<第一回連続講演会論文>Uncommon Schools : Stanley Cavell and the Teaching of Walden

Abstract

Thoreau's Walden is a text that has been misinterpreted in various ways, one consequence of which is a failure to appreciate tis significance as a perfectionist and visionary text for education. This paper explores aspects of what might be called its teaching, especially via the kind of teaching that is offered by Stanley Cavell's commentary, The Senses of Walden. Walden is considered especially in the light of its conception of language as the "father-tongue" and of the ideas of continual rebirth and departure that are associated with this. References to teaching and learning abound in the book, but it is Thoreau's specific reference to the need for "uncommon schools" that provides a focus for the present discussion.