한국의 영시 교육, 그 현실과 가능성

Poetry Education in the Universities at Korea, Its Reality and Possibilities: Rethinking the Dilemma and Force of Poetry

This article focuses on two points: first of all, it goes back to the history of English poetry education here in Korea, how poetry education has been done in the university classroom for the past 30 years. To reach the goal, this article revisits the 26 years of The Journal of Teaching English Literature. Reading the major achievements and endeavors of the earlier generations in poetry education, this article diagnoses the realities, changes, transformations, and dilemmas, which English poetry education here in Korea has faced for the past 30 years. Secondly, based on scanning the history, this article invites readers to rethink the possibility and responsibility of poetry education in this era when the discourse of the crisis of humanities and universities narrows down the realm of literary education. I argue that the crisis in poetry is not a newly-coined word. Rather, poetry, taking the critical edge of languages in its forms and content, becomes an efficient tool to guide students to various points such as history, culture and to nurture literacy. Presenting some interesting examples and practices in a classroom, this article concludes that poetry education needs to go into planting the seeds for creative and critical thoughts that lead students to construct something new in its force of making.