Great Writers Inspire

Amongst the excellent resources available in the Great Writers Inspire collections there’s a lecture by Professor Peter McDonald on J.M. Coetzee which inspires the audience by challenging the notion of great writers as ‘spotless icons serenely floating above the murky complexity of their time or cultures’. In his analysis of the first sentence of Disgrace Professor McDonald demonstrates that the text calls for a scrutiny of its own language, the English language, and way of understanding the world, and poses crucial questions regarding the responsibilities of Western philosophical thought. In this critical sense, Coetzee is a ‘great’ writer. It is this interrogative approach to the cultural values that underpin literature and criticism that emerged from the discussions at the ‘Engage’ workshop hosted by the Oxford University Computing Services. Most participants recognised the need to evaluate critically the meaning of ‘greatness’ in literary texts and open the debate to external users of the Great Writers Inspire website. This online scholarly resource provides a combination of podcasts, e-books, essays and images, and the unpredictable dialogue between texts and con-texts seems to me its most valuable feature. The opportunity to select, combine and reuse materials encourages a mode of critical thinking that is performative and unequivocally provisional. And playful. I can see my students being inspired by accidental connections as they browse the site and discover new ways of approaching literature through quirky introductions, original manuscripts and thought-provoking lectures. This resource is a fine example of collaborative work and will definitely inspire similar projects as more teachers, researchers and students familiarise themselves with open content and virtual learning environments. One might then start to imagine the exploration of ‘great’ writing as a shared pursuit that speaks different languages and poses new vital questions. Thank you to the organisers of the ‘Engage’ event for introducing the resource and initiating a discussion on its educational potential. I look forward to the next stages in the development of the online collections.

Antonella Castelvedere is Lecturer in English at University Campus Suffolk.

As a Lecturer at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, I would say that I work on a daily basis with a great writer, although I don’t stop and think about what this term means to me as much as I possibly should. The workshop at the Oxford University Computing Services was a great way of starting a really productive debate about what a ‘great writer’ is, how s/he ‘inspires’, and how as educators and researchers we can be a part of this process. For me the most exciting and profitable event was the discussion among 5 Oxford academics about what a great writer, or indeed a great text, is. With discussions ranging from Wordsworth to Milton to Auden to Shakespeare to more contemporary (and less Anglo-centric) writers, the speakers opened up a range of critical issues important to our understanding of why and how we teach certain writers. Is there something intrinsically and universally ‘great’ about certain writing, or is ‘greatness’ simply a product of cultural prestige and influence? Personally I feel that there’s a middle ground that needs to be found – great writing does evidence certain formal and philosophical properties (the ability for continued and varied rereading, for instance, an issue brought up in the discussion), but we also need to be sensitive to the ways in which ‘greatness’ is also produced by social factors such as the visibility of the book (i.e. whether or not it’s available in print, and if so to what extent) and the cultural hegemony of the country/government in which it is produced. I think more material along these lines in the Great Writers Project would make for really interesting reading and study. Once we’ve started to think about some of these issues, we can then proceed to considering why and how great writing inspires, and how teachers can be facilitators of this process. Very much looking forward to seeing what the project ultimately produces!

Erin Sullivan is a Lecturer and Fellow at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham.

It’s been a busy first week back at school.

This time of year involves includes the mad rush of submitting coursework, the realisation that Y13 students are firmly headed out of school and (mostly) off to university, and Y12 students are about to make decisions about which A level courses to stay with and what sort of degrees they will apply to do.

All of this puts the Great Writers Inspire conference firmly into context. We looked at resources and approaches that would really help inspire our A level and undergraduate students.

One of the highlights for me was Seamus Perry’s talk on readings of a great text. This will be a fantastic introduction for the A2 students when they return from study leave in mid-June. I hope it will be a catalyst for some really independent thinking for them as well as encouraging them to stick with Literature at A2. I’ll go on to offer selected podcasts and videos throughout the course and will direct individual students to the site for independent browsing.

I’ll probably use Simon Horobin’s discussion of the history of English pronunciation with my A level English Language class as well.

All this is not to underestimate the value for a teacher of meeting up with other English teachers and the joy of sharing ideas, good practice and the love of literature.

So, many thanks to the Great Writers Inspire team for an invigorating couple of days as well as some great resources that will inspire both teachers and students.

Roisin Hancock is an English teacher at Teesside High School.