Interactive Aphra: Skyping Behn into your Classroom

Abstract

Beginning by asking how teachers manage the presence of the author in their literature classrooms, this article describes the classroom experiment of interviewing Karen Eterovich, an actor who portrays Aphra Behn, using Skype. It describes the planning and scripting processes, explains the particular interests of this group of students, and assesses the final activity. Questions arose about topics for the interview, appropriate ways for Behn to respond, and the need for a script. The pedagogical opportunities for preparing students as interviewers and of expanding their understanding of performance, historical reenactment, and the construct of the author are discussed. Possible extensions of this technique for other types of classes are suggested.

Keywords

• Aphra Behn
• Skype
• Karen Eterovich
• distance learning
• interactive
• media
• historical reenactment
• interview
• impersonation
• author