Killer English: Postmodern Theory and The Classroom - Paperback

by Mary Alice Delia (Author)

Foreword by Susan S. Lanser, Professor Emerita Brandeis University

Afterword by Susan A. Handelman, Professor Emerita, Department of English, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

Though written in the early 1990s, this book arrives at a moment when its central concerns are, if anything, more pressing than when it was first conceived. As the foreword makes clear, Killer English is not a relic of a passing theoretical moment; it is a sustained meditation on what it means to teach in a classroom shaped by language, power, and interpretation.

Readers interested in the book's personal history will find a dedication at the end of the volume. What remains is a living pedagogical argument-one addressed to teachers navigating the complexities of today's educational landscape.

Although the book centers on postmodern theory-engaging thinkers such as Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault-its aim is neither abstraction nor allegiance to a theoretical camp. Its intention is practical and urgent: to cultivate deeper critical thinking, intellectual play, and imaginative risk in the classroom.

Many teachers understandably shy away from "theory," imagining it as distant from daily practice. Yet every act of teaching already rests upon theory-upon assumptions about knowledge, authority, language, and learning. Whether one subscribes to a model of transmission (knowledge delivered from expert to novice), construction (knowledge built through inquiry), or discipline (knowledge shaped by norms and power), one is teaching from somewhere.

As the author observes in the preface, theory has profoundly reshaped how we read texts, but far less often how we inhabit the classroom itself. This book invites educators to become conscious of the theories they already enact-and to consider how postmodern thought, used as one tool among many, can open spaces for ingenuity, reflection, and genuinely transformative learning.

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All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the Human Restoration Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that promotes, among other things, progressive education and critical pedagogy in the United States and across the globe.