Do We Need to Separate Classical Literature from Popular Literature?

Jezza P. Oraa Prof. Erwin Cipriano
AB English 3-3 20thEuropeanLiterature

Short Research

• Do we need to separate Classical Literature from Popular Literature?

First let me define the two literatures, according to Esther Lombardi of About.com Guide Classical Literature refers to the great masterpieces of the Greek, Roman and other ancient civilizations such as Homer’s “Iliad,” Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” Virgil's "Aeneid," "Oedipus the King" by Sophocles, along with works by other writers in epic, lyric, tragedy, comedy and other forms. In the other hand Popular literature includes those writings intended for the masses and those that find favor with large audiences. It can be distinguished from artistic literature in that it is designed primarily to entertain for example Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” J.D Salinger “Catcher in the Rye,” and “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. (Britannica Online Encyclopedia & Goodreads.com).
To answer the question above, do we need to separate Classical from Popular Literature? I researched about the difference and the like of the two. There are some professors who acted to research as well and study on which of the two is the best way to use on teaching their students. According to Professor Diane Penrod, using popular culture enhances the learning of their students because it allows them to put critical thinking into practice in their every day lives, not just in literary practice. She found that using popular culture is a gateway for the bored youth of to enter the realm of critical thinking. She says that students are "bored by the boundaries they assume exist in the learning process, bored by not seeing connections between learning and living in their education." Popular culture, then, becomes a learning tool to help students not only write rhetorically, but to question the world around them. The classroom becomes a forum where students learn the excitement of public debate and examination of cultural issues. Popular culture gives them tools to understand the effects that language and images of popular culture have and how the tools of rhetoric are used in every day life. Popular culture becomes not just a collection of music videos, magazine ads, and movies, but an effective means for criticism. In contrast, Author and teacher Carol Jago is a proponent for teaching classical literature as a way to teach students critical thinking and rhetorical skills In her book, With Rigor for All: Teaching the Classics to Contemporary Students, she points out that "a critical reading of classical literature results in a deep literacy that is an essential skill for anyone who wants to make sense of the world" she uses titles like Frankenstein to understand cloning and Beowulf to understand overcoming adversity in the face of great odds. She shows that literature is multifaceted and can teach students just as much about life as popular culture. Jago and others find more value in the classics than in movies and television. These teachers of classical literature would be quick to point out the difficulties in using popular culture as anything more than an enhancement tool like showing a movie to help visualize a play. Classical teachers would rather teach things that have withstood the test of time and have shown themselves to contain universal values that may be understood by all generations like the “Odyssey” and its eternal lessons of the heroic journey and the value of home and family.

With these two realms of teaching, the great answer of which is more effective in the art of teaching the comparison and contrast shows that teaching Popular literature and Classical literature together is the best way on how will the students become critically competent writers and thinkers. Professors can use the two together, interchangeably and the integration of popular culture and classical literature leads students to learn important rhetorical skills such as questioning and deep reading that may be used in any aspect of writing. Using both mediums develop a more well rounded student that is not only well versed in the literature of Shakespeare and Chaucer. Students can use the understanding of messages in all genres to navigate the world around them and information in all its forms. Obviously, according to this information for me there is no need to separate Classical from Popular Literature.

Work cited
J.E. Thurnau, Yahoo! Contributor Network
(http://voices.yahoo.com/popular-culture-vs-classical-literature-english-12169.html?cat=4#comments)