Abstracts Category : Other

The Formation of a Reader: A Modernist Theory of Education

by Laura A White

Modernism is a popular topic for diverse kinds of scholarship and theories, yet the possibilities of its contribution to education have been neglected. This thesis is an attempt to illustrate modernism's utility in forming a theory of education through examining the thoughts of two prominent modernists, Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster. In reviewing both their fiction and nonfiction, we not only gain valuable insight into and contextualization of modernism, we are also introduced to possible (theoretical) solutions to problems that continue to plague our classrooms. By evaluating modernist themes of form, narration, becoming a reader and a critic, and time, I hope to illustrate modernism's capacity to contribute to the educational conversation in unique and valuable ways. As we channel the values Woolf and Forster lived by and demonstrated in their writing into an adaptable educational theory, we will be able to produce generations of better readers, better thinkers, better learners, and ultimately better individuals.