Teaching the Novel across the Curriculum: A Handbook for Educators

352 Pages·2007·1.87 MB·English

by  Colin C. Irvine

Teaching the Novel
across the
Curriculum
A Handbook for Educators
Edited by Colin C. Irvine
GREENWOODPRESS
WESTPORT,CONNECTICUT•LONDON
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Teachingthenovelacrossthecurriculum : ahandbookforeducators/
[editedby]ColinC.Irvine.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-313-34896-9(alk.paper)
1.Fiction—Studyandteaching.2.Youth—Booksandreading.3.Critical
thinking.I.Irvine,ColinC.
PN3385.T43 2008
808.300711—dc22 2007038718
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable.
Copyright(cid:2)C 2008byColinC.Irvine
Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe
reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe
expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber: 2007038718
ISBN: 978-0-313-34896-9
Firstpublishedin2008
GreenwoodPress,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881
AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc.
www.greenwood.com
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe
PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational
InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
INTRODUCTION
ColinC.Irvine 1
SECTIONONE TEACHINGTHENOVELINGENERAL
EDUCATIONCLASSES 13
ReadingWollstonecraft’sMariafromCovertoCoverandBack
Again:TheNovelintheGeneralEducationCourse
AmyC.Branam 13
ANabokovianTreasureHunt:PaleFireforBeginners
MoniquevandenBerg 28
TeachingtheDog’sTale:Vere’s‘‘moraldilemmainvolvingaught
ofthetragic’’inBillyBudd
PeterKratzke 42
SECTIONTWO USINGTHENOVELTOTEACH
MULTICULTURALISM 53
UsingtheNoveltoTeachMulticulturalism
MichelleLoris 53
TeachingChinuaAchebe’sNovelThingsFallApartinSurveyof
EnglishLiteratureII
EricSterling 64
ImplicatingKnowledgewithPractice,InterculturalCommunication
EducationwiththeNovel
YukoKawai 73
TeachingNoraOkjaKeller’sComfortWomaninaComparative
LiteratureClassroom
LanDong 84
vi CONTENTS
‘‘Whoknowsbutthat,onthelowerfrequencies,Ispeakforyou?’’
ThePolyphonyofRalphEllison’sInvisibleMan
StephanieLi 94
SECTIONTHREE TEACHINGTHENOVELINLITERATURE
CLASSES 105
WrittenImages:UsingVisualLiteracytoUnraveltheNovel
RiciaAnneChansky 105
ReadingRighttoLeft:HowDefamiliarizationHelpsStudents
ReadaFamiliarGenre
ChristineM.Doran 118
FordMadoxFord’sTheGoodSoldier,CreativeWriting,and
TeachingtheModernistNovelintheIntroductory-Level
LiteratureClassroom
StephenE.Severn 130
A.S.Byatt’sFinishingSchool:LiteraryCriticismasSimulation
AlanRam(cid:2)onClinton 144
SECTIONFOUR TEACHINGTHENOVELINTHE
HUMANITIES 157
TeachtheConflict:UsingCriticalThinkingtoEvaluateAnthony
Swofford’sJarhead
JohnBruni 157
NovelTruths:TheThingsTheyCarriedandStudentNarratives
aboutHistory
JohnLennon 169
QuestioningEthics:IncorporatingtheNovelintoEthicsCourses
RachelMcCoppin 179
TeachingDickens’sHardTimesinaGeneralEducation
HumanitiesCourse
MarshallToman 194
NovelsinHistoryClasses:TeachingtheHistoricalContext
GregoryF.Schroeder 204
SECTIONFIVE TEACHINGTHENOVELINTHESOCIAL,
BEHAVIORAL,ANDPOLITICALSCIENCES 219
ReadingOurSocialWorlds:UtilizingNovelsinIntroductionto
SociologyCourses
KristinaB.Wolff 219
CONTENTS vii
ScienceFictionasSocialFact:ReviewandEvaluationofthe
UseofFictioninanIntroductorySociologyClass
PeterP.Nieckarz,Jr. 231
InsightsfromtheNovel:GoodCitizensinSocialContexts
JanineDeWittandMargueriteRippy 248
UsingTheAutobiographyofMalcolmXtoTeachIntroductory
Sociology
BrentHargerandTimHallett 259
StoriesinPsychology:SensationandPerception
AlexisGrosofsky 272
UsefulnessofLordoftheFliesintheSocialPsychologyClassroom
DouglasP.Simeone 278
DemystifyingSocialCapitalthroughZola’sGerminal
LaurettaConklinFrederking 286
SECTIONSIX TEACHINGTHENOVELINPROFESSIONAL
STUDIES 299
TheUseofContemporaryNovelsasaMethodofTeaching
SocialWorkMicropractice
PamelaBlackandMartaM.Miranda 299
