Angelique-

[mightyduck]

Just so this doesn't get lost in the thread drift of your original thread....

I haven't read that book since I avoid Victorian lit like the plague... but I have some strategies that have worked for me:

Read the preface and any f-o-b matter for ideas about what makes it "important" or "significant"--keep an eye out for any shifts in interpretation from the original critics to contemporary critics. Look for the major issues and the key attributes of the work--is it the themes discussed? the use of figurative language? great dialogue? What makes it different from other literature of its time? Find what about it makes your instructor think it was worth assigning from the myriad of books to choose from.... Read any criticism essays at the back, and if you have time, check out a Lit Crit anthology and skim the abstracts for ideas. You should be able to find a decent plot summary online.

Hope this helps!

 

[FanofDinsey1981]

Originally posted by mightyduck
Just so this doesn't get lost in the thread drift of your original thread....

I haven't read that book since I avoid Victorian lit like the plague... but I have some strategies that have worked for me:

Read the preface and any f-o-b matter for ideas about what makes it "important" or "significant"--keep an eye out for any shifts in interpretation from the original critics to contemporary critics. Look for the major issues and the key attributes of the work--is it the themes discussed? the use of figurative language? great dialogue? What makes it different from other literature of its time? Find what about it makes your instructor think it was worth assigning from the myriad of books to choose from.... Read any criticism essays at the back, and if you have time, check out a Lit Crit anthology and skim the abstracts for ideas. You should be able to find a decent plot summary online.

Hope this helps!

spoken like a true college student. read up on the author's life and times, find some kind of insight into what his beliefs were,etc. you can ALWAYS impress teachers with the connection to the author from his work.

and Iam going to look up on my college's websight some articles. there is usually one or two.

 

[garyhoov]

That is good advice. I wish I had advice like this twenty years ago (and the good sense to listen to it).

 

[Lhriangel]

Originally posted by mightyduck
Just so this doesn't get lost in the thread drift of your original thread....

I haven't read that book since I avoid Victorian lit like the plague... but I have some strategies that have worked for me:

Read the preface and any f-o-b matter for ideas about what makes it "important" or "significant"--keep an eye out for any shifts in interpretation from the original critics to contemporary critics. Look for the major issues and the key attributes of the work--is it the themes discussed? the use of figurative language? great dialogue? What makes it different from other literature of its time? Find what about it makes your instructor think it was worth assigning from the myriad of books to choose from.... Read any criticism essays at the back, and if you have time, check out a Lit Crit anthology and skim the abstracts for ideas. You should be able to find a decent plot summary online.

Hope this helps!

Mind if I print that out for my bulliten board (okay so my spelling stinks today... blah). Actually it's a parady of a sermon (kinda). I wish it was fiction because that would be easier for me to undo. I have came to the conclusion a) my professor likes discussing religon in terms of ... anything and b) the work resolves around a loss of belief but not the loss of Calvinist christianity and... well I have a semi understanding grasp. Now to get through Browing next week and all the other readings out of the Norton that our professor has assigned... *will be reading all weekend, like usual*.

 

[mightyduck]

Post away, my friend.

I have found that if I can't bring myself to read a particular piece of literature, reading the beginning, end, and parts in the middle that are referred to in criticism as well as the surrounding criticism is a reasonable trade-off.

For those of you who think this is a short cut, please note that it takes much longer (if you do it right) to study literature this way than to just read the original text to begin with. It isn't any "shorter" in that sense. It also doesn't work if you rely on criticism and read very little literature--you have no frame of reference.

Browning, eh? Elizabeth or Robert? (helpful hint for discussion: while contemporary critics regarded Robert as the more talented writer, time has shown Elizabeth to be the more highly skilled and highly regarded of the two. Feel free to extrapolate a gender politics argument as you see fit. ).

ps Browning I teach.

 

[Lhriangel]

Originally posted by mightyduck
Post away, my friend.

I have found that if I can't bring myself to read a particular piece of literature, reading the beginning, end, and parts in the middle that are referred to in criticism as well as the surrounding criticism is a reasonable trade-off.

For those of you who think this is a short cut, please note that it takes much longer (if you do it right) to study literature this way than to just read the original text to begin with. It isn't any "shorter" in that sense. It also doesn't work if you rely on criticism and read very little literature--you have no frame of reference.

Browning, eh? Elizabeth or Robert? (helpful hint for discussion: while contemporary critics regarded Robert as the more talented writer, time has shown Elizabeth to be the more highly skilled and highly regarded of the two. Feel free to extrapolate a gender politics argument as you see fit. ).

ps Browning I teach.

He's making us read Robert buuuut I might read Elizabeth for fun lol. We aren't reading a SINGLE female author. And that is getting on my nerves. Oh we read Mill's Subjection of Women but that's not the same. I also have to read.. *thinks* the Norton's selections of Ruskin and Arnold for Monday.... and the Wife of Bath's Prolouge and Tale in Canterbury tales for Tuesday... never take 2 major reading classes in 6 weeks.. that's my advice to all college students.

