Short description:

This volume seeks to advance the discussion of character education at the level of the university, addressing the varying ways in which the reading of core texts contributes to the development of character of students and teachers in higher education.

Long description:

Literature and Character Education in Universities presents the potential of literary and philosophical texts for character education in modern universities. The book engages with theoretical and practical aspects of character development in higher education, combining conceptual discussion of the role of literature in character education with applied case studies from university classrooms.

Character education within the academic context of the university presents unique challenges and opportunities. Literature and Character Education in Universities presents perspectives from academics in Europe, the USA and Asia, offering unique insights into the ways that engaged reading and discussion of core texts can promote the development of intellectual and moral virtues. Chapters draw on a wide range of texts from Confucius? Analects to J. D. Salinger?s The Catcher in the Rye, focusing on themes such as truthfulness, self-knowledge, prudence, tolerance, friendship, and humility.?

Literature and Character Education in Universities will be of real use to researchers, academics and postgraduates in the fields of higher education, philosophy, and literature. It should be essential reading for university educators interested in character development and advocates of literary education in modern universities. ?

Table of Contents:

Introduction

1. Reading for pleasure: from narrative competence to character education

Rosalía Baena

2. In dialogue with Antigone: Ricoeur?s theory of reading as a tool for designing a core texts course

José Manuel Mora-Fandos

3. Having a great author as a companion: toward a didactical framework for studying core texts at the last stage of teacher education

Bram de Muynck and Bram Kunz

4. Character education at any age? Cicero on the lifelong pursuit of intellectual and moral virtue

Álvaro Sánchez-Ostiz

5. Character education and assessment in practice. A case study of a European liberal arts college

Tessa Leesen and Alkeline van Lenning

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6. From character to parable and allegory: varieties of moral imagination in fictional literature

David Carr

7. Virtue, vice, and saintliness in The Brothers Karamazov

Nancy E. Snow

8. Literature and practical wisdom. An experience with The Catcher in the Rye

Rosa Fernández Urtasun

9. Interiorizing ethics through science fiction. Brave New World as a paradigmatic case study

Raquel Cascales and Luis E. Echarte

10. Friendship, Self-Knowledge, and Core Texts. A Pathway for Character Education at University

Ana Romero-Iribas

11. Teaching humility in Confucius? Analects: questioning the value of deference

Yang Yeung

Index

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