MulticulturalNovelsinEducation
ElizabethBergLeer 310
Theoriesand(Legal)PracticeforTeachers-in-Training
ColinC.Irvine 325
SelectedBibliography 331
AbouttheEditorandContributors 335
Index 341

Acknowledgments
This book began when I was a student at Carroll College in Helena, Montana,
where I was fortunate to take courses from caring, talented professors who used
stories—some told, some written—to help us students to think, truly think, about
the world we inhabit and about the subjects we were studying. The voices and
the images of these amazing individuals—most especially those of Mr. Hank
Burgess, Mr. John Downs, and Dr. Robert R. Swartout—were with me while I
worked on this project over the past two years, and I smile now as I picture these
teachers up at the front of their classrooms talking and telling stories.
Nearly twenty years later, I have again been blessed to work with a genuine
and generous professor and mentor. Michelle Loris, whose essay is included in
this collection, was more than instrumental to the completion and success of this
project. She is, in many respects, the reason it reached this final stage. She has
been the kind of colleague everyone in this strange business should be lucky
enough to have at least once in his or her career: she is tireless, supportive, and
truly selfless; and I envy those at her college who work with her on a daily basis.
Thanks, Michelle, for everything.
Many thanks are due to the scholar-teachers who put their time, talent, and
faith into this project: Amy C. Branam, Monique van den Berg, Peter Kratzke,
Eric Sterling, Yuko Kawai, Lan Dong, Stephanie Li, Ricia Anne Chansky, Chris-
tine M. Doran, Stephen E. Severn, Alan Ram(cid:2)on Clinton, John Bruni, John Len-
non, Rachel McCoppin, Marshall Toman, Gregory F. Schroeder, Kristina B.
Wolff, Peter P. Nieckarz, Jr., Janine DeWitt, Margeurite Rippy, Brent Harger,
Tim Hallet, Alexis Grosofsky, Douglas P. Simeone, Lauretta Conklin Frederking,
Pamela Black, Marta M. Miranda, and Elizabeth Berg Leer. For all that I have
learned from you and for all that you will no doubt teach others who read your
essays and follow your examples in and out of the classroom, thank you very
much. These pieces printed here are proof of your commitment to teaching and
of your profound understanding of our profession’s constant need for creativity
and collaboration.
To my friends and fellow professors Robert Cowgill and Patrick Mulrooney,
you deserve much credit for what has occurred here and what has, at last,
resulted. Because of the incisive input you offered free of charge at every stage
in the process—tempered as it always was with a hint of humor and a dash of
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
dishonesty—and because of your willingness to answer e-mails at odd hours and
to accept phone calls you had to know were coming from your friend the com-
muter, the manuscript progressed from an idea to an ideal to this reality you hold
in your hands. Thanks for being my implied audience and resistant but respectful
readers.
To my children, Caleb and Caroline, thanks for your patience. I promise to
stop sneaking into the office to check e-mail, I pledge to read you more books
before you go to bed, and I pray that you will some day have teachers as good
as these whose essays are included here.
Finally, I acknowledge the debt of gratitude I owe my wife, Kelly, and all of
the spouses and partners whose names do not appear on this page but whose sup-
port was instrumental to the project’s success. These collections, drawing as they
do on what occurs in our classrooms, are invariably group projects in as much as
they involve those important people in our lives who support us in the work we
do with and for our students. Thanks.
Introduction
Colin C. Irvine
WHY DO WE HAVE TO READ THIS?
