| I. | THE PROBLEM | [1] |
| II. | THE CONDITIONS | [11] |
| III. | SOME DIFFICULTIES | [28] |
| IV. | OTHER OBSTACLES | [39] |
| V. | FOUNDATIONS OF WORK | [61] |
| VI. | PRELIMINARY WORK | [74] |
| VII. | THE INSPIRATIONAL USE OF LITERATURE | [88] |
| VIII. | AN ILLUSTRATION | [96] |
| IX. | EDUCATIONAL | [109] |
| X. | EXAMINATIONAL | [121] |
| XI. | THE STUDY OF PROSE | [136] |
| XII. | THE STUDY OF THE NOVEL | [152] |
| XIII. | THE STUDY OF MACBETH | [165] |
| XIV. | CRITICISM | [193] |
| XV. | LITERARY WORKMANSHIP | [207] |
| XVI. | LITERARY BIOGRAPHY | [222] |
| XVII. | VOLUNTARY READING | [227] |
| XVIII. | IN GENERAL | [237] |
| INDEX | [245] |
TALKS ON TEACHING
LITERATURE
I
THE PROBLEM
Few earnest teachers of literature have escaped those black moments when it seems perfectly evident that the one thing sure in connection with the whole business is that literature cannot be taught. If they are of sensitive conscience they are likely to have wondered at times whether it is honest to go on pretending to give instruction in a branch in which instruction was so obviously impossible. The more they consider, the more evident it is that if a pupil really learns anything in literature,—as distinguished from learning about literature,—he does it himself; and they cannot fail to see that as an art literature necessarily partakes of the nature of all art, the quality of being inexpressible and unexplainable in any language except its own.
The root of whatever difficulty exists in fulfilling the requirements of modern courses of training which have to do with literature is just this fact. Any art, as has been said often and often, exists simply and solely because it embodies and conveys what can be adequately expressed in no
other form. A picture or a melody, a statue or a poem, gives delight and inspiration by qualities which could belong to nothing else. To teach painting or music or literature is at best to talk about these qualities. Words cannot express what the work or art expresses, or the work itself would be superfluous; and the teacher of literature is therefore apparently confronted with the task of endeavoring to impart what language itself cannot say.