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- Title
Ripping up the Syllabus: Teaching "Rip Van Winkle" on Day One of the Early American Survey.
- Authors
Thifault, Paul
- Abstract
This essay argues for the merits of introducing students to Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" during the first class meeting in the traditional early American literature survey course, providing a theoretical rationale and logistical plan for doing so. The approach is intended to create a cohesive framework for highly diverse course readings and stave off the resistance of students who fail to recognize many of the genres of the early canon as "literary." It does so by close-reading various "non-literary" texts and then subtly transferring that critical approach to Irving's familiarly "literary" story. As a result, students may begin to internalize on day one an interpretive methodology that puts various types of texts in conversation with one another, thereby giving more cohesion to the various forms and purposes of early American writing. This discussion-based plan also offers numerous metacognitive strategies for turning a critical analysis of "Rip Van Winkle" and its contextual documents into a reflection on the politics and practices of literary study.
- Subjects
RIP Van Winkle (Short story : Irving); IRVING, Washington, 1783-1859; VERSTEHEN; NONFICTION
- Publication
Teaching American Literature, 2017, Vol 9, Issue 1, p24
- ISSN
2150-3974
- Publication type
Article