Phyllis G. Hastings
Professor of English Appointed to SVSU in 1981
D.A. University of Michigan
M.A. Wayne State University
B.A. Northwestern University
PAPER
"Get Real: Campus and Prison Students Share Their Realities to Enhance and Assimilate Understanding of Literature." Conference on College Composition and Communication, New Orleans, Louisiana, 5 April 2008.
The presentation reports on and analyzes interaction between college students and men in a medium-security prison who share responses to literature.
One reads literature through the lens of what one already knows. In addition to using analytical tools-the concepts and strategies involved in analyzing plot and structure, for example-readers tap into their past experiences, literary and real, and their previous knowledge: to activate associations; recognize human dynamics; identify and empathize with characters and situations; internalize events; and finally reflect on and integrate the fictional experience into their total life knowledge. In college classes, they negotiate the results with others. Robert Scholes describes the sequence of activities as reading, interpreting, and critiquing.
Persons learn most when discussants' foundational experiences are wide-ranging and participants are open to new perspectives. But college students' life experiences are often limited, and the range of ages and ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds in a classroom is also likely to be limited. In addition, students are often constrained by tight schedules which discourage exploration, by desire to avoid conflict with peers, and by the perceived demand to accommodate views of the teacher-grader.
Because of the broader range of life experience and willingness to dialogue in this combined group of college students and prison inmates, all participants develop greater understanding of the literature and become better able to assimilate it.