This nine-chapter book narrates a writing-centered approach to the
teaching of literature and literary research. As the title suggests, the
book also embraces a thematic approach to reading and writing about
twentieth-century American literature, focusing on the grounds for hope
in an age of despair. The first five chapters explore in detail the
teaching of the twentieth-century American literature course at the
University of Pristina in Kosovo, where the author served as Fulbright
Professor of American Literature in the spring semester of 2012.
Throughout, these chapters narrate students' in-class interactions to
illustrate writing-to-learn strategies for teaching the literature.
Chapter six then follows the same cohort of 22 students as they learned
to ground their literary research in their own questions about American
and Balkans narratives of oppression and liberty, of despair and hope.
The last three chapters document the responses of students and their
professors to this American theme of liberty and hope as seen through
the Balkans lenses of ethnic violence and emerging republican
government. Specifically, chapter seven focuses on students'
participation in a blog featuring Balkans literature that explores the
same issues of liberty and justice examined in the American literature
they have read. Chapter eight then celebrates student writing, the fruit
of the writing-to-learn strategies narrated in earlier chapters.
Finally, chapter nine narrates professors' and students' responses,
gathered through surveys and interviewing, to questions about their
country's violent past and the value of literary study in preparing
citizens to shape a new republic.
