‘Living in a house without mirrors’: Poetry’s Cachet and Student Engagement

• Authors: Xerri Daniel
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article examines the contentious proposition that poetry has for the past few decades been experiencing a crisis, especially when it comes to student engagement. By means of the results of a study conducted in an English as a second language context, it explores teachers’ and students’ beliefs, attitudes and practices in relation to poetry. This article shows that the very discourse used to talk about poetry is a direct reflection of how much cachet it is ascribed in the classroom. It questions whether this inflation of cachet is responsible for the fact that poetry is not perceived as a genre that teachers and students opt to read for personal pleasure.

Keywords

EN

poetry reading; crisis discourse; student engagement; teacher beliefs; poetry’s cachet

• Publisher: Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw
• Journal: Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 25/1
• Pages: 271-286

Contributors

author

Xerri Daniel

• University of Malta

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