Inviting Twenty-First Century Students to the Eighteenth-Century Party

Abstract

This article describes a classroom activity that increases students’ connection to literary characters, and by extension, texts. The activity, constructed as a party attended by literary characters, tasks students with taking on the point of view of one character in an assigned novel. This can encourage a student to see the viewpoint of a character that differs from him or her in gender, social status, or any other category of difference. In heightening students’ relationship to eighteenth-century characters, I argue, instructors can bring the eighteenth century closer to contemporary students as well as increase students’ sensitivity to viewpoints that differ from their own. A post-activity writing assignment extends the activity to encourage student analysis and reflection.

Keywords

• empathy
• connection
• gender
• pedagogy
• activity
• worksheet
• Evelina
• Burney
• Oroonoko
• Behn