Approaches to teaching the novels of Samuel Richardson / edited by Lisa Zunshine and Jocelyn Harris.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Zunshine, Lisa.

Harris, Jocelyn.

Series:

Approaches to teaching world literature ; 87.

Approaches to teaching world literature ; 87

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Richardson, Samuel, 1689-1761--Study and teaching.

Richardson, Samuel.

Richardson, Samuel, 1689-1761.

Epistolary fiction, English--Study and teaching.

Epistolary fiction, English.

Physical Description:

xiii, 216 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Modern Language Association of America, 2006.

Summary:

The novels of Samuel Richardson can be demanding for the student today because of their focus on virtue, their embodiment of eighteenth-century social conventions, and their sheer length. Although the critical scholarship on Richardson is thriving, there is little work on teaching his novels. This volume in the Approaches to Teaching series turns the challenges of his novels into opportunities for inventive pedagogy.

Part 1, "Materials," surveys available editions of Richardson's works, including his letters and published commentary; evaluates background materials, from his prefaces for the various editions of Pamela to parodies and dramatic renditions of his novels: and reviews biographies, critical studies, background reading on eighteenth-century literature, and Web resources. A survey of experienced instructors identifies successful assignments for both undergraduate and graduate students, including some designed to help students understand the shifting viewpoints of the epistolary novel.

Part 2, "Approaches," is divided into four sections, one on the background of Richardson's novels and one each on Clarissa, Pamela, and Sir Charles Grandison. Contributors suggest ways to teach these lengthy novels in a variety of courses, including surveys. Essays explore the meaning of religion to Richardson's characters and to his contemporaries: discuss how his work as a printer influenced the physical appearance of his novels; show how to engage students in the debates about feminism and patriarchal ideology in the novels; and consider why Richardson revised so extensively and how his revisions both responded to and affected his reception. Classroom exercises use the Web to compare online editions of Richardson's novels and to create interactive versions of them.

Contents:

Part 1 Materials / Lisa Zunshine

Primary Works 3

Background Materials 4

Richardson Criticism 5

Survey Issues 7

Part 2 Approaches

Assorted Versions of Assaulted Virgins; or, Textual Instability and Teaching / Tom Keymer 24

Teaching Pamela and Clarissa through Richardson's Correspondence / Peter Sabor 32

Samuel Richardson: Printer-Novelist / Keith Maslen 39

Pamela

Vegetable Loves: A Defense, in Part, of Mrs. Jewkes / Patricia Bruckmann 48

Teaching Pamela and the History of Sexuality / Jeremy W. Webster 56

Naughty Pamela's "Sweet Confusion" / Felicity A. Nussbaum 63

Reading the Domestic Servant-Woman in Pamela / Kristina Straub 70

Making Pamela Real for Undergraduates: Sexual Harassment and the Epistolary Form / Nicky Didicher 77

Resisting Richardson: Student Skepticism and Teaching Strategies for Pamela / Robert Markley 82

Pamela Illustrations in the Classroom / Janet Aikins Yount 89

Richardson's Pamela and Political Allegory / Michael McKeon 100

Pamela: Chastity, Charity, and Moral Reform / Elizabeth Kraft 106

Clarissa

Bearing Clarissa: Richardson and the Problem of Relevance / Jayne Lewis 113

The Antipodean Pleasures of Teaching Clarissa in Real Time / Janine Barchas 120

Is Clarissa a Woman's Narrative? / Judith Moore 128

Richardson, Clarissa, Hypertext / Mark James Morreale 134

Clarissa Lives! Reading Richardson through Rewritings / Jocelyn Harris 140

Richardson's Revisions in the Third Edition of Clarissa: For Better or Worse? / John Richetti 147

Kinship in Clarissa / Ruth Perry 156

Sir Charles Grandison

Teaching Space in Sir Charles Grandison / Cynthia Wall 162

Students in the Cedar Parlor: How and Why to Teach Sir Charles Grandison in the Undergraduate Classroom / Teri Ann Doerksen 169

Sir Charles Grandison, Literary History, and the Philosophy of Englightenment / David C. Hensley 176

Teaching Sir Charles Grandison instead of Pamela to Undergraduates / Lisa Zunshine 184.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [197]-212) and index.

ISBN:

0873529227

0873529235

OCLC:

61687721

Publisher Number:

9780873529228

9780873529235