Dr. Gangi came to our class today and did a wonderful presentation on "problematic" books. I wasn't too sure what exactly these books were, however, she clarified my questions once she started talking. It was interesting to see books from a different point of view. This point of view was now looking at books in somewhat of a negative way, rather than admiring its format, genre type, illustrations, etc. Before Dr. Gangi's presentation on these types of books, it rarely occurred to me how "problematic" books could be.
In doing some research of my own on GoodReads, I found a few problematic books myself; these books include: The Twilight series, where men can't talk about their feelings, have to look like chiseled models, have eyes that pierce the soul, and amazing skin, and The Help, where a young African American girl who graduated from Ole Miss wants to be a writer but it is 1962 and she is only the help to a white wealthy family- the author played very stereotypical themes in which were very inappropriate and obvious voices. Overall, I learned a lot from her presentation on problematic books and certain authors who write this way. I will now keep an eye open to these types of readings and will know how to address them in the classroom. Problematic books, although some are too "harsh" for classrooms, are good for lessons!
No comments:
Post a Comment