Introduction
Over the past few months, I have been working with the Yale National Initiative to develop a unit that is applicable not only in my classroom but in all the classrooms around the country. Throughout the two week intensive session, I studied “Literature and Information” with Professor Jessica Brantley. Her seminar objectives were twofold: to discuss and analyze literature in a collegial setting, and to pair fiction with nonfiction texts. This unit is inspired and driven by the conversations had and information learned throughout my time with YNI. I hope you find it applicable to many settings and levels of students.
To begin, it might be important to understand what it means to “see beyond the pale”. The “pale” is not some bucket you fill up with water. Nor is it a color. The “pale” actually derives from the Latin “palum” which was a stake driven into the ground to create a sort of fence or barrier outside of a city in the 14th and 15th centuries.1 The purpose of this minor barricade was more figurative than it was literal. It indicated the limit of the city, that which was forbidden to go beyond. Outside this barrier was everything socially unacceptable. To see outside of this barrier was to see beyond the veil of ignorance, to gain a different perspective, and to understand that things are not as they seem.
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