Paul,
What a great question in the context of this thread! This use of tense is a way of foregrounding rather than a way of showing relative time. The historical present is used in literary work to give a sense of immediacy to past action and to distinguish one set of events in the past from other events that are less salient. It's found back in Middle English in works like Malory's Morte d'Arthur where he uses it as a part of more complex shifts in deixis to set off important shifts in the narrative. It'll combine, for example, with shifts from distal demonstratives (that) to proximal (this), from distal adverbs (then, there) to proximal adverbs (now, here), and from third person narrative to first and second.
Can you make the case that when they cite a narrative event they are making it important, and putting it into the present helps. Teaching foregrounding and backgrounding techniques is a great way to work important grammatical concepts and vocabulary into the discussion of oral or written texts. And, of course, part of the problem is that none of your students' other teachers have every taken such an approach.
Herb
Hello all,
I'm looking for advice: This year, many of my high school sophomores seem unable (unwilling?) to write about literature in the present tense. They discuss events in a novel, story, etc., only as past tense events. For example, a student wrote in one of his journals for Brave New World: "Bernard was with Lenina when he met John, the Savage." How can I get students to think in the present and write "Bernard is ... he meets" instead? Has anyone else struggled with this problem? I'm looking for teachable moments, here.
Thanks,
Paul
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