LISA ZUNSHINE and JOCELYN HARRIS (eds), Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Samuel Richardson.

Abstract

THIS collection of essays includes contributions from a number of eminent academics, such as Kristina Straub, Robert Markley, and Janine Barchas, on the teaching of Samuel Richardson's novels within a variety of university contexts. According to this collection, the difficulties surrounding the teaching of Richardson in the classroom include the intimidating length of his novels, the remote eighteenth-century context and the lack of clear narrative, all of which can potentially lead to student lethargy. While acknowledging such potential pedagogical pitfalls, these autobiographical accounts provide useful ideas concerning classroom strategies to engage and interest students. These twenty-five short essays, which cover Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison, consider such practical details as time allocation, seminar activities, assignment and assessment methods, internet resources, and the integration of Richardson's fiction into a huge variety of courses. Despite the usefulness of these essays, especially for new entrants to the profession or academics seeking advice about the possible ways to offer Richardson to undergraduates, this publication nonetheless has numerous shortcomings. Most significantly, contributors concerned with how to engage students risk anachronistic approaches to these eighteenth-century novels. Examples of such risky strategies include Nicky Didicher's investigation of Pamela as a study in ‘sexual harassment’ using the resource of a Pepe Le Pew cartoon (p. 79) and Markley's encouragement of students to interpret Pamela as a ‘teenager’, although he does recognize that ‘ “teenager” is a historically and culturally specific term that became current only in the twentieth century’ (p. 85). While the frequent use of modern analogies may help to make these novels relevant for a present-day reader, such a technique can also lead to banal misreadings by undergraduates, as illustrated by the frequent use of students’ comments in this collection. In the light of such approaches, Felicity Nussbaum's attempt ‘to distinguish an eighteenth-century heroine from a twenty-first-century one’ (p. 68) is a laudable return to the cultural context of Richardson's fiction.