A novel challenge: Yes or No?

This morning you did very well analysing Hartmann's introduction (2007, p. 41) which sets the scene for the reading excerpt from Bitter Lemons, a book in which author Lawrence Durrell tells the story of a part of his life. In Quest 3, there is a unit on literature (Hartmann & Blass, 2007, Unit 3), a traditional academic field where the subject studied is works of written art of a culture, whether the epics of Homer, the tragedy that is Shakespeare's Hamlet, the poetry of Tu Fu (杜甫), or the masterful essays of David Hume.

Another common  form of literature is the novel, where authors often do much more than tell a story: Harry Potter captured the imagination of millions, not merely because it is a story well told, but because it explores themes that humans have cared about since before the Iliad. Reading a novel provides valuable practice in a range of academic skills, as we had a short example of this morning;  the length is itself good practice at extended reading, and it might even be enjoyable, if challenging.

We will finish our somewhat patchy reading of Law tomorrow, with an exam on it next Monday. This fairly short essay by an academic who is writing for an educated audience who welcome an intellectual challenge will provide some valuable examples when we come to write an essay next week. That essay will be our expanded version of Hartmann's academic writing in Part 5 (2007, pp. 60 - 64) of chapter 2, which we will also finish over the weekend, apart from Part 5. We will work on the academic writing exercise next week as we also work through chapter 3, "Themes and Purposes", Hartmann's first chapter on the topic of art.

The remaining two weeks of our six week term should be more than enough for us to complete chapter 3, and it doesn't worry me if we don't finish, or even start, chapter 4. I think it would be more productive, more useful practice, to also spend some time on a careful reading of a classic modern English novel. The one I have in mind is relatively short: it is 51 pages (A4) in the version I've prepared, so we would aim to read 5 - 6 pages a day, starting on Monday next week.

Although I haven't given all of my reasons, you've probably already inferred that I favour reading a novel. I do this with most AEP classes, except in the final level where we might instead read longer and more academic works, such as US Supreme Court opinions and journal papers.

However, as the title suggests, I'm also interested in your ideas on this. So, what do you think?

• Should we read a short novel or not? 
• What do you think are the reasons for and against? 
• Which are stronger? 
• What other points do you think are relevant? What should be considered? 
• Do you have a different suggestion? 

__________

Reference

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2^nd ed.). London: McGraw-Hill.

Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2^nd ed.). London: McGraw-Hill.