1st Edition

Studies in the Spectator Role Literature, Painting and Pedagogy

By Michael Benton Copyright 2000

    Michael Benton's book develops the concept of spectatorship as an answer to these questions. It explores the similarities and differences in our experiences of literature and the visual arts, and discusses their implications for pedagogy and their applications in cross-curricular work in the classroom.
    Teachers will find that, while many of the visual and verbal texts may be familiar, the approaches to them offer fresh insights and a rich agenda for the classroom. Shakespeare, Fielding, Hogarth, Blake, Wordsworth, Constable, Turner, the Pre-Raphaelites, Wilfred Owen, Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney - the range of authors and artists discussed is both extensive and relevant to the National Curriculum and to post-16 and undergraduate courses.

    Acknowledgements. Introduction. PART ONE: READING AND REVIEWING: THE SPECTATOR-PARTICIPANT ROLE 1. The Reader in the Secondary World 2. Reading Paintings: the Self-Conscious Spectator 3. Reading Poems, Reading Paintings: Anyone for Ekphrasis? PART TWO: WORDS AND IMAGES 4. Visualising Narrative: Henry Unton and Henry V 5. Theatrical Fictions: Hogarth, Gay and Fielding 6. The Image of Childhood: Variations on the Blakean Theme 7. Landscape and Learning: Thomson & Wilson; Wordsworth & Constable 8. Turner Our Contemporary: 'Poetic Painting' 9. Painting Shakespeare 10. Images of War: Spencer, Nash and the War Poets 11. Myth: Hughes's 'crow' and Heaney's 'bog poems' 12. Conclusions: Spectatorship and Education.

    Biography

    Michael Benton

    'The Strengths of this book are considerable.' - European Journal of Teacher Education

    'This book is no mere pedagogical guide. It is a thorough investigation of the territory between poems and artworks.' - European Journal of Teacher Education