Dear list,
I am currently teaching a course on Victorian literature that focuses
specifically on discourses of race, empire, and sexuality. My graduate
students and I have just read History of Sexuality Part I. Here is my
problem-I don't understand all that he is saying or all the implications
of his argument, so I'm entirely at a loss as to how to teach others
about 1) what he's saying and 2) how to apply it to the literature we
are reading. I can show them outtakes from scholars who have "done
Foucault" but that is just a report-not a structured opportunity to
grapple with the ideas as tools for understanding. I resist simply
summarizing the book (which any number of online sites do much better
than I could anyway) but without that lecture based approach, it's been
almost impossible to jump start conversation because we don't have an
established set of terms and ideas and shared knowledge to work from.
At least not one that has been articulated in class. I know I should go
back and give them a key to the text but that doesn't seem as effective
to me as getting them to apply what they've read and thereby understand
what they've read in a more visceral way.
So, my question is this: for those of you who have taught or are
planning to teach this text, what strategies and activities do you
suggest? Is there a resource guide somewhere with teaching ideas?
Many thanks for any help you can provide ....
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Dr. Erin Webster Garrett
Radford University
http://www.radford.edu/~ewebster2-
540-831-5203 (office)
540-230-3579 (cell/voice mail)
"Without a metaphor I cannot live!" MWS
I am currently teaching a course on Victorian literature that focuses
specifically on discourses of race, empire, and sexuality. My graduate
students and I have just read History of Sexuality Part I. Here is my
problem-I don't understand all that he is saying or all the implications
of his argument, so I'm entirely at a loss as to how to teach others
about 1) what he's saying and 2) how to apply it to the literature we
are reading. I can show them outtakes from scholars who have "done
Foucault" but that is just a report-not a structured opportunity to
grapple with the ideas as tools for understanding. I resist simply
summarizing the book (which any number of online sites do much better
than I could anyway) but without that lecture based approach, it's been
almost impossible to jump start conversation because we don't have an
established set of terms and ideas and shared knowledge to work from.
At least not one that has been articulated in class. I know I should go
back and give them a key to the text but that doesn't seem as effective
to me as getting them to apply what they've read and thereby understand
what they've read in a more visceral way.
So, my question is this: for those of you who have taught or are
planning to teach this text, what strategies and activities do you
suggest? Is there a resource guide somewhere with teaching ideas?
Many thanks for any help you can provide ....
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Dr. Erin Webster Garrett
Radford University
http://www.radford.edu/~ewebster2-
540-831-5203 (office)
540-230-3579 (cell/voice mail)
"Without a metaphor I cannot live!" MWS