In preparing for a classroom of collegiate undergraduates in a Gothic Literature course, lower division, I would put a heavy focus upon this novel during a midway between the classical Gothic Literature and the transition into the 20th century thinking, using it as a segway of ideas. My reason for choosing this goes beyond just that it’s an exemplary tale of christian values in the Victorian era, a good example of Gothic fiction, a good example of Victorian Realism, but because it’s alluring for students. It’s a read they often hear about, they can watch plays, and there’s plenty of Sparknotes or likewise for it. The novel, as well, taps into that key thing that literature is meant to do: question the world or make observations about it. Without even realizing, the students would enjoy the novel (hopefully) while learning about a perspective on good and evil; what that means to a Christian of the 19th century. I would spend at least three weeks on it, going over Robert Louis Stevenson’s work in general and reading the text, and during the last week, discuss how it pertains to Gothic Literature broadly and how it pertains to evolving ideas in science and theology.
I think most important about designing a program that they could follow easily, I’d make sure to incorporate both the text and the play. Perhaps we’d watch a play in the class and then we’d discuss it online with each other (required, but not graded–meaning: no points for doing it, loss of set participation points for not). I’d guide them by first focusing on Victorian Realism. What is it? What did it aim to do? Then we’d look at excerpts from Gothic fiction, like excerpts from Monk and Anne Rice novels and from Castle of Otronto and others. I’d have them, at the end, then, write up a page–or two or three if they’d like–and share with another person with a designated focus. I’d have them choose either to analyze good or evil, and then, pairing them or dividing the class up in groups appropriate for the good.V.evil thing, have them combine their papers as a single argument of the text.
The paper combination thing is the most important part of it. Because the text deals with evil within goodness and goodness within evil, it’d be interesting to see the dichotomy merged into a single paper, however they’d like to tackle the problem. It’s dicy because of the group project aspect, but that’s why I’d lessen the points total from that portion by making it another participation project–less stressful and focused on the aspect of learning. The learning process, then, is more about finding a stance and then using another stance to craft a new stance alternate from the one they initiated.
Brit Lit 2020 