This evening I met for the first time with EN240: Intro to Visual and Cultural Study, and I was a little off my mark, I think, with the first half of class. I wanted to stage an ice-breaker that would lead us in to a discussion of how we conventionally understand identity, community, and culture. …
Introducing the “Renaissance” in World Literature
I felt very good about the way EN203 went this afternoon--what a great way to start the new term! I've got a pretty full class, though a handful of folks were missing today, and about 7 or so students contributed something to the conversation. We discussed the syllabus, as per usual, and I went over …
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The Country Wife?
Our last discussion in Theater History was taking up the role of the thematics of theatricality in The Country Wife; I wanted to organize our thinking on the theatricality of court culture, the generic features and cultural significance of comedy during the period, and the purpose served by "the playhouse" in Wycherley's drama. I started …
Popular Fiction by Women
I'm so very much looking forward to EN426 this term! We had what I thought was an excellent first class last night, though the first portion was livelier than the second--of course, we were discussing Haywood at the beginning, and I modeled a sample presentation on Backscheider & Richetti's Popular Fiction by Women in the …
Discussing Film Form
I was very impressed with my Discover 101 students today, who seemed really to get into the film analysis portion of our class--we watched the first ten minutes of Night of the Living Dead, and used it as a springboard for discussing some of the basic concepts of film analysis, locating patterns, key elements in …
Fantomina and Provocation
One of my favorite readings of the term, Eliza Haywood's Fantomina. We had three presentations, and the essays the students presented did give us a good context for discussion; however, one student used a non-scholarly source, and I'm pretty sure another didn't actually read Haywood (at least, he didn't have the copy with him...)! I'm …
Tartuffe, Beggar’s Opera
In class on Wednesday, we returned to Tartuffe and spent quite a bit of time meditating on the motif of blindness, the nature of sight, and ultimate conclusions about the play; we also considered the impact of a historical awareness of its staging, especially insofar as spectators would have been seated on the stage, and …
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
In world literature, we went over the Reply to Sor Filotea, which I was incredibly surprised to note that so many students had actually enjoyed! I thought it would be a "meh" reading, but it seemed to strike a note. In future classes, I'd like to be able to spend more time on it, and …
Busy, Busy, Busy!
Last week was busy, busy, busy. After returning from the American Society for Eighteenth-Century studies conference in Richmond, itself a whirlwind event, I found returning to classes a bit overwhelming. Peter Karapetkov, Dr. K, and Stephanie Szkutak graciously agreed to sit in for me in my classes, and I think everything worked out alright from …
Tartuffe in World Literature
We're just beginning Tartuffe in EN203, and I think that students will be very interested in the play over the next meetings. In class, I went over some of the essential introductory context information, specifically the cultural and historical contexts of the "Enlightenment," and then considered the resonance between that context and first reactions to …
Tonya Howe 