Jumping Pens and Historical Vertigo: Teaching Cavendish in the Twenty-first Century

Authors

Anne M. Thell, National University of SingaporeFollow

Author Biography

Anne M. Thell is Associate Professor of English at the National University of Singapore. Her books include Minds in Motion: Imagining Empiricism in Eighteenth-Century British Travel Literature (2017; 2021) and the Broadview edition of Cavendish's Grounds of Natural Philosophy (2020). She is now at work on a monograph on Cavendish and time.

Abstract

"Jumping Pens" considers "historical and epistemological vertigo" as a useful pedagogical rubric for teaching the works of Margaret Cavendish (1623-73) in contemporary university classrooms. Specifically, it looks back across more than a decade of teaching Cavendish in diverse settings in order to show how exciting this author can be for students who are just starting out in the discipline of literary studies. As this essay argues, Cavendish can make us all better, more self-aware instructors, while also developing critical and historical acumen in our students.

Keywords

Margaret Cavendish, Pedagogy, Materialism, Blazing World, Fiction, Literature and Philosophy

Recommended Citation

Thell, Anne M. (2024) "Jumping Pens and Historical Vertigo: Teaching Cavendish in the Twenty-first Century," ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830: Vol.14: Iss.2, Article 9.
http://doi.org/10.5038/2157-7129.14.2.1409
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/abo/vol14/iss2/9