Lexington Books Locating Values in Literature: Goodness, Beauty, and Truth

Locating Values in Literature: Goodness, Beauty, and Truth discusses the relevance of literature in the current educational process, stating that regardless of the level of study, literature provides students with the necessary skills to address real-world situations. Corina-Mihaela Beleaua posits that a curriculum that includes literature has a multitude of benefits for the mental and ethical development of students, defending the relevance of the three ancient values of goodness, beauty, and truth. Beleaua argues that literature is a significant tool for endorsing these transcendentals and actualizing their positive potentials as humanistic and moral values, acting as a symbolic manifestation of moral values that will impact readers outside of the scope of the literature itself. Scholars of literature, philosophy, and education will find this book particularly useful. Review Locating Values in Literature eloquently reminds us why classic and contemporary works of literature are all the more necessary in today's fragmented, tormented world. Remarkably well read in both European and American literatures, Corina-Mihaela Beleaua speaks old wisdom in a fresh voice, by her quiet intensity drawing us into the deep truths of the written word, into the beauty and goodness that have always inspired the best teachers and their students.--Francis X. Clooney, SJ, director of the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University What is literature? Does it still play a part in fashioning the self and possibly in reforming society? Can it still mediate between people of different persuasions, races, genders, religions as Plato and the Humanists believed? In her compelling study, Corina Beleaua argues that reading is a transformational process which releases individuals from self-centeredness and engages them into authentic dialogues with "the Other." As educational tools, literary texts have promoted moral, political, and artistic values that form the backbone of free, democratic societies. Nowadays, when the socio-cultural fabric is torn by seemingly irreconcilable conflicts this dialogic dimension of literary texts can once more be the silver lining we have been looking for.--Letitia Guran, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill About the Author Corina-Mihaela Beleaua holds a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Georgia.