This unit attempts to engage students in a multi-leveled learning process which will lead them beyond superficial encounters with art and literature. It provides a method of study which enables students to participate actively in the process of deep analysis. The method is first introduced as a visual-thinking skill.
Students initially learn how to approach and decipher the meanings of paintings.
The method is then transferred to the study of poems and short stories. Thus the student is introduced to a scheme which allows intense engagement with three different art forms. The broad subject of the art forms encountered in this unit is twentieth-century British culture. The student becomes a historian of sorts who uncovers cultural meanings through his own creative mental processes. I have worked through applications of the methodology for use with the short story and the poem, and these subsequent applications are also explained.