Uses of Images in the Study and Teaching of Literature

Master's Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Art - Pedagogy, grade: -, - (Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco), course: Art - Visual arts general, stylistics, Literature, language: English, abstract: Art is in museums, well protected by walls of critics, ready to rebuke any curiousuninformed person about art. Awe and respect are the attitudes required to look at a pieceof art; to appreciate its value, one may need knowledge related to history and aesthetics.The cult of the sacred has for long dominated artistic thought to the extent that whenpeople now hear the word art , they are afraid to advance any argument in fear todisplease the initiated. With such received ideas, art has become more distant to people.The idea that Tolstoy aimed to disseminate about art as constituting the bridge betweenpeople s feelings sounds unfeasible at present. The universality that art could demonstratelingered in museums visited by people from here and there. Such ideas hamperedstudents from getting in touch with works that could offer them other ways of lookingand construing the world around them. Alexandre Blok (1906), a Russian painter oncesaid that painting teaches one how to look and how to see (p. 24).Indeed, to look, to see, to perceive, and to observe are different ways of appreciatingany work of art. Looking at a picture and pondering about its meaning is observing itstraits and perceiving its artistry. Verbs related to sight often entail examination,inspection, scrutiny, study, and appraise. Whether the viewer is initiated to visual literacyor not, the picture grabs his or her attention and impels understanding. No matter howsimple or sophisticated the result is, the act is nonetheless productive. Pictures provokethoughts as words do. Their judicious use in literature teaching may enhance theinterpretive abilities of students.This thesis postulates that the use of visual art in the literature class can enhancestudents understanding of literary works and movements. It can also trigger imagery andtherefore generate interpretations. However, it is important to underline the word use incontrast with the word study . This thesis is mainly concerned with the use of images inliterature teaching and learning, but not with the study of images as the latter is oftensubsumed under an art syllabus. This study analyzes images against works of literaturewith the purpose of facilitating understanding, spurring imagery, and therefore generatinginterpretations. Therefore literature is the main focus of study but not art.[...]