MLA APPROACHES TO TEACHING ANNA KARENINA
Amy Mandelker
AMandelker at aol.com
Tue Nov 9 01:27:46 UTC 1999
Dear Colleagues:
We are posting the following to obtain your assistance in the preparation of
an important professional project. We have undertaken the editing of a
projected volume on ANNA KARENINA for the MLA series APPROACHES TO TEACHING
WORLD LITERATURE. This volume will be the first in the series of over 50
titles to focus on a work of Russian literature.
The procedure for editing a volume in the MLA series involves collecting
information from colleagues in the teaching profession who teach ANNA
KARENINA in various types of institutions and within diverse curriculuar
configurations. Volumes in the MLA Approaches to Teaching World Literature
series are invaluable for their presentation of helpful course materials and
recommendations for specific approaches to take in the classroom. In order
to collect information as efficiently as possible, we have prepared a
questionnaire. We invite all those who have taught ANNA KARENINA to fill it
out. All respondents will be acknowledged in the final publication.
Respondents are also invited to submit proposals for essays to be included in
the volume. These essays should focus on some aspect of how to teach ANNA
KARENINA.
You may download the attached questionnaire, fill it out and email it to
either Professor Liza Knapp, lknapp at socrates.berkeley.edu or to Professor Amy
Mandelker, AMandelker at aol.com. Please do not return your questionnaires to
SEELANGS. (Please do not click on the reply function.) Alternately, you
may obtain a paper copy of the questionnaire by writing to either:
Professor Liza Knapp, Slavic Department, University of California at
Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-2979
or
Professor Amy Mandelker, Graduate Program in Comparative Literature, Graduate
Center of the City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, New
York, 10016.
We are asking for a return date of January 15, 2000 in order to stay within
the publication schedule proposed by our editor at MLA Press.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Liza Knapp Amy Mandelker
Associate Professor of Slavic Associate Professor of
Language and Literatures Comparative Literature
University of California at Berkeley CUNY Graduate School
(Text of questionnaire follows)
Approaches to Teaching Tolstoy's *Anna Karenina*
Edited by Liza Knapp and Amy Mandelker
Please return by 15 January 2000 to Professor Amy Mandelker, Graduate
Program in Comparative Literature, Graduate Center of CUNY, 365 Fifth
Avenue, New York, New York 10016.
Name ____________________________ Department ____________________________
Academic Affiliation ____________________________
____________________________
Preferred Mailing Address ___________________________
Telephone ____________ FAX ____________ E-Mail _________________________
Please feel free to attach additional sheets, if necessary, to respond to
this questionnaire. Any supplementary material you would be willing to make
available (e.g., course syllabi, paper topics, bibliographies) would be
quite helpful. We encourage comment on additional issues relevant to the
teaching of *Anna Karenina*. Respondents will be acknowledged in the
published volume.
1. Please check all courses in which you have taught *Anna Karenina* (place
an asterisk next to any course in which the novel is read in Russian).
__ survey of Russian literature (__ graduate __undergraduate)
__ survey of European literature (__ graduate __undergraduate)
__ novel (__ graduate __undergraduate): Specify __________________
__ upper level (3rd/4th+) Russian language course
__ Great Books/Humanities
__ Tolstoy course (__ graduate __undergraduate)
__ Tolstoy and Dostoevsky (__ graduate __undergraduate)
__ Graduate seminar: Specify ________________________
__ Other: ________________________
2. Which translations have you taught from? Which do you prefer and why?
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________
3. What secondary works, if any, do you assign or recommend? What
background works do you assign or recommend to students? Which background
works would you recommend to beginning teachers of *Anna Karenina*?
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________
4. How much time do you allow for *Anna Karenina*? What aspects of the
novel do you emphasize in class? Is your approach sequential or thematic?
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________
OVER
5. What features of *Anna Karenina* do your students find most difficult or
challenging? What aspects do they find most stimulating or engaging? How
have you addressed these specific features in your teaching?
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________
6. Which critical approaches and theoretical perspectives have you found
most productive in teaching *Anna Karenina*? Do you adopt a specific
critical stance?
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________
7. What are some of the problems you encounter in making the Russian text
accessible to students or, when teaching in translation, in explaining
various aspects of Russian literature, culture, and history?
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________
8. If you use supplementary nonprint materials (e.g., slides, films) in
teaching the novel, please describe.
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________
9. What written work do you assign? Describe paper topics and other
assignments that have been fruitful. Describe any particular techniques,
exercises, handouts you have developed to help students read *Anna
Karenina* more productively. Indicate any suggestions that would help
instructors guide students through reading the novel.
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________
10. If you relate *Anna Karenina* to other works, please state which texts
and how you perceive and teach the relation.
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________
11. What sorts of information would you like to see included in this
volume? What particular issues or approaches should be addressed?
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________
12. If you would like to propose an essay for this volume, please enclose
an abstract on a separate sheet. The abstract should indicate the approach
and/or issue you would discuss and should explain its potential benefit for
undergraduates and instructors alike.
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