Inviting Twenty-First Century Students to the Eighteenth-Century Party

Authors

Kathryn Strong Hansen, The CitadelFollow

Author Biography

Kathryn Strong Hansen is assistant professor of English at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. She is currently at work on a book manuscript exploring how changes in beliefs about women's dress in the eighteenth century relate to the British novel's establishment as a respectable genre.

Abstract

This article describes a classroom activity that increases students’ connection to literary characters, and by extension, texts. The activity, constructed as a party attended by literary characters, tasks students with taking on the point of view of one character in an assigned novel. This can encourage a student to see the viewpoint of a character that differs from him or her in gender, social status, or any other category of difference. In heightening students’ relationship to eighteenth-century characters, I argue, instructors can bring the eighteenth century closer to contemporary students as well as increase students’ sensitivity to viewpoints that differ from their own. A post-activity writing assignment extends the activity to encourage student analysis and reflection.

Keywords

empathy, connection, gender, pedagogy, activity, worksheet, Evelina, Burney, Oroonoko, Behn

Recommended Citation

Hansen, Kathryn Strong (2013) "Inviting Twenty-First Century Students to the Eighteenth-Century Party," ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830: Vol.3: Iss.1, Article 3.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/2157-7129.3.1.3
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/abo/vol3/iss1/3