The Crafty Reader

September 1, 2001
A well-known literary critic, Scholes (modern culture and media, Brown Univ.; The Rise and Fall of English: Reconstructing English As a Discipline) finds that reading is the route to intelligence and that it can and must be taught and learned. He asserts that, contrary to the New Critics and to years of instruction in English classes, texts are situated in time and place. Readers should be aware of a work's cultural and political context as well as of genre and the author's life and career, and gaps and inconsistencies in the text should be noted. Scholes demonstrates how fundamentalist reading or selective literalism fails but becomes one of the most powerful ways in which the public is misled. The essays are thorough, well reasoned, and articulate, and his suggestions on teaching will upend the curriculum. Essential for all teachers of English and librarians and for serious readers and book clubs; both academic and public libraries will want to add this title. Nancy P. Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, NC

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.