New Thoughts on Old Books

Why Read Homer, Milton, or a Medieval Nun at a Time like This?

Edited By: Marilyn McEntyre, Seth C. Hawkins

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Why continue reading “classic” texts today? This book is not a defense of the literary canon. Instead, professors of English offer thoughtful, engaging, personal responses, inviting readers to revisit “old assignments” in new terms.

The reasons to read contemporary works, and older ones, by people of color, indigenous peoples, and other groups underrepresented in anthologies until recently are compelling…

The reasons to read contemporary works, and older ones, by people of color, indigenous peoples, and other groups underrepresented in anthologies until recently are compelling and should be obvious. The reasons to continue reading “classic” texts that have until recently held places of honor in anthologies and English curricula are, however, less obvious to many contemporary readers. This book is emphatically not a defense of the literary “canon” of generations past, but does bring the thoughts of a range of professors of English to bear on a question about which many undergraduates and adult readers wonder. These thoughtful, engaging, personal responses to why read Homer or Milton or Spenser or James, among others, are meant as invitations to revisit “old assignments” in new terms.

Marilyn McEntyre, PhD, after teaching American Literature and Medical Humanities for several decades at Mills College, the College of New Jersey, and Westmont College, USA, has continued to teach workshops for writers and courses that always include attention to the “Why read?” question. Her recent books include a second edition of Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies; Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict; Word by Word; and Make a List: How a Simple Practice Can Change Our Minds and Open Our Hearts.

Seth C. Hawkins, MD, is Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Affiliate Faculty with the Department of Anthropology at Wake Forest University, USA. He is Chair of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Section of Medical Humanities and a Fellow of both ACEP and the Society for Applied Anthropology. He is board-certified in emergency medicine and works as a full-time emergency physician at Catawba Valley Health System in North Carolina, USA.

Anne Hawkins, Cheri L. Hoeckley, John McEntyre, Donald D. Palmer, Edmund Reiss, Beverly Taylor, Candace Taylor, Randall VanderMey, Paul Willis, Sherman Hawkins, Seth C. Hawkins, Marilyn McEntyre