This cartoon from Evolving Perspectives is inspired by the trigger warnings that some universities have been including in connection with classic literature and art. But it also highlights the reason for exposing students to literature in the first place. Sometimes we quiz and test in the interest of getting them to actually do the reading. And unfortunately that conveys to them that what matters is being able to recall facts and details about the reading. But the aim of reading isn’t memorizing plot elements, it is the transformative experience that reading literature mediates.
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