<br >PREFACE TO THE SERIES<br > In The Art of Teaching Gilbert Highet wrote， "Bad teaching wastes a great<br > deal of effort， and spoils many lives which might have been full of energy<br > and happiness." All too man~ teachers have failed in their work， Highet ar-<br > gued， simply "because they have not thought about it." We hope that the Ap-<br > proaches to Teaching World Literature series， sponsored by the Modern<br > Language Association s Committee on Teaching and Related Professional Ac-<br > ti ~ities， will not only improve the craft-as well as the art-of teaching but<br > also encourage serious and continuing discussion of the aims and methods<br > of teaching literature.<br > The principal objective of the series is to collect within each volume differ-<br > ent points of view on teaching a specific literary work， a literary tradition，<br > or a writer widely taught at the undergraduate level. The preparation of each volume begins with a wide-rang[rag survey of instructors， thus enabling us<br > to include in the volume the p~losophies and approaches， thoughts and<br > methods of scores of experienced teachers. The result is a sourcebook of<br > material， information， and ideas on teaching the subject of the volume to<br > undergraduates.<br > The series is intended to serve nonspeeialists as well as specialists， inex-<br >perienced as well as experienced teachers， graduate students who wish to<br >learn effective ways of teaching as well as senior professors who wish to com-<br >pare their own approaches with the approaches of colleagues in other schools.<br >Of course， no volume in the series can ever substitute for erudition， intelli-<br >gence， creativity， and sensitivity in teaching. We hope merely that each book<br >will point readers in useful directions; at most each will offer only a first step<br >in the long journey to successful teaching.<br >Joseph Gibald<br >Series Editor<br ><br >