The Simpsons in the Classroom
Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield
Karma
Waltonen
and Denise Du Vernay
ISBN
978-0-7864-4490-8
notes, bibliography, index
340pp.
softcover
2010
Available for immediate shipment
Description
The object of much debate, attention, and scholarship since it first aired more than 20 years ago, The Simpsons provides excellent, if unexpected, fodder for high school and college lesson plans. After all, laughing students are hardly sleeping students! But The Simpsons also provides a familiar student knowledge base which instructors can use as a jumping-off point to introduce concepts in literature, composition, linguistics, cultural studies, gender studies, and media appreciation. The authors, both of whom have been teaching The Simpsons for more than a decade, share exercises, prompts, and even syllabi that have proven successful in their own courses.
About the Author
A former president of the Margaret Atwood Society, Karma Waltonen is an instructor of literature and composition/rhetoric classes. She also teaches special seminars on British humor and American satire. Denise Du Vernay teaches humanities, speech, and writing at the Milwaukee School of Engineering in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She writes a bi-weekly film column (Take Your Queue From Du) that runs every other Sunday at Matchflick.com.
Reviews
"Like The Simpsons itself, this book can be enjoyed on multiple levels--both for its trenchant, incisive sociocultural commentary and for its poop jokes. Okay, maybe there aren’t so many poop jokes in there. But the trenchant, incisive stuff more than makes up for it."--Robert Siegel, writer-director of Big Fan, Editor-in-Chief of The Onion 1996-2003
"A delightful and engaging work that is sure to be a useful and often referred to resource for anyone engaged in popular culture studies. Not only does the book offer a helpful reference guide for the bourgeoning scholarship dedicated to textually analyzing and exploring the social and cultural impact of The Simpsons, it also provides helpful ways in which academics can use to connect with students in teaching otherwise foreign and difficult concepts from composition to critical thinking to linguistics. I believe that both scholars and fans of The Simpsons will find this to be a perfectly cromulent introduction to the world of Simpsonology."--Joseph J. Foy, editor of Homer Simpson Goes to Washington: American Politics through Popular Culture and co-editor of Homer Simpson Marches on Washington: Dissent through American Popular Culture
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Table of Contents & Excerpts
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