Classic vs. Contemporary Literature

      To say that my tastes have changed would be an understatement. In high school, I refused to even open Great Expectations because I was so opposed to being forced to read classic literature. I was the just like every other teen girl at the time, caught up in the craze of the Twilight saga, searching hungrily for the next addition to my collection of supernatural romance books. Prior to my senior year and my introduction to John Steinbeck, I couldn't be bothered to open a classic. As I reflect on it now, I think that maybe it was because the language was so intimidating and the metaphorical weight was so formidable that I couldn't comprehend them. On top of that, teachers before senior year made it so tedious for us to make it through a novel that they ruined to impact a great novel can have. When it took is three months to make it through Romeo and Juliet in ninth grade, none of us ever wanted to pick up another Shakespeare play (which I actually love now, thanks to Levitan). I believe taking too much time to focus on the insignificant details, or trying to interpret themes before we know the whole book, takes away from the overall power and point a novel can have.
     Since coming to college, however, I feel that I have grown into a more mature reader. Not that I have as much time to read for leisure, but I find that I enjoy assigned books more because I can better understand them. As I began to read Maggie: Girl of the Streets, I found it was a little difficult to understand the dialect in which the characters speak. Having only read the first three chapters, I could see this posing a problem in the classroom because it is far different from how we speak today and students might interpret this to mean that the problems in the novel aren't still relevant today. As a teacher, it would be my job to break the wall that this dialogue creates and bring the students into Maggie's world. Just because I don't find it a particularly hard read doesn't mean that others won't, and just because I cannot relate to Maggie's situation personally, doesn't mean that there won't be students who can. To address these challenges in a modern day classroom, I would think it would be beneficial to approach the novel by discussing current poverty and child abuse rates, and helping them to understand that a lot of these problems still exist today. I also think it could be a good idea to talk about how the laws have changed from Maggie's time to our time, and how these laws are enforced and rights are protected.
    By approaching the novel in those ways provides a great opportunity for the students to find interesting ways to connect to classic literature. Instead of them just finding superficial connections with a character, this approach enables them to make connections between their world and the world portrayed in the book. These approaches provide the chance for students to start researching the time period in which a novel takes place, helping them enhance their connection building skills. Maggie itself provides the unique opportunity for students to begin exploring their own class consciousness and their awareness to the world around them. When thought about in the context of the modern world, there is a place for some classic literature in a classroom. It depends on the teachers ability to get students interested and how well they can bring it back to the students' lives. But there is also a place for good contemporary novels, too. Like we discussed, I also hope to one day include YA literature in my classroom, but I feel that Jago treated the subject as if there were no novels published more recently that are worth replacing the classics. Even some post-modern classics can have their time to shine. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next by Ken Keasy found its way into my senior English class and evoked such a strong reaction in my class that no one failed a single assignment. Like I said before, it just depends on the teachers ability to get the students excited about reading.