The Call of Stories: Teaching and the Moral Imagination

Robert Coles

Using the "documentary study"or "psychiatric anthropology" approach of his previous works, Coles presents conversations with college, law, and medical school students that focus on the moral impact of their reading. For Coles, the study of literature is not a purely intellectual exercise but an encounter with exempla that bear on everyday moral dilemmas, and he argues that these students have come to see characters in novels as "buddies" that "help them make choices," find a direction, identify moral hazards, and understand their private lives. The argument is interesting, but the most compelling part of this loosely organized book is Coles's own reflections on the development of his own commitment to the moral dimension of literature and his memories of W.C. Williams, L.E. Sissman, and others.

—Richard Kuczkowski, Dominican College, Blauvelt, N.Y.

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