Using Literature to Teach Critical Media Literacy

Biographical Sketch

Professor Lindita Tahiri teaches at the Department of English Language and Literature, at the Department of Journalism, as well as at the Master Program for Translation and Interpretation of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Prishtina. She has publications, including three books, in the field of critical linguistics, literary criticism and discourse analysis.

Type of Presentation

Individual presentation

Brief Description of Presentation

My presentation explores the relation of teaching literature with the development of critical thinking skills. The focus on interior monologue technique with the neutral presentation of the internal life of characters is argued of social and political importance, because it is a concrete tool of arousing tolerance and understanding between people As a result, students learn to enjoy a non-visible, non-intrusive source of narration, rather than a judgmental and evaluative privileged source of information, and this way they are more resistant to authoritarian discourse

Abstract of Proposal

Using Literature to Teach Critical Media Literacy

This study argues the advantage of using literature to develop critical thinking skills focusing in the distanced, non-intrusive narrators and un-reliable narrators. Illustrations will be taken from the Albanian literary work of the renown writer Ismail Kadare from the period of communism, where probably literature has kept free thinking alive in one of the strictest Marxist- Leninist regime on earth. The distanced and non-intrusive narrator in Kadare’s fiction managed to create the illusion of the immediacy of the inner world of the fictional characters without wielding absolute cognitive control on them, as the dictatorship exerted on the people, thus creating a powerful perlocutionary force of liberation on the readers. Kadare’s literature refilled with life the drained language of mechanical thought, and succeeded to give self dignity to the intimate language of individuals, as readers could find more life in his works than in everyday reality. Also, the Kazuo Ishiguro’s unreliable narrator will be taken as an example of arousing empathy of the reader and creating the feeling that the reader knows more than the character. It will be argued that these kind of narrations, by creating the illusion of direct and non-intrusive presentation of an the self of the characters, help readers become aware of the absence and presence of direct propagation of ideology, thus supporting the media literacy skills of the reader.

This teaching strategy is based on pedagogical stylistics and besides making literature more approachable for students it also contributes for the development of critical thinking, which is commonly listed among the main skills belonging to generic competencies – transferable, multi-functional knowledge, skills and attitudes that people could learn and develop in different ways and learning environments, and apply across a variety of job and life contexts (European Commission, DG Education and Culture, 2006,2012). Generic skills have been capturing growing attention all over the world by education policy makers, and therefore particular attention should be paid to the way literature is taught, as a tool to sharpen the most important competences of the modern citizens, among them the critical literacy skills .

Keywords: critical literacy, non-intrusive narrator, Kadare, Ishiguro, pedagogical stylistics

Start Date

2-24-2018 8:10 AM

End Date

2-24-2018 9:40 AM

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Feb 24th, 8:10 AM Feb 24th, 9:40 AM

Using Literature to Teach Critical Media Literacy

Using Literature to Teach Critical Media Literacy

This study argues the advantage of using literature to develop critical thinking skills focusing in the distanced, non-intrusive narrators and un-reliable narrators. Illustrations will be taken from the Albanian literary work of the renown writer Ismail Kadare from the period of communism, where probably literature has kept free thinking alive in one of the strictest Marxist- Leninist regime on earth. The distanced and non-intrusive narrator in Kadare’s fiction managed to create the illusion of the immediacy of the inner world of the fictional characters without wielding absolute cognitive control on them, as the dictatorship exerted on the people, thus creating a powerful perlocutionary force of liberation on the readers. Kadare’s literature refilled with life the drained language of mechanical thought, and succeeded to give self dignity to the intimate language of individuals, as readers could find more life in his works than in everyday reality. Also, the Kazuo Ishiguro’s unreliable narrator will be taken as an example of arousing empathy of the reader and creating the feeling that the reader knows more than the character. It will be argued that these kind of narrations, by creating the illusion of direct and non-intrusive presentation of an the self of the characters, help readers become aware of the absence and presence of direct propagation of ideology, thus supporting the media literacy skills of the reader.

This teaching strategy is based on pedagogical stylistics and besides making literature more approachable for students it also contributes for the development of critical thinking, which is commonly listed among the main skills belonging to generic competencies – transferable, multi-functional knowledge, skills and attitudes that people could learn and develop in different ways and learning environments, and apply across a variety of job and life contexts (European Commission, DG Education and Culture, 2006,2012). Generic skills have been capturing growing attention all over the world by education policy makers, and therefore particular attention should be paid to the way literature is taught, as a tool to sharpen the most important competences of the modern citizens, among them the critical literacy skills .

Keywords: critical literacy, non-intrusive narrator, Kadare, Ishiguro, pedagogical stylistics