ask so why does literature matter? People have
40 41
