For this independent inquiry project, I hope to undertake a study of literary criticism focused on J.D Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye. During the upcoming practicum, I will be teaching The Catcher in the Rye to two grade eleven classes, so this inquiry will directly support the unit I plan to teach. This study is rooted in a belief that secondary school teachers should be well versed in a wide range of theories and ways in which the text has been critically examined throughout the work’s history.
Since its publication, The Catcher in the Rye has been popular with adolescent readers due to themes of teenage confusion, angst, alienation, and rebellion. While it is a bestseller, it has also been challenged and noted as one of the most controversial books in education, mainly due to its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality. In this case, I think an exploration of literary criticism related to literature can be applied in a high school setting because it will help to unpack where the novel is situated within history and popular culture, as well as how it has been academically examined and taught. Further, having a greater understanding of how the novel has been interpreted will allow me to help students understand what it can mean to be literary critics themselves. By inquiring into how the novel has been analyzed, I will be able to think about the ways in which different theories can be presented in the classroom, and in turn, how these theories can help to engage students and encourage them to apart of this community of critics.
Works Consulted (or To Be Consulted)
Cui Wang, and Xiaofen Zhang. “Returning to Youth and Nature —The Catcher in the Rye in Ecocriticism.” Journal of Language Teaching and Research 1.3 (2010): 269-73.
Draffan, Robert A. Novel Approaches: Teaching “the Catcher in the Rye”. 24 Vol. 1973.
Glasser, William. Reclaiming Literature: A Teacher’s Dilemma. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 1994.
Lingdi Chen. “An Analysis of the Adolescent Problems in the Catcher in the Rye.” Asian Social Science 5.5 (2009).
Pinsker, Sanford, and Ann Pinsker. Understanding the Catcher in the Rye: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Privitera, Lisa. “Holden’s Irony in Salinger’s the Catcher in the RYE.” The Explicator 66.4 (2008): 203-6.
Salzberg, Joel. Critical Essays on Salinger’s the Catcher in the Rye. Boston, Mass: G.K. Hall, 1990.
Salzman, Jack. New Essays on the Catcher in the Rye. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Smith, Michael W. Understanding Reliable Narrators: Reading Between the Lines in the Literature Classroom. Champaign, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1991.
Steed, J. P. The Catcher in the Rye: New Essays. New York: Peter Lang, 2002.
Steinle, Pamela Hunt. In Cold Fear: The Catcher in the Rye Censorship Controversies and Postwar American Character. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2000.
Tolchin, Karen R. Part Blood, Part Ketchup: Coming of Age in American Literature and Film. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007.
Verde, Tom. Twentieth-Century Writers. New York, NY: Facts On File, Inc1996.
Wilson, James R. Responses of College Freshmen to Three Novels. Champaign, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1966.
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