A decade after graduating highschool and I'm finally giving Wuthering Heights another chance. So far not regretting my decision as I'm able to catch a lot more of the social nuances in the story and appreciate Heathcliff's decent into the man we meet at the start of the story.
@musingoddity@bookstodon Makes me wonder why they make us read them as teenagers. If the language and style isn't hard enough to read there's also the more adult topics that could go over a teenagers head if it's not explained first by a teacher.
@Valerie_Lillis@musingoddity@bookstodon i think providing a framework and context for that discussion with the teacher is why they made us read stuff as a teenager. after all, if you were born understanding all of it there wouldn’t be much point in education!
Unfortunately, my experience is simply being told to read it then write a book review of it to present to the class. This is started by passing out a list of classics and having each student pick a different one.
There is no discussion on the book afterwards: child abuse, racism, interracial romances, and classism of the time could be have all been brought up in Withering Heights, but they were not. Only literature tools like symbols and metaphors were touched.
And also a great example of why reader response should never be the entire focus of a class.
I'm not entirely enthused about using fiction to teach sociology either, not least because it always falls short for that, but historical context is good to provide.
I feel like some of these older classic would be good supporting resources for a history class. It's almost a first hand account of what old social norms and cultures looked like.
In literature and english classes we could certainly do with less focus on the classics and more focus on modern pieces.
@Valerie_Lillis@kbg@musingoddity@bookstodon I'd rather people just read the actual first-hand accounts. 17th-21st century literature thrives on melodrama and the unlikely. Remember the original meaning of the word "novel".
I love Daniel Defoe, and he was lauded for his verisimilitude during his lifetime, but his characters don't exactly live lives typical of their era. Same with Dickens and the Brontës.
That's wonderful! Do you have any specific accounts that you would recommend? Or perhaps where I could find them online? I'd love to expand my knowledge of that time period
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