There has been heated discussion on the efficacy of image texts for (English) literature education. The consenting party argues that close and analytic reading of image texts eventually leads to the knowledge of English culture and the critical understanding of human life, which is nothing less than the goal of English literature education. The opposing party argues image texts cannot but interfere in viewers' building of a creative world-view of their own. Furthermore, films produced by huge capital of multinational enterprises are generally suspected of turning viewers into puppets who mechanically internalize the socio-culturally prevalent ideology. Standing side by side with the consenting party, this paper suggests a practical way of teaching literature with (BBC produced) TV mini-series. Last semester, Jane Austen's Persuasion, Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, and George Eliot's Middlemarch were taught in the course "Film and English Novel" by viewing crucial scenes of the adaptations for TV miniseries instead of reading the original texts. Students were directed to read the scripts closely beforehand. Those scripts were in fact incomparable in literariness to the original texts, but they had the virtues as a reading material of not being so difficult as to discourage students from initial reading and having some literary flavor compared with other scripts written for popular entertainment. Having read the scripts closely (as assignment), students viewed and discussed selected scenes in the classroom. Viewing and discussion resulted in improving their critical understanding of the English culture and humanity. When the TV miniseries seemed to omit essential scenes or fail to convey the full meaning of the original text, a copy of corresponding part of the text was handed out as supplements. As a way of assessing student's achievement, the role plays as well as the usual written test were adopted. The result of students' course evaluation shows that the literature class with image texts was both effective and satisfactory. It is possible to conclude that satisfaction mainly came from those students who tend to blindly shrink from serious literary texts. It is the instructor's obligation to make the satisfaction come from the fulfilled intellectual curiosity, and not just from an entertaining class.

There has been heated discussion on the efficacy of image texts for (English) literature education. The consenting party argues that close and analytic reading of image texts eventually leads to the knowledge of English culture and the critical understanding of human life, which is nothing less than the goal of English literature education. The opposing party argues image texts cannot but interfere in viewers' building of a creative world-view of their own. Furthermore, films produced by huge capital of multinational enterprises are generally suspected of turning viewers into puppets who mechanically internalize the socio-culturally prevalent ideology. Standing side by side with the consenting party, this paper suggests a practical way of teaching literature with (BBC produced) TV mini-series. Last semester, Jane Austen's Persuasion, Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, and George Eliot's Middlemarch were taught in the course "Film and English Novel" by viewing crucial scenes of the adaptations for TV miniseries instead of reading the original texts. Students were directed to read the scripts closely beforehand. Those scripts were in fact incomparable in literariness to the original texts, but they had the virtues as a reading material of not being so difficult as to discourage students from initial reading and having some literary flavor compared with other scripts written for popular entertainment. Having read the scripts closely (as assignment), students viewed and discussed selected scenes in the classroom. Viewing and discussion resulted in improving their critical understanding of the English culture and humanity. When the TV miniseries seemed to omit essential scenes or fail to convey the full meaning of the original text, a copy of corresponding part of the text was handed out as supplements. As a way of assessing student's achievement, the role plays as well as the usual written test were adopted. The result of students' course evaluation shows that the literature class with image texts was both effective and satisfactory. It is possible to conclude that satisfaction mainly came from those students who tend to blindly shrink from serious literary texts. It is the instructor's obligation to make the satisfaction come from the fulfilled intellectual curiosity, and not just from an entertaining class.

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literary text, image text, TV mini-series, script, role-play, Persuasion, Great Expectations, Middlemarch