(I actually like Canterbury tales though )

 

[mightyduck]

Originally posted by Angelique


He's making us read Robert buuuut I might read Elizabeth for fun lol. We aren't reading a SINGLE female author. And that is getting on my nerves. Oh we read Mill's Subjection of Women but that's not the same. I also have to read.. *thinks* the Norton's selections of Ruskin and Arnold for Monday.... and the Wife of Bath's Prolouge and Tale in Canterbury tales for Tuesday... never take 2 major reading classes in 6 weeks.. that's my advice to all college students.

(I actually like Canterbury tales though )

Not a single female author? Yikes....

And I teach the Canterbury Tales, too! LOL....

 

[Lhriangel]

Originally posted by mightyduck


Not a single female author? Yikes....

And I teach the Canterbury Tales, too! LOL....

WOOHOO! I know who to ask when I'm trying to figure out what a word means .

*hehe* I just got the paper topics for the 2-4 page paper due a week from monday... Me thinks I'm doing the one on The Lady of Shallot and Fra Lippo Lippi (Tennyson and Browning). I'm actually interested in it cause it's on how art plays a role in nineteenth century British Lit...

I'm such a geek.

 

[FanofDinsey1981]

ooo me likey lady of shalott. I just finished reading that one too! if you can, try to incorperate some themes here...

-women's rights during the time, as well as their roles.

-loss of the "camalot"

-and gothic and victorian elements found in the "lady".

and good luck on the paper!

 

[FanofDinsey1981]

Originally posted by mightyduck




And I teach the Canterbury Tales, too! LOL....

ew!

how can you not teach any ofthe bronte sisters, or barret-browing.....oh my! especially if you are studying the victorian era!?!?!?! bah!

there is a great short story for you guys to read. I think the title is the Nurses tale....I will post later when I find the real name...

it is really creeeeeepy though.

 

[mightyduck]

Originally posted by FanofDinsey1981


ew!

how can you not teach any ofthe bronte sisters, or barret-browing.....oh my! especially if you are studying the victorian era!?!?!?! bah!

there is a great short story for you guys to read. I think the title is the Nurses tale....I will post later when I find the real name...

it is really creeeeeepy though.

I'm a bit confused here.... I don't teach Victorian lit, I teach British Lit (much broader in scope). And I do teach both Brownings.... You can't read everything, and the Bronte sisters are discussed as part of my lectures on the realm of women writers, but it's a) not in the curriculum to assign it, and b) not worth the bother considering the time I'd rather spend on Seamus Heaney or any of the writers of WWI...

 

[Lhriangel]

Originally posted by mightyduck


I'm a bit confused here.... I don't teach Victorian lit, I teach British Lit (much broader in scope). And I do teach both Brownings.... You can't read everything, and the Bronte sisters are discussed as part of my lectures on the realm of women writers, but it's a) not in the curriculum to assign it, and b) not worth the bother considering the time I'd rather spend on Seamus Heaney or any of the writers of WWI...

I LOVE Seamus Heaney. For some reason his poetry is just beautiful to me.

The class is 1830-present... it's a requirement class. Still... no female authors.

 

[CowGirlJessie]

Originally posted by mightyduck


I'm a bit confused here.... I don't teach Victorian lit, I teach British Lit (much broader in scope). And I do teach both Brownings.... You can't read everything, and the Bronte sisters are discussed as part of my lectures on the realm of women writers, but it's a) not in the curriculum to assign it, and b) not worth the bother considering the time I'd rather spend on Seamus Heaney or any of the writers of WWI...

oops, sorry. I was directing that at anglique, since she said that no women authors were talked about. my bad! Since she asked about victorian lit before, I thought it strange that at least one of the bronte sisters were not talked about.

do you teach a general brit class? or is it pre,post-modernism? I am not too big into the british modernists, but I love the american modernists. and I am glad we three can have this conversation! I don't get to talk about favorite authors to too many of my friends. they are all econ/engeneering/bio majors.

 

[CowGirlJessie]

and oh bleep. I am logged into my sister's name. sorry, this really is fanofdinsey1981!

 

[Lhriangel]

Originally posted by CowGirlJessie


oops, sorry. I was directing that at anglique, since she said that no women authors were talked about. my bad! Since she asked about victorian lit before, I thought it strange that at least one of the bronte sisters were not talked about.

do you teach a general brit class? or is it pre,post-modernism? I am not too big into the british modernists, but I love the american modernists. and I am glad we three can have this conversation! I don't get to talk about favorite authors to too many of my friends. they are all econ/engeneering/bio majors.

Nope... none of the Bronte sisters. I hate male professors sometimes.....

 

[RobFL]

A note:

I'm a firm beleiver that the Canterbury tales cannot be taught as "selections."

The reason the tales are worth reading is the "frame" (my brains thinks that's the right word, but i could be too tired to realize my mistake) format which is lost if they are done individually.

-Rob