As English majors, we tend to be questioned about what we do in the classroom and how it is valuable to an overall learning experience. This is especially true when reading contemporary “fantasy” novels such as Zone One, which Erin tackles in her post, How To Teach Colson Whitehead in College Classrooms. Reading Shakespeare for the first time since high school (unless you count HUMN I last year where I read “Hamlet” again), I was brought back to the groans of my classmates who were perplexed by Shakespeare’s ancient language. I was actually even surprised when Beth admitted she had a tough time in graduate school being able to comprehend and appreciate his work. Beth did remind us, however, how important his work is.
Something that I want to reflect on is, just like Erin mentioned how important reading Whitehead and contemporary novels is to our learning experience, it is just as important to turn back to why we study older, preliminary texts such as Shakespeare. It may seem obvious to mention considering that the basis of a lot of more traditional English classes is to read older texts like that of Shakespeare, which is, like Erin mentioned, thoughts people have. Yet, regardless of what the text itself is, reading “ancient” texts as English majors is beneficial to enhancing our critical reading skills. Additionally, the things that Shakespeare mentions in his texts are relatable to any time.