After earning my master’s degree in American studies, I changed my name to
‘‘Mr.’’ and returned to my old high school, where I taught courses in literature
and history for three years. During this time—following the lead of my favorite
college professors whom I increasingly idolized the longer I tried my hand at
teaching—I incorporated novels into nearly all of my classes. And though, on
occasion, this pedagogical strategy proved to be fruitful and effective, there
were, nonetheless, always those occasions in which the choice of text, the set of
learning outcomes, the cross-section of students, or my limited familiarity with
the novel’s content proved disastrous. Furthermore, there were—even when the
unit seemed to be going well—those smart and exasperating students who
insisted on asking the question, ‘‘Why do we have to read this?’’
Although I could not give what seemed to them or me a satisfactory answer,
I remained convinced that there were logically sound and academically rigorous
reasons for inviting and enabling my students to wrestle with complicated works
of literature. In fact, I was so intuitively confident of these as-yet unarticulated
arguments that once I returned to graduate school and completed my doctoral
work, which focused on how Wallace Stegner’s novels introduce students to
ways of thinking about history and about the environment, I found myself con-
stantly searching for compelling and convincing responses to my students’
question.
More recently, while incorporating novels into my courses in English educa-
tion methods, American literature, environmental literature, and freshman com-
position, I have found repeatedly through casual conversations with other
professors that there are many of us in the academy who are using novels in their
respective courses. These teachers express their belief in the innumerable and of-
ten ineffable benefits of including novels in their courses. And although they,
too, often struggle to explain how or why exactly they ‘‘use novels,’’ they are,
nonetheless, ready to defend their choices.
2 INTRODUCTION
This handbook allows us to hear from professors across the curriculum who
have responded positively to the temptation and corresponding tendency to
assign what often prove to be unwieldy, resistant, and yet rewarding texts. It
offers an opportunity to hear from effective educators who, in thoughtful,
thought-provoking ways, have addressed such important questions as, Why do
we (in a particular academic discipline) teach novels? How do we teach them
well? What, exactly, do we have our students do with them and why? Which
novels, and which teaching techniques associated with those texts, cultivate ways
of knowing germane to better understanding issues and problems in our respec-
tive disciplines? Which historical novels, for instance, help students comprehend
an era, event, issue, or individual and which enable students to begin appreciat-
ing historiography and historical inquiry? How do novels help us achieve our
objectives and goals in various courses and related disciplines? Finally, and most
important, how can we make reading these works a truly meaningful and
meaning-making experience for our students?
What follows, then, are the beginnings of a theoretical and practical discus-
sion about the role, the impact, and the import of the novel in higher education
and a classroom-based study of sound reasons for and effective ways of teaching
these texts.
NAVIGATING A NOVELIZED WORLD
According to Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Associa-
tion, ‘‘[o]nly 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and
extrapolate from it.’’ Also, as stated in a December 2005 article in The Washing-
ton Post, ‘‘far fewer [students] are leaving higher education with the skills
needed to comprehend routine data, such as reading a table about the relationship
between blood pressure and physical activity’’ (Romano 12).
Given these statistics and what they suggest about how well and in what
ways high schools, colleges, and universities are preparing students to enter into
their respective professions, many people both inside and outside of academic
circles have become justifiably anxious. In turn, they have begun to pose and in
some cases promote such questions as, Why not, given the failures these statis-
tics seem to reveal, focus more time and resources on teaching students to read
less literary, more approachable, more practical works? Why not, given the way
things seem to be going, be more realistic and more practical in our approach to
teaching students to read? Why not, at the college level, for instance, follow the
lead of those elementary- and secondary-education literacy specialists who pro-
claim that we should stop worrying about what or even how well students read
and start celebrating the simple act of reading itself? Why not, in short, be more
realistic and meet the students where they are, not where we wish they were?
Eventually, inevitably, this line of inquiry turns its attention to the genre of
novel, and not the formulaic kind likely to be converted to a box office block-
buster. With this complicated and often convoluted genre in their sites, these
advocates of student learning inquire of those who insist on incorporating novels
into their courses, Why not stop clinging to some quixotic notion of reading,
let go of the anachronistic novel and the obsolete canon, and move into the