The Unteaching of Literature: We Murder to Dissect. 

The current approach to the teaching of imaginative literature is 
designed to maintain what seems to be a professional necessity:  
the distinction between the capacities of teacher and student to 
respond to literature.  However, the fact must eventually be faced 
that a work of imaginative literarure is not made accessible to 
anyone by means of an “explanation” presented after the work is 
read.  Imaginative writings are composed primarily, not to be 
thought about or discussed, but to be experienced imaginatively, 
to be lived vicariously, at the moment of reading.  No teacher may 
assume that an intellectually enriching “interpretation,” however 
brilliantly conceived, is an adequate substitute for that immediate 
experience.  This article addresses that issue and offers a new 
perspective on the teaching of literature.