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A Theme-Based Teaching Model of <Modern British & American Novels>: “Rewriting The Literary Canon”

This paper is to suggest a theme-based teaching model of <Modern British & American Novels>. Even though theme-based instruction is not a new teaching method, it is rare to see a syllabus designed around a specific theme. Theme-based teaching is effective in helping students focus on the chosen theme for a semester while reading diverse literary texts. Dealing with several texts in terms of the main theme of the course, students are able to have many opportunities to see how differently or similarly the theme is represented. In addition, a theme-based course helps students feel a stronger sense of accomplishment as to the course theme at the end of the semester. The teaching model suggested in this paper is based on the theme, “rewriting the literary canon.”Postcolonial rewriting and rereading of literary canons are to interrogate European discourses and ideologies implied in the canons. Taking the postcolonial rewriting and rereading as the course theme, this model selects J. M. Coetzee’s Foe, Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, and Maryse Cond&eacute;’s I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem as the course texts. These texts rewrite the characters marginalized in Robinson Crusoe, Jane Eyre, and the Scarlet Letter through literary imagination. Drawing on postcolonial and feminist theories, this teaching model attempts to read racial and sexual others and listen to their life stories which were silenced in the original texts. With the specific course theme and course objectives, this model further lists sub-themes for each text, focusing on the text’s relation to its original text. The presentation of sub-themes for each text is of use in guiding students for their reading of the text and their preparation of class discussions on the given topics. This model also uses quizzes and reading logs to stimulate students' reading, writing and thinking on the given themes and topics.