HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H0022 3/14/00 "TEACHING TIPS FOR FFMC" =================================================== Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 12:41:43 -0800 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Teaching tips for FFMC Dear Hardyans, As I will be teaching _Far From the Madding Crowd_ during the summer I would be most grateful to hear about any approaches you may have used successfully with this novel. It will be a non-credit class for retirees. Many Thanks, Betty Cortus hardycor@mailhost2.csusm.edu ========== Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 23:56:37 -0500 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Teaching tips for FFMC Betty--at the expense of sounding postmodern, and as per previous discussions (on Forum 1999), I still think to teach Hardy's novels --or indeed any 19th century novel--according to the tripped vagaries and intercepted writings of serial publication opens up marvellous opportunities for deep discussions of/investigations into, form and structure (and thereby, meaning). A small example to begin with: we tend to think perhaps, with regard to FFMC, that Hardy had his plot and theme already clear in his mind when he presented his original idea to Leslie Stephen's commission. But he hadn't. Boldwood, for example, hadn't been conceived of at all until the writing was well under way. On the other hand, the Fanny Robbin story which was at first central subsequently became decentralised (at Stephen's behest)--and so on and on. To study Hardy's serialisation techniques is to come to know these-- his writing methods and imaginative worlds -- intimately. There are a variety of ways of approaching the study of serialisation writing-- most will be intuitive. All will be remunerative. Short of studying the manuscript, there is no closer way of following the author--step by step. The discoveries can be thrilling! Good luck Rosemarie ========== From: "Alan Shelston" Subject: Re: Teaching tips for FFMC Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 09:45:53 -0000 Dear Betty, Rosemarie, To endorse Rosemarie's point about serialisation. An examination of the novel's origins in this way allows one to identify the writing process, publication processes and variations, and early reception, while at the same time allowing for the identification of priorities - character thematic etc - as they arise, as well as issues of technique. I have just taught for the first time a course which I devised called 'Reading Middlemarch', in which the students (final year) were required to read GE's novel book by book, as it was first published - thus eight weeks in succession. Discussion was not allowed to project forward - i.e. those of us who knew what was coming agreed to keep it to ourselves.The remaining four weeks were given over to an introductory session and concluding sessions in which specific critical approaches were discussed in the light of what had been learned. The students (very good ones, I have to say) never lost interest, and I learned an enormous amount myself about a novel which I thought I knew inside out. Maybe you could do something similar with FFMC. Good luck. Alan Shelston ==========