.png)
Dr. James Stobaugh's American Literature and World Literature Published by Master Books
Years ago a friend had lent me a very old edition of James Stobaugh’s literary analysis. It didn’t interest me. About a year later, as I reviewed curriculum and narrowed down the options, I was surprised as I kept going back to James Stobaugh’s Literature! I’m so glad I didn’t cross it off my list because we loved this curriculum.
Dr. Stobaugh’s Literature course is an intensive 34 week study written with a Christian perspective. It is unique because students will learn about many world views such as: Deism, Theism, Romanticism, Naturalism, Realism, etc. Students will be able to decipher the world view of the different authors, how this world view affects writings, and also how the world view of the culture/time period the book was written influenced the literature work being read and analyzed.
Students will get to analyze great literature. Each lesson gives a short background about the author’s life experiences and time period they lived in. The curriculum also includes a few plays that we enjoyed watching on DVD. Be careful when choosing the DVD versions as you don’t want to find yourself jumping off the couch to turn the TV off!
World Literature is much more challenging than American Literature. Even if I found some of the books hard to understand, I felt it was important to have my children exposed to these great classics. Reading the old, OLD stories from a totally foreign culture can be extremely challenging. For some books, we used the audio version or found great radio theater options. We, also, weren’t afraid to use cliff notes, or other summaries, for the more demanding literature assigned in this curriculum.
The Master Books re-printing of Mr. Stobaugh’s literature curriculum has been simplified and usually has 3 or 4 essay options. This edition is written in a way that students are still able to answer the questions without having finished reading the entire work of literature being analyzed.
Both, World Literature and American Literature by Dr. Stobaugh, are worth two credits. Depending on the student’s load this curriculum can be a bit much for one year. A great option is to complete this curriculum in two years, or choose half of the lessons to complete, for one high school credit.
Dr. Stobaugh has written a history curriculum that goes along with his literature books. He also has written other middle school and high school literature books. If you would like more information on this curriculum, please visit our bookstore.
