Meyer Howard "Mike" Abrams , usually cited as M. H. Abrams, was an American literary critic, known for works on romanticism, in particular his book The Mirror and the Lamp. Under Abrams's editorship, The Norton Anthology of English Literature became the standard text for undergraduate survey courses across the U.S. and a major trendsetter in literary canon formation. Wikipedia
“We are human, and nothing is more interesting to us than humanity.”
Cornell Chronicle interview (1999)
Context: We are human, and nothing is more interesting to us than humanity. The appeal of literature is that it is so thoroughly a human thing — by, for and about human beings. If you lose that focus, you obviate the source of the power and permanence of literature.
Cornell Chronicle interview (1999)
People's Education interview (2007)
Cornell Chronicle interview (1999)
Cornell Chronicle interview (1999)
The New York Times dialogue with S. Greenblatt (2012)
“If you read quickly to get through a poem to what it means, you have missed the body of the poem.”
Cornell Chronicle interview (1999)
On his reading preferences.
Cornell Chronicle interview (1999)
“Hard work makes easy reading or, at least, easier reading.”
Cornell Chronicle interview (1999)
People's Education interview (2007)
Context: I think the hardest thing to teach a student is that what he or she puts down on paper is changeable. It’s not the final thing, it’s the first thing, which may just be the suggestive, vague identification of something that you have to come back to and rewrite. At first, students tend to freeze at the first effort. The breakthrough comes when they realize that they can make it better — can identify what their purposes were and realize better ways to achieve those purposes. That is the important thing in teaching students to write: not to be frozen in their first effort.
“All students are capable of growth.”
People's Education interview (2007)
Context: All students are capable of growth. Some of them seem to be very slow to begin with and it’s probably not their fault, nor do I think it’s a matter of genetics. It’s a matter of what has happened in their lives before. They are all capable of growing, but they will not grow unless you interest them, captivate them in some way, and then make them reach out. Then they will finally enjoy reaching out.
People's Education interview (2007)
Context: Pay attention to your students. Hear what they say, try to find out what their capacities are, what make sense to them. Adapt what you are doing and saying to those capacities, but make your students stretch upward. I think the trick is to adapt to the level of a student, but never rest on that level — always make them reach out. … If a student does not quite get it the first time, he or she will come back and get it later. If you don’t set your writing — and teaching — at a level that makes them stretch, they are never going to develop their intellectual muscle.
People's Education interview (2007)
Context: Pay attention to your students. Hear what they say, try to find out what their capacities are, what make sense to them. Adapt what you are doing and saying to those capacities, but make your students stretch upward. I think the trick is to adapt to the level of a student, but never rest on that level — always make them reach out. … If a student does not quite get it the first time, he or she will come back and get it later. If you don’t set your writing — and teaching — at a level that makes them stretch, they are never going to develop their intellectual muscle.
Cornell Chronicle interview (1999)
On the "death of literature"
Cornell Chronicle interview (1999)
“He always violated your expectations. … He was a character.”
On Robert Frost
Cornell Chronicle interview (1999)
“It’s a pleasure that you don’t outgrow the anthology.”
The New York Times dialogue with S. Greenblatt (2012)
