Into the Engine Room: An Inter-University Literature-Teaching Project Focussing on Narrative

Abstract

This article sets out the objectives, approaches and organisational development of a still ongoing inter-university literature-teaching project entitled 'Between the Lines: Comprehensive Reading of Literary Texts in a Foreign Language', which was awarded a two-year grant by the Catalan Agency for the Management of University and Research Grants, AGAUR (MQD 00121). As a means of countering students' excessive concern with essentially superficial aspects of literary texts and in order to facilitate their understanding of more complex textual issues, this project has systematically emphasised the issue of narrativity in literature teaching, thereby also helping students to approach their subject in a more technically sophisticated way in keeping with the demands of their degree. The article discusses the various phases of the project's implementation, with reference to the underlying problem that gave impetus to the initiative, as well as setting out its provisional conclusions.