Theme: Holly Johnson

Adolescents, Adolescent Novels, and Authors Writing the Edges

By Holly Johnson, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH – - “If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room.” –Jayne Howard – As I explained at the beginning of the month, I wanted to explore and share my thoughts about a number of books that 1) have characters on [...]

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Adolescents & Adolescent Novels on the Edge: Survival

By Holly Johnson, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH – Perhaps catastrophe is the natural human environment, and even though we spend a good deal of energy trying to get away from it, we are programmed for survival amid catastrophe. –Germaine Greer So, sometimes when we are standing on the edge of the next place, the [...]

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Adolescents, Adolescent Novels, and Authors Writing the Edges: Choices

By Holly Johnson, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH “I loved everyone who said yes to the world and tried to make it better instead of worse, because so much of the world was ugly— and just about all the ugly parts were due to humans.” –Cat, from Shine (p. 290) In the last few months [...]

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Adolescents, Adolescent Novels, and Authors Writing the Edges

By Holly Johnson, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH A penny for my thoughts, oh no, I’ll sell them for a dollar They’re worth so much more after I’m a goner And maybe then you’ll hear the words I been singin’ Funny when you’re dead how people start listenin’ Kimberly Perry, The Band Perry I don’t [...]

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Geography & International Literature, Part II

By Holly Johnson, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH It is place, permanent position in both the social and topographical sense that gives us our identity. ~ J.B. Jackson Addressing geography and international literature, I want to explore issues of identity with readers. In last week’s blog, I pondered teaching geography through international literature. This week, [...]

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Geography & International Literature, Part I

By Holly Johnson, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH If some peoples pretend that history or geography gives them the right to subjugate other races, nations, or peoples, there can be no peace. ~ Ludwig von Mises Because I like to travel, as I mentioned in my last post, geography has become of real interest to [...]

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“Travel” and International Literature

By Holly Johnson, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH Like most people, when I read I have images playing my head, almost like a movie. I am traveling! But to get that movie and to take that journey, I need some prior knowledge about the setting of the story along with other details that bring the [...]

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Social Responsibility and the Reader

By Holly Johnson, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH If you ask me what I came to do in the world, I, an artist, will answer you: I came here to live out loud. — Emile Zola Kathy Short’s June WOW Currents posts broached the issue of the social responsibility of the reviewer. I should have [...]

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A Language for the Literature

By Holly Johnson, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH I am on a hunt. I am searching for the variety of ways international literature might be conceptualized by teacher educators, teachers, and teacher candidates. I am also interested in the ways in which they might address and differentiate between international and multicultural literature as well as [...]

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