Wednesday, April 12, 2017

"The Old Chief Mshlanga"

12 April 2017: "It's just so...sad." --a student in my ENGL 301 class, reacting to the ending of Doris Lessing's powerful story in which a young girl realizes the injustice of colonial oppression, but finds herself unable to do anything but watch.

Sometimes I think that as a teacher, especially in ENGL 301 when I am trying to get them to learn theory and practice that theory on a text, I lose sight of the ways a text can move readers. So this student's comment--one instantly echoed by her classmates--was a good reminder not to do that.

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